Mary_MacElveen

Doctors and Nurses Keep Listening for the Sounds of Cease Fire

2011-05-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen

May 30, 2011

On this Memorial Day I chose to watch the last M*A*S*H episode, “Goodbye, Farewell and Amen”. It was three hours long, but well worth it.

In one scene, while the doctors and nurses of the fictional 4077th were operating, one could hear the last guns fired in the Korean War. Which led me to ask, when will we hear the last guns fired in the wars we are fighting overseas in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Libya? These wars seem to me that they will go on with no end in sight.

Normally, it disturbs me at how retail establishments use this somber day for sale events. Soldier’s blood for a must have item is what this day has turned out to be.

While the sales disturb me, what fully angered me this past weekend was Sarah Palin pushing her way into an event which she was not invited to. Rolling Thunders purpose is to remember our soldiers and veterans. Sarah Palin selfishly co-opted this event for her own self serving wants and that is notoriety and money as she starts her ‘One Nation’ tour. In my opinion, she is the queen of narcissism. Michelle Bachmann another narcissist must be tearing her hair out at the amount of coverage Palin received this past weekend.

When we now see coffins coming home or wounded vets, we do not often think of the doctors or nurses who patch them up so they may return to us. Day in and day out, these medics are knee deep in blood trying to save the life of one who was trying to save ours. I often think we need a Medic Day to honor them.

As they repair limbs as best they can, remove guts from a gaping hole, try to rebuild a burnt face, I rest assure you, these medics keep listening for the sounds of cease fire.

Imagine, you are a young doctor or nurse with your life ahead of you and you dream of healing patients from natural diseases and injuries; then in one fell swoop you find yourself in the military hospital. Here you are fully trained and you are treating patients whose injuries could have been prevented had we not gone to war.

When we often misuse the term hero, these medics are true heroes for stepping up to the plate where wars wage on. They are the ones who see first hand what the politicians refuse to see. Men and women dying or coming home badly wounded.

On this Memorial Day besides bestowing honor to our war dead, our wounded soldiers and veterans, I also wish to bestow honor to these doctors and nurses. They did not dream they would be healing and patching up soldiers. They do so round the clock and with little fan fare or notoriety. Do you hear me, Palin?

You may reach the author at this address, xmjmac@optonline.net

A Gift of Peace from Fredie

2011-04-28T20:55:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen

April 28, 2011

Over ten years ago, I started to write op-ed pieces for those who had no voice within the world via the Internet; meaning the poor, and the powerless. This led me to meet an incredible woman named, Fredie via emails. Her spirit mirrors mine when it comes to politics. Yes, we are both liberals. Do you have a problem with that? If so, tough!

Our first time meeting was at the anti Iraq War rally which took place on February 15th, 2003. Joining us was our dear friend John Schwam who has written numerous pieces on mountain top removal in the Appalachian Mountains. Fredie from time-to-time sends me emails of issues that do concern her and in some way, I bring them to a larger audience.

When I started my writing, I thought this was my path in life to become a famous journalist. These ten years later, I ask: Is being famous all that important and the answer is no. Trying to be famous is just one’s ego speaking and if one chooses to be the voice of those less fortunate, ego gets thrown out the window. With me, it is all about letting the story be the story. It is not to bloviate, but to bring light to those who read my pieces on the suffering of others.

Lately, I have not written columns due to personal reasons and perhaps God will direct me when the time is right for me to continue my work. At this point, I work as a part time cashier for a grocery store. It is a job that I am grateful to have, because in these tough economic times, there are many without. In my job as a cashier, I am living the real economy. When people have to put food items back because they cannot afford them, I feel their pain because anyone of us can be them.

In the world of journalism, the legacy of one’s writings can lead to winning the Pulitzer Prize. Well today, from my dear friend, Fredie, I received the peace prize. She sent me a pair of earrings with the peace symbol dangling from them. I was deeply humbled.

In her note to me, she wrote in part, “I want you to have this pair because no one speaks up for peace like you.” I shall wear them proudly.

Fredie, you have no idea how great your gift was to me especially at this time.

Projected winner for the Suffolk 6th L.D. race, Sarah Anker

2011-03-29T21:06:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen

It appears that Democrat, Sarah Anker has won the special election for the 6th legislative seat for Suffolk County, NY. A seat previously held by now Assemblyman Dan Losquadro.

With all districts now in, the unofficial tally has Sarah Anker beating her opponent, Martin Haley (Republican) by a little over 200 votes.

In a district that heavily favors Republicans over Democrats by 5,000 voters, it seems that by the latest tally, the Democrats GOTV over Republicans. Democratic voters cast 3,112 versus 2,212 Republicans according to the Suffolk County Board of Elections web site.

Rick Brand of Newsday wrote this of Haley,” Haley portrayed himself in campaign mailings as part of the "Levy team." But at the very end of the campaign, Haley had to face Levy's surprise announcement that he was not seeking re-election and was turning over his $4-million campaign fund to District Attorney Thomas Spota. Democrats put out last-minute mailings attempting to link Haley to Levy's downfall due to "questionable fundraising." This may have soured Republicans from showing up to the polls as well as Independents who did lag behind the Working Families Party.

This seat was once held by Martin Haley and perhaps voters wanted a fresh voice in this elective body. Sarah Anker was a former Mount Sinai school board member, and other positions such as an environmental and civic activist. She advocated for the creation of Heritage Park and helped block a Wal-Mart from taking over that space.

With cancer on people’s minds she founded the Health and Environmental Coalition to find links between breast cancer and the environment.

Who knows by these results, but it may be an early indicator of how voters feel with a Republican led House in Washington, D.C.

You can reach me at xmjmac@optonline.net

Letter to the Editor at Newsday regarding Nassau County's Bus System

2011-03-19T07:32:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen

March 19, 2011

Below is a letter to the editor at Newsday. In the event that they choose not to publish my letter, I am posting it here for all to read.

Dear Editor,

Let me just say that I was livid when ‘CensorThisOne’ responded to “On Nassau County’s plan to turn bus service over to a private operator”: when he/she wrote: “Dump the buses altogether. Will never make money and we will have to bail them out.” which was published on March 18th.

I suppose that this person drives. I have frequently posted in numerous places for politicians to go without cars for a week in order to make meetings, go to the doctors, go shopping and any other place they need to go. I have suggested that they use buses instead. You know, putting yourself in another’s shoes? At this point, I would suggest to ‘CensorThisOne’ do the same.

As far as bailing out, I would rather have my tax money go to help save a bus system that serves thousands upon thousands of people each day; namely the disabled or those who cannot afford to operate and own a car. These working class people need to get to work and without reliable buses; they can soon find themselves out of a job. I know for a fact that taking cabs is far too expensive. Perhaps this person would love to see a human being on the side of the road with a sign “Need a ride to work” and then just drive by them.

By the way, I have suffered from epileptic seizures since the age of 15 and I am now 52. I have never driven and must rely on public transportation in order to get to work. I have lashed out at Suffolk County Executive, Steve Levy when it comes to the bus system in Suffolk County, NY that does not operate on Sundays. There have been numerous Sundays that I have worked and must take a cab where the fare is more than my hourly wage.

Sincerely,
Mary MacElveen

Food stamp recipients can purchase cigs in NY while working citizens are taxed

2010-09-26T21:29:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen

September 27, 2010

In the past I have raged against the lawmakers in NY State, especially Gov. David Paterson for taxing and taxing smokers to fill in NY’s budget donut hole. I have been met with little sympathy as a smoker.

I want to clue my readers into this little known fact that welfare recipients who receive food stamps can purchase both cigarettes and alcohol on their food stamp account. How do I know this? I work as a grocery store cashier. I have witnessed food stamp recipients receive money back on their purchases in order to buy these items. Meanwhile, you and I the tax payers are paying for their habits.

As for me who works for a little over minimum wage must also pay for their habit, while NY State taxes my same habits. Something is terribly wrong within this state when food stamp recipients receive more than I get.

Two weeks ago, a person who used to work for the grocery store I work in got fired a year ago. He now receives food stamps and chose to take out $177 more from his account after his initial purchase. I then handed him the cash. What did he do with that money? He paid for cigarettes and alcohol. Yet, NY State wishes to tax hard working citizens instead of eliminating this loop hole within the food stamp program? This is not fair at all!

I call upon Governor David Paterson and all legislators within NY State to end the punitive tax on smokers and close the loop hole which allows food stamp recipients to purchase these products.

My opinion in how to do this is to not allow food stamp recepients to take out money that exceeds their transactions. Food stamp money should and must be used for food instead of cigs and alcohol period!

You may reach the author at this email address, xmjmac@optonline.net

Yes, Christine O’Donnell, I am calling you stupid

2010-09-21T21:59:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
September 22, 2010

On many occasions and especially after the primary success of Christine O’Donnell, I feel that American politics has become our new “Reality-TV” where the absurd reigns supreme. It is akin to the “Twilight Zone”

I once stated in a previous column honoring the late Sen. Paul Wellstone that each senator has the power over our lives and represents us within the U.S. Senate. With that said, if O’Donnell is elected senator, I feel that we the people will look into the abyss and ask our Delawarean citizens who voted for her: What have you done to this country? To that, my answer would be; you have made us a weaker country by electing a senator who has NO experience in government or the laws that join us together.

Cute sound-bites and activism within the sexual realm does not a senator make. One must have the fortitude of knowledge in order to be elected senator. Yes, Christine O’Donnell, I am calling you stupid.

As we live in a global society, I often wonder what our global citizens think of this upcoming election with a “Tea Party” insurgency within the Republican ranks. Either they are terrified of what is to come or they are shaking their heads thinking that America is stupid to elect anyone of these candidates.

