Back in the saddle again

This holiday break was wonderful. A white Christmas and New Year's, spending quality time with my baby and her sweetie and his family, and generally ratcheting down from a busy fall semester. I shamelessly did not contact my Boston peeps, for which I will now apologize. I will be back, and I will contact you.

But this visit was all about my daughter and her bf. And enjoying snow for a change. Funny thing, as soon as I got back from Texas, we've had record-breaking hot weather--all the way up to 80 degrees one day. Then down to freezing two nights later. We really are in for several decades of turbulent, rogue weather while we figure out what in the hell we're going to do about global warming.

Following the caucuses, as evident from my last post. Thinking of past campaigns and the state of the Republic at those nexuses (nexii?). Remembering campaign promises made and broken, or kept. Hoping that one day my vote will count as it used to. Like Bill Clinton--whatever his faults, he reminded me more of Stevenson and Kennedy than any other candidate before or since, and that's a good thing, in my mind.

The internet phenomenon is even more evident this campaign. After a shaky start in '00 and '04, it seems to have matured to the point that more people are listening to what the on-line buzz is rather than network TV. Another good thing. I love the badge Ronni Bennett has on Time Goes By that shows a '40's style blue-collar woman with her sleeves rolled up in front of a typewriter: "Blogs are like little first amendment machines." YES! I want that badge in a bad way.

Thus my fascination with gerontechnology vis a vis politics. I am convinced that if we make the internet more accessible to Boomers, we can actually make a difference. Thus my intention to launch a Web site dedicated to two things: making technology available and inviting for Boomers, and offering awards to Web sites that promote and embody universal usability. You heard it here first, folks, that's a long-term dream of mine. Should anyone want to participate, let me know--many heads are better than one in the blogosphere.

So to that end, I am initiating a new blogroll for sites that address gerontechnology issues. The elder blogroll will remain; this new heading is for actual Web sites that advance usability for elders. This is a subject I've been researching for years, and it's time to do something about it.

There are so many great elderblogs out there--I've had a wonderful and enlightening experience visiting every link on Ronni's elderblogroll. You can all expect at least one comment from me in the coming year--it's time to reach out and move forward with vigor!

Thank you all for blogging and enduring. Experience does count, and when we work together, we can make great things happen. Cliched, I know, but true, doncha think?

2008 already?

Time seems to speed up the older you get. When you're a kid, you have eons of days before you. When you get older, you wonder where the time went.

This last eight years have been so depressing, in terms of the larger picture in politics. The Bush team has degraded America to a shambles of what was good and great. The Constitution has been shat upon, personal liberties have been curtailed, and not towards a common good. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and our oil dependency is hastening the end of the globe as we know it.

Frankly, I don't care who gets into the White House next January. I only care that the short-sighted, greedy, hypocritical assholes who have been in power the last eight years are gone and we never hear from them again, unless it is in the context of criminal charges.

As happens with all presidents, at least since Truman, who was in power when I was born, each one of them has looked decades older from the stresses of running, or being run to run the country when they leave office. I find it ironic that Bush plans to spend his retirement at his compound in Crawford, where he has all the latest in green technology, and can survive in any catatastrophe in which the "grid" is compromised. So why the hell didn't he afford the rest of America the technology which he knows is optimum?

It blows me away that there are real human beings for whom material possessions and amassing of money means more than human lives. It's like a rot, no better than the pitiful, power-hungry third-world despots that use people as cannon fodder, or as disposable servitors to accumulate more and more wealth. What the heck are they going to do with it? It's such a disgraceful waste.

Which brings me to the issues of "entitlement," fear of aging, the desire to be "better than," the willingness to abandon all morality to attain an unreal state of something, success? Power? Adulation? Is it worth the trashing of basic values to look two years younger than your neighbor? To drive a car that costs more to procure, maintain, and gas up? To snag a heartless, boring job?

We have become a nation of mini-bullies. The Bully in Chief is simply one symptom of what has gone terribly awry in national integrity. This is way beyond politics. This is a sad side-tracking of the human condition. The real shame is that it doesn't have to be this way. We've got too many brilliant minds, way too much of the world's wealth, and certainly too much democratic freedom to not be able to come up with real answers and action. There is no excuse for what we have become. We could take care of our planet, our various populations, and diseases if we just decide to do it. We have access to all the resources on the planet, most notably the mental capacity to solve the largest of the world's problems.

