Monday Sunrise
Greetings and salutations from the sand, sun and surf of Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard and the great island of Nantucket! Great to be with you on this gorgeous Monday morning, the 29th day of November, 2010, as evidenced by the image of Dowses Beach above here in Osterville. I hope you had a restful Thanksgiving break and are not too angry at being back at work today. Yesterday, as predicted, the Sunday talk shows had plenty in the way of punditry, however, ABC’s “This Week, with Christiane Amanpour”, held a special place in my heart, for the entire hour was dedicated to three, well, four if you consider the Gates as separate, which they are most definitely not, billionaires–Warren Buffet, Ted Turner and the aforementioned Bill and Melinda Gates, who all gave outstanding interviews to Christiane regarding philanthropy, and the efforts of men and women in this great nation to give back, some giving as much as 90 percent back, pulling from their huge stock piles of wealth to literally change the world and make it a better place. Warren Buffet was noted for his vision of what GIVING really means and has my vote for the next President of the United States. Ted Turner’s story was even better, in the sense that he really lost quite alot, in more ways than just money, and bounced back with an attitude of charity, rather than the cut throat politics of the soul less capitalistic society we seem to be living in right now. Bill and Melinda were, in a word, WONDERFUL, and you could see the LIGHT as it shown in their eyes when describing, say, their work in Africa with AIDS orphans, bringing that beacon to an otherwise uncaring and cold world. There is so much in this world that can be done for so little, if we all changed our attitudes about what WEALTH really IS. A kind word, a loving touch, a hug, a wink, a nod, a hand when all else seemed out of reach? Hard to quantify I know, and it is not easy to give when you may feel as though you have nothing to give to begin with…perhaps, therein lies the rub. For if you give five dollars to someone when you only have ten dollars to your name, it amounts to the same thing that Warren Buffet is doing on a regular basis with billions of dollars. But, Warren put it even better than that, when he said, and I paraphrase, “I have never wanted for anything, not a meal, not a movie ticket, so when someone gives out of the deepest levels of their pockets when it may hurt a little, that should be recognized and applauded.” I don’t know about you, but when I hear the puppets speak to the Bush Tax cuts and their concern over “uncertainty” for people who have so much more than most, shunning the “American People” who are losing their unemployment benefits this week, I have to ask, “are you F##$king kidding me?” These “men”, McConnell (the mouse) and Boehner (billy bob) are shills for multi-national corporations who are their employer, not the so called, ad nauseum, “American People” that they claim they speak for. Yes, the “man behind the curtain”–expressed so well by the late, great Frank L. Baum, author and the creator of “The Wizard of OZ”, along with many other books regarding that magical, made up realm–has no face, other than the holograms you may see out the corner of your eye when watching a FOX NEWS broadcast, and further, has no soul, with no consequences for his actions because he too is made up, created out of thin air and given the same rights as real, live human beings who need air, food, water and safety in order to LIVE a LIFE that was afforded them by men far superior to any CEO out there…men like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Washington, Thomas Paine, Abraham Lincoln and, dare I say, JACK KENNEDY! So, thank you Christiane for that amazing look into the lives of some great PATRIOTS, the Gates family, Warren Buffet and Ted Turner who are truly making a difference in this “world” called the United States of America and the many countries around the globe that are so far down the scale our attention deficit disorder minds here in the good ‘ole USA cannot even begin to conceive of. Have a wonderful day folks! PRESERVE THE WILDERNESS! Peace~M