As a former Republican, I do think that this new Republican Party is stupid to follow this “Tea Party” movement. While stupid, I do find they are opportunistic. They just want the votes and power. Let us NOT give it to them!

Chris Coons is clearly the better candidate for office since he does have governing experience as a County Executive. He has this experience since he oversees budgets, and the laws that join us as one. Yet O’Donnell gets the MSM coverage? How absurd is that? Coons does deserve to win and O’Donnell should be forgotten. Her fifteen minutes of fame should be over with right NOW!

Hey, even Wiccans speak out to clarify that they are not in bed with Satanists. There is a pun in there, but do not tell Christine…LOL!

Like Sharron Angle who ran from cameras, O’Donnell has chosen to go that route as well. Come on folks, what are they afraid of? They are afraid of we the people. They are afraid of answering the tough questions. They think that aligning themselves with this “Tea Party” movement they can play games with us and it is up to all of us to shut them down. It is up to we the people to shut the Republican Party down for marching lock step behind the “Tea Party” candidates. They are pure cowards.

One must ask these “Tea Party” candidates running for senate exactly what Senate Rule 51 is especially with the demise of Senate Defense Bill which contained the DADT amendment. Let us see what O’Donnell’s and Angles answer is to that question.

Okay, O’Donnell and Angle, you say you want to be senators, what process governs budget reconciliations? Come on and think. I as an American citizen know this answer, but do you?

Okay, okay, not to pick solely on the female candidates, but to all “Tea Party” candidates: What rule “determines that discussion of business requires secrecy, that a motion be made to close the doors and that it be seconded. The Presiding Officer of the United States Senate shall direct the galleries to be cleared; and during the discussion of such motion the doors shall remain closed.” Please remember this has everything to do with national security and not just some angry mobs seen on Fox News. By the way, the question in quotes, I will not tell you where I picked it from since you should already know that if you are qualified to be a United States Senator.

As I look back on the angry town halls that took place a little over a year ago, I look to my fellow Americans to attend any town hall or NOW and ask these candidates: What qualifies you to become my new senator or congress member? Let them not get off the hook by citing that masturbation is evil or that women should not serve in the military especially when women have died in service to this republic.

To Christine O’Donnell, you have espoused beliefs that women should not serve in the military, try telling that to this female soldier whose face was burned off shaking hands with Denzel Washington: http://tinyurl.com/28sz8wu. This female soldier unlike you is the ultimate patriot.

My email address is xmjmac@optonline.net should you wish to email me.

Hawaii Five-0: New actors who look to make this show their own

2010-09-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen

September 20, 2010

While I am a summer person, one thing that comes in the fall is the new procedural dramas that are aired on many networks. I love sitting down, chilling and getting involved in the myriad of characters, plots and yes, the actors.

A few weeks ago when working, I was checking out the magazines on my check-out line at work and saw that a new “Hawaii Five-0” was to be aired on CBS via the “TV Guide”. I knew this long before that via YouTube.com. I checked out the YouTube.com feed and loved IT! New actors and how this new team became this unit.

One actor in particular caught my eye and he is, Alex O'Loughlin who once played one HOT vampire for one season on CBS's “Moonlight”. For the life of me, I could not understand why CBS canceled this show, but hey, Alex is back. YES! Alex is a British actor who is able to come off as an American actor similar to Hugh Laurie of Fox Television’s “House”.

I swear if one did not know these facts, one wouldn’t believe it.

These new actors did not look to replace the characters on the original series, but make these characters their own set within today’s parameters. Those parameters are terrorism and human trafficking within the opening show.

All day long as I spoke to co-workers and customers alike, I psyched them and me into watching this new program. Even the opening credit theme tune stuck in my head. I even hummed a few bars. Let’s leave it at that…LOL!

For those of you, who have not yet watched the opening credits to this show as well as its theme, please go to http://tinyurl.com/2unngvb within the credits you will see a familiar actor, Daniel Dae Kim who played on ABC's "Lost". While on “Lost” he may have been lost, in this new model of “Hawaii Five-O” he is anything but lost as he finds a new purpose in his life.

All I can say is that this new show is as action-filled as the one many grew up with that aired in the sixties. I truly hope that you check it out next Monday on CBS at 10 PM ET. Oh yes, hum the theme song as many times as you wish. It will certainly get you in the mood.

Should you wish to email the author, please do so at this email address: xmjmac@optonline.net

You, Sarah Palin are the nuclear weapon in playing tinder-box politics

2010-04-08T20:19:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
April 8, 2010

This is a short, editorial directed at Sarah Palin (the darling of the tea party movement). When it comes to nuclear issues, you had best know a thing or two of the subject instead of tea-party talking points.

When President Barack Obama was asked of your critique where you stated, “it was like a child in a playground who says 'punch me in the face, I'm not going to retaliate.” The only thing I came away with was how juvenile the tone when nuclear issues are anything but juvenile. Just ask any survivor of Hiroshima or Nagasaki how they would react to such an opinion. Please remember history correctly where we were the ONLY nation to have used a nuclear device on any enemy.

President Barack Obama was correct to answer in an interview with George Stephanopoulos: "I really have no response to that. The last I checked, Sarah Palin is not much of an expert on nuclear issues,"

Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, you may wish to ask Senator Dick Lugar a member of your own party who worked with then Senator Barack Obama in lessening the number of loose nukes from this planet. I would consider him far more learned than you.

As any American knows and who follows the procedures of the White House, namely the president: Each day the president is given a full briefing of by the director of National Security. Are you, Sarah Palin or any of us privy to what he (Pres. Obama) is briefed on daily? Come on, Sarah are you in the Oval Office on a daily basis to offer any opinion on the subject? Even I or those who know more of this dangerous subject are not there. So, what gives you the right to even opine of this topic when you know nothing of it at all?

The dangerous topic that does concern me greatly as well as others is the topic of domestic terrorism as you continue to stoke the fires of hate. You continually play tinder-box politics as I have written of previously during the 2008 presidential campaign. When you say words such as “reload” or place cross-hairs on congressional districts as we come upon the anniversary of Oklahoma City, it is in the fore-front of my mind.

Quite frankly, Sarah, I am not terrified of Islamic Extremists, but of domestic terrorism. You know, your new friends.

You, Sarah Palin are the nuclear weapon that may have the force to take out innocent lives since those without a full understanding of any topic especially this one can carry out your hellish mission. Hopefully the saner amongst us will turn away from your message(s). To me, you are truly a national security danger to us all.

Author’s email is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Open Letter to Cong. Tim Bishop who voted yes on HCR

2010-03-24T21:30:00.000-07:00

Dear Congressman Tim Bishop,

When I first met you, you asked how you could best serve the people in your first election. Well through your yes vote on health care reform you actually listened. This vote cast by you is life affirming since I do believe it will save lives. I know we differ when it comes to abortion, but frankly as a person who hates abortion, I am so sick of abortion being used as a primary issue to divide this nation. Where are my pro-life brethren when it comes to killing innocent people through war in both Iraq and Afghanistan? They are silent! As I witnessed our country’s first strike on Iraq known as “Shock and Awe”, I thought of all the innocent children who would be killed. Even the late Pope John Paul II said to former President George W. Bush, “You go without God”.

As I have witnessed the terrorism pushed forth by the opposition, what it tells me is that they who I thought were my brethren when it came to being anti-abortion were anything but. Their violence told a much different story. Little do they realize that their words have consequences and those consequences being the possibility to end human lives.

In the upcoming house elections, I as a person who is staunchly anti-abortion will side with you in helping to re-elect you as my congressman. It is my hope that you pass this email sent to you onto Congressman Bart Stupak who has received death threats. When that congressman, Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-Tex.) shouted out “baby killer” when Rep. Stupak was addressing the House, little does, Neugebauer realize how many babies were killed in our illegal invasion of Iraq. Little does Neugebauer realize how many babies are losing their lives in Afghanistan.

I have seen pictures of death through war and abortion and quite frankly, I do not see the difference. Hopefully women can receive better preventive care so that they will not have to make any decision to end a human life. That is something that the right-wing-nuts are not thinking of at this given time.

As one of your constituents, I thank you for voting yes to this health care reform bill which President Barack Obama signed into law. The unborn of this land will only reap the benefits since their moms will be afforded better medical care. How great is that?

Sincerely,

Mary MacElveen

Sarah ‘palm-reader’ Palin is a danger to our national security

2010-02-09T11:53:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
February 9, 2010

The opening-night speaker at the National Tea Party Convention was former Congressman Tom Tancredo who said: "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country." He blamed the ill-informed masses for voting into office a "committed socialist ideologue in the White House ... Barack Hussein Obama."

Now, using a litmus test or whatever test in order to vote and the use of President Obama's middle name was to invoke racism in this country. A we against them mentality if I ever saw one.

Sarah 'palm-reader' Palin in her failed vice-presidential campaign even stoked the fires of hate which I labeled 'tinder-box politics'. Now she is the darling of these 'tea party' folks? Oh you betcha!

As she lovingly embraced the late President Ronald Reagan and extolled President Barack Obama with not dealing with Iran effectively. Let us NOT forget who sold arms to Iran in the first place. It was none other than the late president in the Iran Contra Scandal. Did Sarah ‘palm-reader’ Palin forget that fact? Perhaps she should have written that on her palm as well.