Why are we taking the low road? Have we sunk to the level of the ancient barbaric civilizations? Are we living out the predictions of old scientific experiments that show that when an environment becomes over-populated, the inhabitants become psychotic and homicidal? We have the resources to take care of overpopulation--this is a sociological, not a moral issue. As is the issue of AIDS.

Where does this all stop? Is it simply a question of relinquishing our individual responsibility? What happened to that wonderful rebellious energy from the 60's and 70's? Complacency? How could we have gotten ourselves into this mess?

What can we do as responsible adults to turn this stupid train around and work towards the good? We have the means to communicate on a massively inclusive level. What are our candidates willing to put on the line to turn America around? Which one is most capable of doing that? Are any of them capable? Is that where the responsibility lies? Who can talk to the Supreme Court? Who can convince Congress? Who can lead the way? Anyone this particular election period? I'm not convinced yet.

Molly Ivins, 1944-2007

There was a full moon over Austin the night Molly died. I had flashed on her that day, and actually sent out an update on her health to everyone I thought might be interested. I took a few minutes to enjoy the moon on the way home from work that evening, and woke up to NPR Thursday morning to the news that she had passed away at 5 p.m. the day before.

Thursday morning I went to the Texas Observer Web site, to read their beautiful piece, and scanned the comments section, noting many friends. I wanted to gather my thoughts before commenting, and when I went back to the site on my lunch break I was astonished to find that the volume of comments from friends and even strangers who recognized what a truly courageous and great writer she was had totally crashed their server. Her last post was true essence d'Molly and is her most passionate ultimate rallying call ever. She makes me believe that the pen is mightier than the sword, especially when it speaks the truth.

Articles and memorials are pouring out all over the Internet for this remarkable woman, one of my three greatest sheroes--Molly, Ann Richards, and Barbara Jordan. They did more for me in my life and career than anyone outside my family. They taught me courage: they showed me that Texas women don't have to cave in to the typical "old boy" slings and arrows, but can take a place at the table with wisdom, humor, reason, sanity, compassion, and grace. They gave me hope. They gave me role models.

I met Molly on several occasions at friends' homes, but never had the honor of moving closer into her circles. She did "bless my heart" when I told her that of all the writers I knew, I kept up with her even while living in Australia for two years, and that I counted on her to tell the truth about what was really happening.

So many of the posts express loss, and I also wonder "who will write the truth for us now?" The answer, of course, is that there is no one who can write like Molly. She was a "one-off," with more influence and fans than she probably ever realized. We can't let her down. We must get out our pots and pans and long-handled chuckwagon chili spoons and beat them until they hear the truth in Washington. We can't let her flame go out.

I like Bill Moyers' post the best so far. He wrote it for the Observer, but I read it in Common Dreams. Another indication no other person's passing has seen such a deluge of loving posts than Molly's.

Halloween in Boston

Boston couldn't be more different than Austin. Even holidays have a different feel. A Boston Halloween is chilly, with an early darkness, a slightly more sinister feel. Maybe because Salem is just up the road. Last year's Boston trip took in Salem, Lexington, Concord, filled in some gaps in Revolutionary history left from living in Princeton and learning about that part of our heritage. Including learning more about the Salem witches and the hysteria gripping the fledgling country during that very brief period of time.

Kinda reminds me of what our current administration is trying to do in frightening voters with lies and distortions to stay in power. I voted early before leaving for New England. Let's hope that no evil spirits try to hack the election...it's sad that the brave folks who carried the word at Lexington over two hundred years ago and stood up to the British on that small green fought so courageously and with such complete commitment for the very rights that are being butchered right and left today. I'm quite sure they would be terribly disappointed in all of us.

It's a sad state of affairs when the people of a nation are more afraid of their leaders than of foreign entities. And even sadder when those leaders use that fear to erode and diminish what our country has stood for since its breathtakingly brave inception.