In her speech she said: “Say he [Pres. Obama] decided to declare war on Iran, or decided to really come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do. But that changes the dynamics in what we can assume is going to happen between now and three years.” This was in reaction as to President Obama’s chances of being re-elected in 2012 if he were to declare war on Iran. By the way, Ms. Palm-reader each and every year our hard-earned tax dollars are sent to Israel and no matter who the president is. Do the tea party members even know this as they clamor against wasteful spending?

When Israel invaded Lebanon killing scores of innocents, our government donated $280 million dollars to fuel their fighter jets all at taxpayer expense. What say you, tea party movement?

She predicated this belief in citing a column written by Pat Buchanan titled: Will Obama Play the War Card? My guess is that she wanted to get back at CBS anchor Katie Couric to prove she actually read a piece to validate her point. She tried to imply that going to war with Iran would be a success for President Obama.

She failed at understanding the crux of Buchanan’s article where clearly he writes, “Cutting off gas to Iran would cause many deaths. And the families of the sick, the old, the weak, the women and the children who die are unlikely to feel gratitude toward those who killed them.” Any harsh sanctions such as this would have a serious blow-back effect and endanger our national security.

Ron Paul in his failed presidential bid was excoriated by former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani for stating that 9/11 was indeed a blow-back effect. Sarah ‘palm-reader’ Palin over-simplifies the war on terror as being “We win, you lose” as she stated in her speech before her fans the tea party movement.

If she thinks that Iran is a danger to us all, then she should have picked up what Buchanan did write: “And despite the hysteria about Iran's imminent testing of a bomb, the U.S. intelligence community still has not changed its finding that Tehran is not seeking a bomb.” My guess is she could not fit that on the palm of her hand or more importantly would have shown her assertion false.

In a past piece demanding that Israel stand on their own, I wrote: “Israel has a stockpile of 400 nuclear warheads. “According to retired US Army Colonel Warner D. Farr, M.D., Israel is the fifth largest nuclear superpower in the world. By 1967, Israel already had 15 atomic bombs in its arsenal. In 1976, their nuclear arsenal grew to 15 to 20 nukes, and by 1980 jumped to 200. According to Farr, in 1997, Israel now has over 400 nuclear and hydrogen weapons.” So, why do you need the United States military to defend you and launch a strike on a neighboring country?”

I would say that Israel is well equipped at defending herself. Wouldn’t you?

Is Sarah ‘palm-reader’ Palin actually advocating a furthering of our wars within the Middle East? Just think if she did have our nuclear codes, she would be the danger to our national security. Is she trying to bring about rapture?

Does she even think that China and Russia would stand for any bombing of Iran especially with their business ties to Iran? As it stands we owe billions if not trillions of dollars to China in funding these wars without end. What happens if they call that loan in? Through our economic foreign policy, we have made China what it is now. The world’s supreme economic super-power. As we bleed more funds in order to pay for the furtherance on the war on terror, China is now enjoying a super dominance over us.

Oh sure, she can give cutesy remarks such as how is that “hopy changy working out for everybody?” as the tea party members gave her a thunderous applause. Do they even know the intricacy of our foreign policy, does Sarah ‘palm reader’ Palin even know it?

In this moment of time, Sarah 'palm-reader' Palin makes me long for the days when Ann Coulter was the darling of the loyal opposition. Seriously, at least we all knew she did not have the slightest chance of becoming president. She yapped, and we 'the elitist' clamored against her and it was over with.

By the way, I am tiring of these oppositional member of the right-wing referring to those that oppose them as elitists. One definition of an elitist is, “The sense of entitlement enjoyed by such a group or class.” I am simply a grocery-store cashier who makes $7.75 an hour.

What I fear most is that Sarah ‘palm-reader’ Palin has a chance at becoming the President of the United States. Just imagine her raising her right hand to take the oath of office and on it is written: First executive order is to bomb Iran. We were floored when John McCain sang of it, but imagine a President Palin carrying this mission out? It is the very stuff that nightmares are made of.

You may reach the author at this email address, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Shoplifting is NOT a moral cause, but plain theft

2010-02-01T20:52:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
February 2, 2010

Enough time has past since I passed on a post from a Democratic list I belong to the police, politicians, the media and yes the FBI since it deals with shoplifting. Those who responded so far were thankful to me for this information. At this time, I question my membership to this list since they are passing on illegal messages to those who read it who can then pass it onto others. I have also made a hard copy to pass on to the managers of the grocery store I work for since it gives tips on how to effectively shoplift. After all, forewarned is forearmed.

As an employee of this grocery store, my allegiance is to them and not some notion that stealing merchandise from my store or others is of far greater value.

In this piece, I will NOT publish those tips, since I feel it morally wrong and YES, illegal.

The poster titled it, “Shoplift for good” Shoplifting is never good since it is stealing an item that does not belong to you.

One link embedded in this post is titled: Charitable Shoplifting Front, as you will see, he/she lists themselves as being 104 years old, so how honest if one can call it that is this movement? Oh yes, and let us not forget single. A single person age 104 advocating shoplifting? Give me a break! This poster provided other links which I will not share since shoplifting is against the law.

Within this post, it poses a question: “Why shoplift?” and their answer is, “Shoplifting from large corporations is easiest means of organically redistributing wealth from the rich to the poor. Shoplifting is both an easy way of punishing corporations that deliberately destroy the environment, exploit and abuse laborers, and destroy communities and local culture, and an effective way of acquiring resources to give to the impoverished victims of capitalist oppression.”

That answer may seem admirable to the net-roots community, but in real life, it is hogwash since many of your working poor work for large corporations. I personally know many of them. As for abusing laborers, I stand before you as a cashier stating the company I work for does none of that and I would turn in a shoplifter pronto. As far as destroying the community I live in, the company I work for has not done so. In fact, it has launched campaigns to help the poor within our community through food-drives during the holiday season and has sent monetary donations to Haiti.

Another question this post asks: “But doesn't shoplifting just hurt workers?” Their answer is, “No. Workers are almost always paid by the hour that they work, not by the number of their products that are sold. By the time a product reaches a store, the workers who created it have, in all likelihood, has already been paid. The vast majority of workers are already being paid the minimum wage anyway, so there's no way that the corporation could legally transfer the cost of stolen merchandise to workers. The only people who really stand to lose much money are the multibillionaire corporate elites.” Again, with the net-roots speak.

At some point, if the loss is greater due to shoplifting, management will have to make cuts somewhere and those cuts will be in labor costs. I have been in retail both clothing and now food for three-decades. The first thing to be cut is employee hours.

Okay, I will supply some tips this poster posted: “Items shoplifted must be taken from corporate chains ONLY. NEVER shoplift from independently owned businesses.” Does this person truly believe a thief will abide by this rule? Nonsense! Both large and small business suffer at the hands of shoplifters. The independently owned deli I frequent is consistently on the lookout for thieves.

One tip they provide is, “Don't be violent. There's no absolutely no need to be.” That is if you are speaking with a rational person and has this person ever come upon a gun-wielding robber at a convenience store late at night? Many late night cashiers at these establishments have met their deaths as gun wielding robbers have stolen what does not belong to them.

The message I read in reading this post was that it is okay to steal what does not belong to them. What really got to me was that two responders to this post agreed with it.

Lastly, to the poster of this pro-shoplifting message, your name is now in the hands of the Suffolk County Police Department, various politicians, the media and yes, the FBI since those who may read this post reside across state lines. My duty as a law abiding citizen was to turn you over to the authorities. Also, I never want to hear you cite any criminality coming from the Republican Party as you advocate criminality through this one particular posting.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use portions of this column, please email the author for permission.

Due to the economy: Mass transportation on LI first: ‘Walkable places’ second

2010-01-25T22:17:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
January 26, 2010

Have you ever read a newspaper article that left you tearing your hair out, banging your head as you read it and screaming into the atmosphere? Well, last week, one article left me doing just that. It did not deal with larger national and international issues, but a local issue that I have been screaming about for such a long time and that issue is mass transportation. Seriously, I do not know how many key-strokes I have hit in support of better mass transportation here in Suffolk County, NY. My fingers ache at this time.

After reading: Architect urges Long Island build 'walkable places' which was published in last week’s Newsday, all I wanted to do was scream into the atmosphere.

At this point due to the recession and yes foreclosures: Who is fiscally safe to purchase a newly built home, even with the amenities of mass transportation? Given our high tax bracket, high utility rates, high property taxes and such: Who can afford to purchase one of these newly proposed homes? The answer is NO ONE! Within my own community, I have seen home-after-home fall to foreclosure and this architect proposes building more? I am still scratching my head at that notion and idea.

As reported by Newsday in this article: “Nancy Douzinas, president of the Rauch Foundation, which publishes the index. To stimulate ideas, she announced a design contest, "Build a Better Burb," that will offer prizes to professionals, the public and children. The grand prize will be $10,000. Details are to come in March.” Huh? Seriously, I do not understand this prize giveaway. Oh wait! Get children involved who do not understand the complexities of our current real estate market. Give them some crayons and paper and wish them the best. This is the best they can do?

Back in the fifties, many suburbs were created, but what was left out was how to connect each with the other. Yes, we built roadways so that people could drive from one to another. Feel free to Google Robert Moses. But we were short sighted and did not foresee the future where mass transportation would be key within the suburbs. Even now, mass transportation is on the cutting block due to the deficit being felt by each New Yorker. To build new communities and to enhance them with mass transportation is backwards thinking. In my not so humble opinion, enhance mass transportation first.

Due to budget cuts coming from Albany, the LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) will suspend transportation between Ronkonkoma and Greenport during the winter months and bring it back online during the summer season. Last Friday: Newsday’s front cover screamed out: “LI’s unemployment rate up again, to 7%” and these bozos want to build new communities? With what money? If 7% are not working, just how can they afford to purchase these new high-density communties?

There are many ‘walkable communities’ already in existence, but without a way of getting people from point A to point B who do not own a car here in Suffolk County and I have been screaming about that for years-upon-years. You see, due a medical condition, I do not drive and must rely on a pathetic mass transportation system here in Suffolk County. Our existing mass transportation system does not operate at night or on Sundays where people do work and shop. We who are at the mercy of this pathetic mass transportation system must take cabs which cost an arm and a leg. If you wish to take a cab from Sound Beach, NY where I live to Miller Place, NY where I work it will cost you $8 bucks as opposed to a bus that costs you a buck fifty each way.

In reading: "Tahchieva said "retrofitting or repairing" suburban sprawl involved "enhancing and revitalizing downtowns." It means making areas that once catered to cars pedestrian friendly: adding sidewalks, landscaping and transforming dangerous intersections, for example, into a town square." Many communities have sidewalks on busy thoroughfares such as Miller Place and Rocky Point, NY. No, they do not need landscaping. What they need are buses in order to get to those communities in order to shop and work. The dangerous intersections are mainly attributed to automobile accidents and not buses. In fact, I work near the intersection of Miller Place road and Route 25A in Miller Place, NY and I can tell you MOST accidents are due to automobile collisions and not buses.

When Tachieva stated: "So much depends on design. You can achieve very high densities with buildings that don't look scary." I feel this is putting the cart before the horse. We first need mass transportation instead of entire communities being built which at this time do not have the fiscal dollars to support them.

Those who are proponents of these high density communities must ask themselves: If we build them, will they come?

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

This is copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of it, please email the author for permission.

Those without healthcare should make it a point to die on the Capitol Steps

2010-01-21T23:44:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
January 22, 2010

As I sat staring at this image of corpses from Haiti which have horrified and have captivated us so, many thoughts came to mind seeing how any healthcare reform has died in our country. While I do not wish to politicize the deaths in Haiti, it will not hold me back from politicizing deaths that occur here in the United States due to a person’s lack of health insurance.

Let’s face it, health care for ONE and ALL is dead in this country. We will never-ever have universal healthcare. The politicians failed we the people. Not that that phrase “we the people” means anything anymore given the fact that the Supreme Court gave unbridled powers to the corporations of this country in their most recent decision.

We are no longer “we the people” but merely customers of this new country if one can call it that with corporations calling the shots from now on. They with their deep-deep pockets will decide for you and me who will represent us in any seat clear across this country. Oops, did I say represent us? No, I mean represent them. We are from now on are drones of the state.

Will these corporations care who dies from a lack of healthcare? No, they will not. They will only care of their bottom line. The all-might dollar: And that is if it survives into the future given the fact that other economies around the globe have surpassed ours. They have a lot of catching up to do.

The latest estimates have been that 40,000 or so have been buried in mass graves in Haiti due to this earthquake and I find that figure interesting given the fact that it is estimated that the same number dies each year due a lack of health insurance in this country.

Do politicians and celebrities have to see the pictures of the uninsured to finally get it? Do these uninsured people have to die in the open for anyone to give a damn?!

Given the fact that the U.S. Supreme Court gave these unbridled powers to the corporations without any protest coming from the American people, those without health insurance should make it a point to die on the Capitol Steps right at the politician’s feet. That to me would be the ultimate protest. Make sure you can die when both houses are in session.

You may be thinking, she has finally lost it meaning me, but I am serious in my suggestion that ALL who know they are going to die and cannot be cured due to a lack of insurance stipulate in their wills (if they can afford them) their remains be placed on the steps of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. It may be illegal, but think of all the illegality that has gone on within that city throughout the decades.

Maybe, just maybe several mass graves have to be dug right here in the United States of America to drive home the point to the American people and especially our newly bought politicians. Hmm, who is the Senator for Aetna? Ah, yes, Senator Joe Lieberman. As for Lieberman: You are no longer a person held in great regard where your vote is of any importance. Senator-elect Scott Brown is. Take that.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Help Haiti’s earthquake survivors by donating to the Red Cross

2010-01-12T21:24:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
January 13, 2010

As a writer who follows earthquakes and at times refers to myself as an arm-chair seismologist, I was devastated to hear of the 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti on Tuesday afternoon. What amazed me was that it was followed by fifteen aftershocks: One measuring a 5.9 on the Richter Scale. That measurement alone is the size and scope of most earthquakes.

This lone earthquake was the most powerful one to hit this region in over 200 years. As I have been looking at the U.S.G.S. page for a year now, the region has been active with seismic activity. Puerto Rico has succumbed to tremors throughout this past year. In essence, I was not totally surprised this earthquake hit.

As we in the United States think of our growing poor, Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere where 80 percent of their population live below poverty and where they have a 57 percent illiteracy rate. In 2008 it suffered multiple hurricanes and it begs the question: Now this?

In my prior piece where I discussed earthquakes being a scientific event and nothing more, I brought up the recent earthquake to hit California. Thankfully the damage was not as severe as many think the Haitian one will turn out to be. One of the main reasons is the structures where people live and work. In California they have code requirements where buildings have a high probability rate to withstand powerful quakes and protect the people. Many Haitians live in buildings that are less-superior and are decimated when earthquakes and hurricanes occur. Many Haitians live in shanty-towns where no such codes exist. You would think so, given the fact this country sits on top of a fault line. But, they are a poor nation and cannot afford such building materials. They must use their rainforest in order to heat and build their homes.

Many here in the United States visit our White House where our president lives and in Haiti, their presidential palace lay crumbled to the ground. In watching CNN and seeing that photo, it spoke volumes to me.

As I was flipping around the channels, the only station to cover this event in the 10 PM time-slot was CNN with Anderson Cooper at the helm. Then again, Cooper did so when Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and Mississippi. After signing off of his show, he was headed to Haiti to cover the aftermath of this devastating earthquake. Folks, to me that is journalism at its finest.

Anderson Cooper and CNN could have chosen to cover the book “Game Change” a book of gossip, but they did not in this hour. They chose to do the news and the news is for connecting we as a people. The news is supposed to be to help us understand the plight and suffering of others when we think we have nothing. Given Haiti’s poverty rate, they are a suffering people.

As the day light breaks in the morning, we do not know how many died in this quake or how many more will be recorded in the days and weeks after. This is where we as Americans can come to their aid by digging into our pockets, coin-jars, wallets, or what have you and help the people of Haiti by donating to the Red Cross. Their number is: 1-800-REDCROSS or 1-800-257-7575.
You can reach the author at this email address, xmjmac@optonline.net

Earthquakes are a scientific event and nothing more

2010-01-09T22:03:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
January 10, 2010

Today, an earthquake registering a 6.5 on the Richter scale, hit Northern California where little damage occurred. Why I write of this event is that it blared out at me as I logged onto my AOL account. The fonts were oh so big. Yet, yet, I have not seen similar headlines calling anyone’s attention to the myriad of earthquakes that have hit lately in the South Pacific. The seismic scales of those earthquakes were similar and even bigger. Yes, I do follow the seismic events that occur around the planet through the U.S.G.S. Just call me your arm-chair seismologist since the earth’s movements fascinate me so.

When it comes to the South Pacific region, earthquakes there as compared to the ones that hit us here in the United States; it is as if the ones in the S. Pacific region do not exist when the media reports of them. The plate tectonics in that area are as volatile as the ones in Northern California. Can anyone spell Krakatoa or Anak Krakatoa?

As a writer who hones in on what commenter’s post to any story, my curiosity got the better of me to read what was being commented on this one scientific event.

Not surprisingly, the prophesy angle came into play where some mentioned December 21, 2012 (the supposed end of the world according to the Mayan Calendar) and where others just had to get in their political jabs. This is why I adore letters to the editors of different newspapers so we do not have to hear of who is to blame or what prophesy to adhere to. This earthquake was a scientific event as all earthquakes are.

While the eye-witness testimonies to this one particular earthquake are unsettling to the nerves where one’s china is fractured, let us remember that a few years ago, the real China was hit by a far larger earthquake. That lone earthquake hit that region and according to Wikipedia: “69,197 are confirmed dead, including 68,636 in Sichuan province, and 374,176 injured, with 18,222 listed as missing.[7] The earthquake left about 4.8 million people homeless,[15] though the number could be as high as 11 million.[16] Approximately 15 million people lived in the affected area. It was the deadliest earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake,” Those statistics are something to ponder on in the wake of this earthquake. It could have been worse.

One reason why so much loss of life is that the structures those Chinese citizens lived/live in do not measure up to present day earthquake codes as demanded in Northern California. The same thing can be said for the earthquake that hit in Italy last year. The buildings they lived/live in crumble to the ground as ours pretty much stay in place due to code requirements. So, if one gripes of politicians and the codes they implement, they should thank their lucky stars that the buildings they live and work in survive as opposed to the buildings in other regions of the world.

So, please leave out the prophesy angle and the political comments to these stories as people are left wandering around trying to figure out how they will survive earthquakes wherever they live. As some of you busily type on your keyboards commenting to these differing stories proposing prophesies and political jabs, scores can and have been killed, screaming from underneath the rubble and frankly wondering how they will make it into the future.

Earthquakes are only doing what the earth does naturally. It reshapes itself through constant movement and nothing more. It is up to us as to how to deal with earthquakes, prepare for them in hopes of saving human lives.

Author’s email address is xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Kill bill: In the healthcare reform bill we are all being sold a clunker

2009-12-16T21:34:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
December 16, 2009

As a non-paid editorialist for nine-years, I do not know how many Americans I shall reach as opposed to the main-stream media within the United States. But, here I go. At this point, I do opine that the current healthcare reform(?) bill presently before the Senate MUST be killed off and voted down. It will not help Americans by and large, but the insurance companies that some senators wish to protect at any cost. That cost is human lives. Please keep within your mind’s eye human lives through out this column.

Yes, we have heard not only from the president, and senators as well as some on-air pundits this is the best bill they can deliver at this point. To me it sounds as if they are trying to sell us all a ‘clunker’. They will cherry-pick the better highlights of this bill without delving into what is the worst this bill has to offer. Such as forcing Americans to purchase health insurance from private health insurance companies and if they do not what awaits them is a swift fine. In essence as Keith Olbermann opined turning those who refuse into “law breakers” Is this the best our elected senators can do for we the people, turning innocent Americans who are too poor to purchase these policies into law breakers? To that, I add, they have no business being in their elected offices. Besides, if someone does not have a job, how in the hell are they going to pay these insurance premiums?! Let us NOT FORGET that our national unemployment rate stands at 10.2 percent and where states such as Michigan, 15 or so percent. Exactly where are these new customers supposed to get the money to pay for these premiums. Rub a magic genie-bottle and wish for a huge windfall?

While some will solely demonize, Joe Lieberman, let us not forget others who seek to squash real healthcare reform and those are Republicans as well as Conserva-Dems. They too are to blame. What lies at the foundation of these senators voting habits within their body are those that own them and they are various insurance companies. In the case of Lieberman; Aetna. They donate and dictate how they will vote. No reform can be had until true campaign finance reform takes place, period! It must get back to we the people elect these representatives and not corporations. The sad fact is that will never occur since politics breeds greed.

Those ‘tea-party-baggers’ who seek to squash this bill are NOT doing so on behalf of suffering Americans, they are misguided fools just marching to the beat of the loudest voices within Washington, D.C. and the pundits who control their minds. Pundits such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. They are controlled by sociopaths such as Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann while turning their backs on their fellow Americans who are suffering and in so many instances dying. They will even listen to a pundit, Sarah Palin who is strikingly sounding more like a conspiracy theorist than a former governor.

While some of my readers may wish for me to take a swipe at Lieberman, here I go. Lieberman has always been a strong proponent of Israel. He has even been called, the ‘Senator from Tel Aviv’. As we all know, we give monetary aid to Israel in the billions of dollars each-and-every year. But, do you know what? Israel and not the U.S. has socialized medicine. Each-and-every Israeli citizen gets to see a doctor where Americans do not. What say you, Lieberman?

In the past nine-years, I have written for a Venezuelan news site, VHeadline.com and I can tell you that ALL Venezuelans enjoy UNIVERSAL healthcare aka socialized healthcare from birth-to-death. It may NOT be perfect, but at least they are not traumatized when they become sick. They get to see a doctor. They do not have to fret as to how they will pay for their doctor’s visit or hospital stay, it is paid for by the state. Does that occur here in the United States? No it does not and shame on all of us for not demanding the same care for our fellow citizens. Some may scream at the sheer notion of our government paying for healthcare, yet the overwhelming majority say nothing when it comes to paying for hit squads such as Blackwater. Remarkable. They will scream at how much true health reform will cost, yet fall lock-stepped behind a government who continues to wage war in the Middle East.

Point of fact: During the Bush years, the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez wished to deliver health care via eye-surgery for America’s uninsured through his ‘Mission Miracle’ program. He wished to sponsor 110,000 patients each year for ten years. Venezuela would provide the transport to Cuba and where Cuban doctors would perform the eye surgeries, but the Bush administration shut them down. Over that time-span over a million people’s sight could have been restored or aided through socialized medicine. Hey, tea-baggers: What do you say to that?

You will hear some on-air pundits state that this bill must be passed in its present form, but we must remember, they have health insurance. So, can we actually trust in their wisdom as millions go without? Please remember who signs their paychecks. Corporations. For once, I would love to hear from those who are presently uninsured or underinsured. Ask how they would feel being forced into the hands of private health insurers. Ask the thousands who have been served by the free healthcare clinics sponsored by Countdown’s, Keith Olbermann in key states to shame those who oppose real health care reform. Then again, there is no shaming those who live day-to-day while pretending to serve we the people when they do not have a conscience.

Please take time to listen to this Countdown interview between Lawrence O’Donnell and Dr. Howard Dean. Dean expressly states where health insurance companies will be allowed to charge some within our demographics higher premiums under this bill. You know the over fifty crowd who towards the end of their lives succumb to ailments such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. He also stated to pass key portions of this bill and leave the over-arching reform when the new congress comes back in 2010. While he is gambling with the fact that Republicans can take back control, still the passage of this bill is truly a gamble the American people cannot afford and does nothing to aid them.

In essence the feeling I get through this healthcare bill is that these health insurance companies are trying to claim our assets and we must all say: Claim denied.

This bill must go down to teach this Democratic majority a lesson that they were elected to change the atmosphere in Washington, D.C. and to actually change the way things are done and not a continuance of the way things have been done in years past. They were elected to by we the people in astounding numbers in the past presidential and congressional elections, yet they have not delivered when it comes to this issue or job creation. This past election cycle proved that the electoral force that voted President Obama into office did not even bother to show up as the incumbent New Jersey Governor, Jon Corzine, Nassau County Executive, Tom Suozzi, and the Democratic Virginian gubernatorial candidate went down in flames. All suffered humiliating defeats at the polls.

To those who have a strong allegiance to this president please ask yourself: To whom should your allegiance go? A sitting president or someone who is at death’s door because they could not go and see a doctor to cure them of a disease that is curable? Who deserves your allegiance as many face bankruptcy from medical bills or will be forced to pay for healthcare which can also lead to bankruptcy?

But, let us not concentrate on their elections or elections to come, let us remember what is at the heart of this debate and that is human life. Today, tonight, tomorrow, next week, next month and next year, so many people will die unless this country gets its act together to pass true health care reform. Me, I would prefer single-payer, or a bill that contains a strong public option. We who are insured are all but one pay-check away from our own healthcare crisis. The lives lost due to a person’s lack of healthcare is far greater than the numbers taken on September 11th, 2001 and we went to war for those deaths. Yet, this government fails to wage war on health insurance industries who deny claims which translates into thousands of deaths. The deaths related to a lack of health insurance still scream out for mercy. It is up to all of us to hear their voices and put pressure upon our elected officials. Until then, kill the bill in its present form.

To President Barack Obama, I ripped into your plans to send more soldiers into Afghanistan and rightfully so. Should you sign this healthcare bill in its present form into law, I will back a true progressive candidate that chooses to primary you for the 2012 presidential election. My fellow Americans who live day-to-day without health insurance are more important to me than your presidency. That equally applies to those within congress. Those who side with health insurance companies and not the American people who suffer so, are truly the enemy of the people.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

In borrowing from China, we created our own economic ‘China syndrome’

2009-12-13T12:27:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
December 13, 2009

For a few days, I have been reading several key articles dealing with China, but today a Washington Post article titled, U.S. firms lag in bids for Iraqi oil was the icing on the cake. In Twittering this article, I called it a blow-back to the U.S.

Let’s get real: Our invasion into Iraq was to control this oil and not because of WMDs. It was not about terrorism, but greed. Soldiers as well as innocent Iraqis lost their lives and we have spent over $700 billion to fight the war in Iraq. A large sum we borrowed from China to keep this war going. Who stands to profit in these oil bids? You guessed it; China. The excerpts from this WP article will simply blow your mind:

“Chinese diplomats in Baghdad have kept a low profile in recent years, working out of a hotel and drawing little public attention. But Iraqi officials say they have been struck by the caliber of Chinese diplomats, many of whom speak flawless Arabic and have developed a nuanced understanding of Iraqi politics.”

This eye-opening article goes onto report: "We all know that China is on track to become a major economic as well as technological power," said Assam Jihad, a spokesman for the Oil Ministry.”

Do not get angry at the Iraqis since it was their oil to begin with; it was our foolishness for believing in the Bush/Cheney administration on why we needed to invade Iraq in the first place. For two oil-men, they look pretty silly in light of this story.

These wars have sunk our economy into a sink-hole period! In borrowing handily from China, we created our own economic ‘China syndrome’. These U.S. oil firms must be facing their own ‘Shock and Awe’. China out-gunned them without launching one single rocket or sending troops into Iraq. They did so with brains instead of brawn.

To further prove China’s economic dominance in the world, one only has to read this explosive article published in the NY Times this past week: Recession Elsewhere, but It’s Booming in China There you will read where their rate of consumption has surpassed ours on goods such as flat-screen televisions, washers, dryers as Americans hold back on their purchases.

In fact as this article points out: "China is pulling ahead at this particular moment partly because Americans, debt-laden and worried about their jobs, are pulling back. After decades of gorging on consumption, Americans are saving."

What should be a wake-up call to those in Washington D.C. who control our economic destinies is where this article points out: "For the first time, China, not the United States, is a locomotive helping to pull the global economy out of a slump. But China’s tiny appetite for American exports means that the main benefit has gone to commodity exporters and to businesses in China."

As some free-market thinkers here in the United States rail against any regulation targeted at banks and Wall Street in particular, please pay close attention to this smart move coming from the Chinese government: "China’s Banking Regulatory Commission recently told banks to show restraint in lending for the rest of the year, fearful that some of this year’s loans could become bad debts in the next several years, as happened with the mortgage lending spree in the United States.”

China is acting like the grown-up here where the free-market thinkers here in our own country are acting like petulant children demanding they get their way. And who will suffer? All of us. In fact we have already been hit hard when so many continue to lose their jobs and as one reads where Homeless are Wherever Jobs Vanish as reported in today’s New York Times. I called people’s attention to this important story via my Twitter and Facebook.com pages. It sickened me as I continued to read it.

As China surged ahead of the United States becoming an economic behemoth and where their citizens are buying up a storm, one only has to read the sad facts here: "On Long Island, Nassau County officials have seen the number of people seeking shelter rise by 40 percent compared with this time last year, while in Suffolk, the number of families seeking shelter for the first time rose by 20 percent. In Connecticut, in an annual one-day survey taken in January, the number of people in emergency shelters was 33 percent higher than the year before."

As citizens tire of the finger-pointing going on in Washington D.C. between Republicans and Democrats where both at times refuse to speak with each other, this opinion by far is a salient point opined by Irvan K. Hakim, a co-chairman of the Indonesian Iron and Steel Industry Association: "Even the U.S. cannot talk to China.” One can read yet another eye-opening article relating to China's economic dominance: China’s Economic Power Unsettles the Neighbors.

We as Americans allowed for this to happen without any accountability demanded of those in Washington, D.C., Wall Street and those who thought going to war was for our benefit. Yet, what are folks talking about or the MSM reporting on? You guessed it: Tiger Woods. Pathetic if you ask me.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Pres. Obama: As we have spent $1 trillion on war, did Al Qaeda win?

2009-12-02T11:47:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
December 2, 2009

As a part-time cashier working at a local grocery store, I earn $7.50 an hour. So, when the president mentioned in his speech that we will spend $30 billion this year to fight this ongoing war in Afghanistan, I felt the ‘tea bagger’ spirit rise within me. Do not worry, I refuse to turn to Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh since both are idiots.

I am sorry, Mr. President, I do not want my tax money going to fight this war. If the Afghans want peace it is up to them period to solve their own problems. Problems like a corrupt government, a fraudulent election and more importantly, the Taliban. Wait? Wasn’t it Al Qaeda and not the Taliban who attacked us? Are we fighting the wrong enemy again? We already did so in our invasion into Iraq.

At this point, we have enough problems to solve right within our borders which are far more important to we the people, than what is happening a world away in Afghanistan. The terror Americans are facing are those who get sick and have no healthcare to speak of or jobs to support their families.

10.2 percent of Americans are out of work and in states such as Michigan, the rate is at a staggering 15 percent. Mr. President, address this issue before the American people and not what you wish to do in Afghanistan.

Millions who are unemployed or underemployed do not fear Al Qaeda. What they fear is the next bill coming to their homes which they cannot afford to pay. They most of all fear an eviction notice where many have worked tireless hours in search of their American dream. A dream turning into a nightmare before their eyes. Mr. President, you want to nation-build in Iraq and Afghanistan? Well how about we start to nation-build right here at home first as our citizens suffer so?

You have folks going to work sick in fear if they call up sick for work, they will lose that job. I battled a cold for weeks going to work with a temperature of 101 because I need this job. Thankfully, I am over it, but there are countless more who must do so in order to keep food on the family table and many and I mean many do not have any healthcare to speak of.

Each week, the union I belong to through my job sends out pertinent articles for its members to read and one really caught my attention. It is a column written for the Wall Street Journal by Jeanne Dugan titled: Working Two Jobs and Still Underemployed.

In reading this portion of the article the anger rose within: “Mr. Crane's electricity was shut off, he says. He paid the bill and had it restored. But he didn't pay the gas, which is about $175 per month. Instead, all summer, they cooked on the grill outside. Mr. Crane bought an electric hot water heater for baths and laundry. They lived that way for three months before finally turning the gas back on.” Mr. Crane according to this column looked for work such as a “sanitation worker, bridge painter, tree cutter and transit worker. There were some factory openings, he says, but they pay less than Lowe's.”

Before landing the job at Lowes selling lawn mowers, Mr. Crane was laid off from a job at a battery plant which paid $28 dollars per-hour before overtime.

Dugan also reported where Robert Reich expressed: “For decades, workers have been watching their salaries and benefits erode," He too, “took a pay cut of 8 percent along with the rest of the Berkeley faculty”

With the erosion of pay by countless Americans, why on Earth is our government fighting these wars on the backs of so many especially our soldiers who will continue to come home in flag-draped coffins? It is time to close up the war shop and bring our troops home.

On Thanksgiving Day, a family member of mine expressed her support for these wars because of 9/11 and does not wish another attack here on our soil. But, how long war? Is what I thought. We are fast approaching December 7th which is the anniversary where Japanese attacked us at Pearl Harbor in 1941. Are we forever at war with the Japanese? No, we just bombed them with nuclear weapons and called it a day and they soon surrendered. Everyone tends to invoke 9/11 while forgetting 12/07.

Speaking of nuclear weapons, while worrying about other countries having a nuclear capability, let history speak the truth where we were the only country to use two in war-time.

As millions of Americans sink into an economic and health quagmire, they are being forgotten as the defense industry makes out like bandits. As people’s electricity is being turned off, defense contractors keep their war machines humming and at tax payer’s expense.

Mr. President, you betrayed my trust in not putting an end to these wars. As I watched the Democratic presidential primaries, the true leader and one with conviction was Senator Mike Gravel. In an exchange with then Senator Barack Obama, then Senator Hillary Clinton and the rest of the candidates, he answered a question from the late Tim Russert, who asked if these candidates should suspend their campaigns to end these wars by stating: “If it stops the killing, then do it!” Meaning they should vote on cloture to end these wars.

Let us not forget that it was Senator Mike Gravel who ended the draft in Viet Nam by filibuster. Let us not forget it was Senator Mike Gravel who exposed the Pentagon Papers which proved the criminality of that war.

As we look at the failure of our educational system, our infrastructure, millions of jobs lost and no true healthcare system to take care of we the people, Gravel has opined at the top of the food chain is the military industrial complex. While that term ‘military industrial complex’ sounds like a conspiracy theory, truly they do receive the lion’s share of our hard earned tax dollars.

There is a saying, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” and one only has to ask the Russians just how successful they were in their invasion of Afghanistan. The proof is in the pudding how it drained their fiscal resources.

Al Qaeda has metastasized throughout the world as their numbers have been depleted in Afghanistan: Do we invade each and every country they are in? Will we forever be at war as our own nation crumbles beneath us? Perhaps this was our enemy’s intention all along to force us into wars lasting decades to deplete us economically. As political leaders reprimand Americans for borrowing too much and racking up credit card debt, they have racked up enough debt borrowing these war funds from China. A debt we all must pay and pay and pay.

One lone question should be asked: Did Al Qaeda already win as we have spent close to $1 trillion dollars on these wars? Think about it.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, email the author for permission.

Marc Alessi along with Stop and Shop customers help feed the needy

2009-11-23T08:12:00.000-08:00

Mary MacElveen
November 23, 2009

Last night, I wrote a column awarding NY State Assembly member, Marc Alessi my Founding Fathers award. In reporting to you of his efforts to help feed the poor and hungry here on Long Island through Island Harvest, I was unaware of how much was collected through the support of Stop and Shop customers.

In reading my emails this morning, I was contacted by Katrina Kieltyka who is Marc Alessi’s events coordinator. According to Ms. Kieltyka: “Yesterday's event was very successful; we collected about 450 lbs of food, including four turkeys, and an additional $230 dollars in gift cards.” Those gift cards can be used by our hungry neighbors to purchase food within our stores.

As our hungry neighbors sit down and feast upon these donations, they have this man to thank as well as the generosity of Stop and Shop customers.

In this follow-up column are pictures of Marc Alessi hard at work to feed the hungry. These pictures were taken by Katrina Kieltyka.

I would also like to remind my readers that Stop and Shop is hoping to raise $1 million dollars to feed the needy through our “Food for Friends” campaign. You can donate $1, $3 or $5 dollars at our registers.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

NY State Assembly Member, Marc Alessi wins my Founding Fathers award

2009-11-22T21:18:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
November 23, 2009

In these dire economic times, we the people would love nothing more than to sock the nearest politician in the nose as we face such hardships trying to survive. We also often hear the term: “Walking the walk” as opposed to “Talking the talk” We the people love the former and despise the latter.

As a cashier for a grocery store, I am highly sensitive to the plight of the hungry when so many stick to their budgets or cannot purchase food items in these lean times or on the other end, those lucky enough to purchase their turkeys and all the trimmings that go with it.

On Thanksgiving Day we must be mindful that there are millions of Americans from coast-to-coast who will go without as opposed to many who cannot put one more morsel in their mouths. I just wish that Washington would think of that for at least once as they stuff their pockets with campaign donations coming from lobbyists.

In retrospect, I get sick-and-tired of politicos yapping their gums on any news program and just want them to get the job done to serve the needs of we the people. Don’t you? People are literally starving out there.

In ringing up my customer’s sales today, there were many who stated: “Can you please put these items in a separate bag so I can donate them to the man collecting food for the hungry outside?” With that, I said: “Yes, I will.” I wondered who this man was and it was not until my break time did I know who he was. The man turned out to be Marc Alessi who is a New York State Assembly member and one that I came to know through local politics. He was out there for hours collecting food for Island Harvest whose mission is to feed Long Island’s poor and hungry. Good on, Marc!

Quite frankly, we were both surprised to see each other: me as a cashier and he collecting food for the hungry, but it was an enjoyable encounter.

As we look upon Washington, D.C. where many politicians are trying to stop health care for all, especially the poor and the hungry as well as Americans in general, here is a lone politician giving up a sunny Sunday in order to make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves. How great is that?!

We are all but one paycheck away from being one of the millions that do go hungry day-to-day and it is truly an honor to know an elected leader in Marc Alessi whose call it is to walk the walk instead of talking the talk.

I hereby award my Founding Fathers award to Assembly member, Marc Alessi of the great state of New York for truly representing the needs of his constituents. Those being the hungry amongst us. Take that Sarah Palin as you try and enhance your financial portfolio in selling your book: “Going Rogue”

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

There are far more powerful women in our lives instead of Sarah Palin

2009-11-17T21:39:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
November 18, 2009

Why are so many drawn upon the supposed strength of Sarah Palin, when the true strength is found upon the millions upon millions of women who face such hardships in life or continue life as is? This, I cannot answer. Why buy a book to increase her bankbook or the publisher that published it? In these harsh economic times, save that money for what is truly important to your world and not hers.

At this point, I do not know the price of her book, but all I will add is to put that money towards food, clothing and housing. Feed your children instead of feeding Palin’s political aspirations. If it is meant to be.

Each day as a grocery store cashier, I see women come to work to make ends meet making a little over minimum wage and they are not grabbing any microphone they can. They are the women America should be listening to as they stand for hours checking their customer’s purchases out. If Palin truly wishes to know what the true economy is all about, let her stand in the shoes of those at the grocery-store check-out aisles. We not her know what America’s true economy is all about as she bloviates.

There are other women of strength such as police officers who strap on a bullet-proof vest to insure that they come home to their families as they arrest those who break our laws. Does Palin even know of their plight as she complains of her downfall in her “Going Rouge”? As their shift begins, they do not even know if they will come home to their husbands or children. Let her sit on that one for a while as she thinks what she (cough, cough) writes is important to us all.

There are women, who wear our military uniforms to insure this country’s safety day-in-and-day-out, but their faces are not seen or heard from as the media concentrates on her. Many of them have died in service to God and country. Who exactly does she think she is in denigrating those around her as women have come home in caskets in service to you and me?

Each day, we go to our mailboxes to collect our mail and little do we realize that post-women have delivered it. I have seen these postal workers wearing vinyl gloves to protect themselves from possible anthrax attacks. Yet, no one notices them. They are true women of strength delivering to we the people our bills and catalogues and if we still write them, a personal letter to a family member or friend.

On any given day, there are mothers and fathers sending their children off to be taught their lessons by a teacher of the female persuasion. They know all too well the crisis of funding our children’s education in today’s economic crisis. In fact they will often ask parents to purchase educational materials needed when a school budget cannot afford them.

At any given moment a home may go up in flames and over the years, fire departments have hired female-firefighters. They, like police officers put their live on the line for you and me. They, unlike Palin should be heralded for racing towards the flames as she ignites political flames.

On any given day, you and I sit down to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner if we can afford it. Little do we realize that farm-women work endless days to produce the food we consume. It is truly back-breaking work, but no one heralds these women, much less speaks of them as we eat our bacon and eggs or pork-roast. Don’t forget that peanut butter and jelly sandwich which many still love.

We love to eat our Post, Kellogg’s or General Foods cereals and grains, but what of the women working for these companies who are not seen by you and me in order to feed America? They are not heard from as we gobble up these grains. They make nothing compared to the amount Palin will make from this one damn book.

If we are lucky enough to own an automobile, most likely a female autoworker has assembled it. We pray that it is safe enough to drive from point A to point B and she is right there on the assembly line putting it together meeting all specifications. If we are not as lucky to own a car, there is a female transit worker insuring we get from those same points via public-transportation. Yet, no one sees them or knows of their struggles to make ends meet or their struggles on the job day-to-day.

As we have seen through this economic crisis, women along with men have been laid off, thereby losing their jobs, homes and health insurance. Yet, yet they are not in the bull’s eye of the media to tell their plight. Yet, yet, Sarah thinks she is deserving of it? Oh please let her live their lives for at least one day.

With this book coming out just before the holiday season, please know this: There are many powerful women that you meet day-in-and-day-out who work to provide for their families who do not stand to make millions. Why not spend the money on products or services that will help them provide for their own instead of Sarah Palin’s bank account?

Sarah Palin in quitting the governorship of Alaska proved she was not a fighter where many women out there truly are. Reward them and not her.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Based on a Politico.com article: I am sick of game-playing politicians

2009-11-17T08:21:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
November 17, 2009

I posted the below tweet on my Twitter page citing how a hug between Gov. Charlie Crist and President Barack Obama as being a game being played by Marco Rubio. This Twitter came forth after reading a Politico.com article which discusses it.

MaryMacElveen You know when staunch conservatives like Rubio are out of ideas when a hug is their best ammo against Crist: http://tinyurl.com/yl4lqhz

Not posted due to space constraints on Twitter, this to me is just a political game to win over votes. People are truly hurting out here and they want to know how best a candidate can help them instead of playing these political games.

Don’t flash images in front of us treating us like children, but treat the voters as grown-ups where you go into detail how you will best serve us all.

Tell us how you will get healthcare into the hands of each and every American. Tell us how you will get millions back to work. Tell us how you will keep taxes at bay since we are drowning in higher-and-higher tax rates. Tell us how you will educate our children to insure a prosperous future for them. Tell us how you will lower the cost of food. As a cashier, I do see prices increasing and people struggling to make ends meet. I have witnessed first hand how they have to put a food item back because they simply cannot afford it.

When their eyes meet yours they are filled with embarrassment and where they lower their voice saying: “I do not have enough to pay for that” Welcome to my world as a grocery store cashier. I see that, but game-playing politicians do not.

Tell us all how you will go up against the evil empire known as credit card companies who are charging higher-and-higher interest rates and keeping us all in debt-bondage.

Tell us all how you will save a family from losing their homes due to bankruptcy. This is our new way of life and quite frankly, the American people are sick and tired of the game playing. Who knows how many families are being sent foreclosure notices everyday and where the sheriff shows up to evict them and toss their belongings onto the street as well as change the locks.

We see through the Stupak amendment real games being played when abortion is inserted into the mix. In my opinion, the ONLY reason it was put in was to kill health reform in this country for those who truly need it. Rep. Bart Stupak has healthcare, yet is playing games with yours.

As I watched “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” last night, tears came to me as they aired the first free-clinic in New Orleans. This was done to put pressure on Sen. Mary Landrieu to back healthcare reform. She did not show up to this event and declined to be interviewed. COWARD! This as one thousand of her constituents showed up to see a doctor in which four had to be raced to the hospital. What a game player she is as thousands more suffer and millions more across this country. Sen. Landrieu has healthcare yet can deny her constituents the chance at seeing a doctor? If so, she deserves to lose her seat in the senate to one that will demand the right of every citizen to see a doctor.

If this is okay with tea-baggers, I will call them all unpatriotic, because they are not putting country first. Country first also means to me where each citizen has the right to see a doctor. Yes, even a woman who may seek to have an abortion. Patriotism, doesn’t only mean backing one’s country in a time of war. I prefer the former over the latter. The latter has all but drained out economy.

Exactly where were these tea-baggers and game playing politicians when it came to war funding? They want a balanced budget NOW?! Too late. You should have thought of that years ago.

The cost of both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is fast approaching $933 billion dollars, yet the right-wing seems to back these wars and not healthcare for all. What sanctimonious idiots they are. These right-wingers are truly showing just how unpatriotic they are.

They will tell us all in a bold-face lie that it is to win the war on terror. Sorry there is not a chance in hell of doing that. Due to our foreign policies abroad and keeping a military footprint in areas so volatile, we will always have enemies.

We can however win the war on terror on the medical front by insuring people can see a doctor where an illness does not become a catastrophic illness. To treat a catastrophic illness costs this country more. When a sick person cannot see a doctor, to me that is true terror!

So, game-playing politicians, tell us how you will help us with detailed plans instead of floating a picture of a hug between two politicians. If you are successful in your campaign, the hardest part is now upon you to actually get the people’s business done. My question is by using tactics like these: Are you even up for the job?

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of it, please email the author for permission.

Please participate in Stop and Shop’s “Food for Friends” program

2009-11-10T07:56:00.001-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
November 10, 2009

People do not ordinarily think of grocery stores coming to the aid of hungry Americans, but in many instances they do. Take Stop and Shop for example: At this point in time each store is raising money to help feed America’s poor. Their program is called: “Food for Friends” At your checkout aisle, you can purchase a donation card for $1, $3 or $5. All donations will be donated to local hunger relief efforts. This program ends December 3rd, 2009 and Stop and Shop hopes to raise $1 million dollars.

But, your participation need not end on December 3rd, since Stop and Shop holds great sales from week-to-week.

In this week's Stop and Shop’s circular, one can purchase 10 cans of Campbell’s cream soups (chicken or mushroom) for $10 dollars using one’s Stop and Shop card. Think of donating half of those cans to your local food shelters.

One can also purchase 2 Stop and Shop grated cheese 8 ounce canisters for $5 dollars. Donate the other one.

Not a fan of oatmeal? Well it is a great start to the day for starving children growing up in this country. This week, one can purchase 2 boxes of Stop and Shop instant oatmeal for $4 dollars. All varieties are included in this sale. Why not pick up 2 boxes for your local food shelter or more?

If you love Arnold’s wide pan breads or Thomas’s English muffins, this week it is buy one get one free. Why not donate the free one to your local food shelter?

As you will see in your Stop and Shop circular: One can purchase 10 Pillsbury cake mixes or brownie mixes for $10 dollars using your Stop and Shop card. Think of donating some to America’s hungry. They love sweets too.

Before the plight of the starving within this country came into focus; I thought why would anyone buy 10 cans of soup or 10 boxes of cake mix? Perhaps hunger being the focus now, one can share their bounty as they food shop.

If you do not have a Stop and Shop near you, please look at your store’s circular to see how you too can help feed America.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

The Stony Brook University Hotel is: Jobs, Baby, Jobs

2009-11-06T22:19:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
November 7, 2009

A new report was released on Friday (November 6th, 2009) citing that the unemployment rate presently stands at 10.2 percent. That figure is nothing to sneeze at during this cold and flu season. It means that America is sick when so many Americans are out of work, or quite frankly have given up looking for work. In my opinion, this is a pandemic that has spread coast-to-coast with absolutely no relief in sight.

In my opinion THE MOST POWERFUL words in today’s economy are: “I have a job”, but for millions they do not feel such power. For many past bread-winners, they are finding it tougher and tougher to put mac-and-cheese on the dinner table.

In the past, I have reported where food pantries are barren due to our economic crisis. We can do better than that for our citizens and we must.

Just recently, I read a Newsday article that made the bile rise from beneath my throat. Newsday reported where Stony Brook University plans to build a hotel on their campus to be used in a multitude of ways. In my opinion the building of this hotel on the Stony Brook campus is a win-win situation. The reason, the bile rose within my throat is because some opposed the construction of it. Idiots!

While some are concerned this project will encroach upon the green-belt of Suffolk County, NY, exactly where have their voices been as suburban sprawl has encroached upon our county year-after-year? This suburban sprawl has put many to work and now through this sole-project, they are worried the green-belts will be decimated? Oh please as one looks at one baron strip mall after another.

I am still scratching my head that suburban sprawl has not been met with this same ridicule and protest as this lone hotel project has been.

According to Newsday some civic leaders: “worry that placing it on 11 acres in a wooded area near the campus' main entrance will jeopardize a "greenbelt" of trees along Nicolls Road and commercialize the roadway.” I would invite these civic leaders to look at Suffolk County as a whole and not the microcosm of this project. Just look upon the environmental impact at the expansion of Route 347 has had to Suffolk County. I have written of that before.

You want to look at an eye-sore? Just look at the development project that replaced the former Davis Peach Farm in Miller Place, NY to know what I speak of. The Davis Peach Farm produced local produce, now the land is block-upon-block of cookie-cutter homes with increased traffic surrounding the development. No one said boo about this development being built.

Malcolm Bowman, a professor of marine and environmental sciences stated: “The campus forest is our heritage, and we built this great university in the center of this forest, so we must do everything we can to minimize the damage," Let him state that to a tradesman who has been out of work for a long time and needs to feed his family. It will NOT compute. Me, personally, I would love to see that exchange.

Stony Brook University who has been at the forefront of building this hotel stated that the building of this hotel has been in the works since 1989 was not an “impulsive decision” In fact, Stony Brook University stated: “It took 20 years to come to an agreement with a developer that was interested in preserving the buffer and working within the university footprint guidelines.”

So for those who have a knee-jerk reaction opposing this hotel’s construction, you will see it has been a well thought out project.

Having acquainted myself with Kara Hahn via numerous Democratic functions in the past, I paid close attention to her sentiments on this hotel’s construction where she said, “her group was opposed to commercialization along Nicolls Road. She said after meeting with university officials last week, "I think they understand our concerns and I hope to work with them so we can maintain that buffer.", I have to wonder how many food pantries she has visited lately or has she been paying attention to the unemployment rate? Kara, people are starving for work and food.

Quite frankly, this hotel’s construction is about, jobs period. Jobs are our lifeline where breadwinners can come home with the bacon in order to feed their families. Those who will build this hotel will take their earnings to many points along the way feeding our economy. A local supermarket where these construction workers will shop to bring home that bacon will thrive from this incoming business as well as local delis and 7/11s. Should these construction workers need items to construct this hotel, the Home Depots or Lowes will benefit from increased dollars going into their companies. All of these companies that I have mentioned will surely see increased sales where they can retain their employees and their employees will NOT fear being laid off in this strenuous economy.

Once this hotel is completed, just think of the jobs it will bring to this local area. Not familiar with hotel market: imagine how many maids, laundry personnel, barkeep, restaurateurs, chefs, waitresses, front clerks and the list is endless that they can employ. These are good paying jobs where we as a nation need to put people back to work. If any of these personnel find themselves in these new jobs, think of where they can spend their money. The list is endless, but more importantly, they can put food on the family table. It truly boggles the mind how anyone can stand in the way of this economic progress.

This is purely a local stimulus package which should not be stopped, but embraced for the workers it will employ. I say, go for it!

Author’s email address is xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please contact the author.

In light of Fort Hood: Michelle Bachmann, shut the hell up!

2009-11-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
November 5, 2009

Please forgive me as a non-paid columnist for using such strong language, but if there were any congress member, I would want to b-slap at this moment it would be Congress member Michelle Bachmann for staging her ‘insurgency’; movement inviting citizens to “look within the eyes” of their congress members to protest the public option.

In seeing news footage of this protest one can see pictorials of the holocaust and that is out of line considering the public option plan is meant to save lives, not murder. Even the American Medical Association and the AARP are backing the public option and they are far more learned on this issue than she is. Does she even think that she knows more than a doctor or a health representative for the aged? Oh please! They are after all at the forefront of this issue and know the details in depth as she spews her venom and consistently opens up her pie-hole. Me, I want to forever plug her pie-hole!

Just today we learned that a Major in the U.S. Army, Nidal Malik Hasan shot and killed 12 people and wounded 31. This is the true cost of war. Wars that the extreme right-wing back while innocents are taken from their loved ones.

I cannot even fathom as a feeling human being how the families of these loved ones are feeling at this very moment, much less coping. May God be with them in their time of great need. My tears and our tears are with them all.

The extreme right-wing would rather back at any cost the true cost of war in both Iraq and Afghanistan that have a detrimental affect not only to our soldiers, but innocents abroad. Yet, they can stand before our eyes and spew venom at a healthcare bill which can save millions of Americans? Oh help me to understand these miscreants for surely I cannot!

Tonight, Americans from coast-to-coast are trying to wrap their brains and hearts around this slaughter at Fort Hood, but we simply cannot. In place we can only send our prayers and support to the victims of this senseless massacre.

Is this what we have to look at for years to come as we redeploy more soldiers overseas to wars that are unwinnable? Are these wars worth funding, while the extreme right-wing nuts or psychopaths will deny any monies to heal our citizens? It sure seems so; right?

To my fellow Americans from coast-to-coast, when will you tell these extreme right-wing nut-cases presently in congress who will deny you healthcare yet funds these wars to quite frankly, SHUT THE HELL UP!?

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

Why so many Democratic losses?

2009-11-03T23:49:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
November 4, 2009

Forget about the NY 23rd congressional race that Sarah Palin, Governor Tim Pawlenty and former Gov. George Pataki interjected themselves in backing the Conservative candidate, Doug Hoffman over their fellow Republican, Dierdre Scozzafava. The true message of tonight’s Democratic Party slaughter can be found in the voice of the Nassau County, NY Democratic Party Chair, Jay Jacobs as reported by Newsday. He opined: "I just don't see Democrats coming out the way we would have liked," Jacobs said. "It doesn't mean anything terrible for the results, but it doesn't give me a warm and fuzzy feeling right now."

Let me correct, Jacobs having worked numerous campaigns; the results are everything in the course of the body politics. Coming in second means just that. Second!

Well the results were terrible as the county legislature’s control switched tonight from Democrat to Republican. That is a FAR greater number of voters over the 23rd congressional district of NY. A message was lost to the party faithful and now they (the party heads) must own this defeat. Those who came out in droves to elect President Barack Obama last year; stayed home. The question is why?

What generated the Obama win was the GOTV (Get out the vote) via the net-roots and minority vote and perhaps they were not as engaged in this election than the past year. Are some elections more important than others when it comes to the political hierarchy? Local elections are by far the most important ones that directly affect a populous and the populous spoke back tonight.

Citizens are not really paying attention to far-away wars or who this country helps, they are paying attention to their personal bills such as, mortgages, property taxes and utility bills. So, if you are an Internet writer concentrating on foreign events, your words are lost to your fellow citizen as these elections proved.

As of this writing; Newsday reports: “With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Suozzi, a Glen Cove Democrat, leads Edward Mangano, a Republican from Bethpage, by 313 votes, according to the Nassau Board of Elections.” Yes, every vote does count. The Democratic incumbent, Tom Suozzi was thought to be a strong gubernatorial candidate a few years back and now he is in a horse race with his Republican challenger, Mangano? Either this does not compute or the times have significantly changed. This is surely to be a nail-biter to the very end as each vote is counted and thankfully done on lever machines.

Is this a slap-back at the Obama administration and the Democratic controlled House of Representatives and Senate? Or is the failure here in turning out the Democratic vote? Perhaps a little of both.

As an ardent supporter of universal healthcare for all Americans, perhaps Americans were frightened by the sticker-shock. Maybe, just maybe those tea-party-baggers did resonate in tonight’s election results when Governor Jon Corzine lost to his Republican challenger, Chris Christie.

As progressives rail against Joe Lieberman for even daring to filibuster healthcare reform, maybe the voters spoke out tonight? It will be a long time to dissect this election.

While the Florida representative, Alan Grayson spoke of the numbers who died each year due to lack of healthcare, I do suspect that voters could not conceptualize those numbers and only looked upon the numbers of their family budgets. Or they looked upon whether or not they had a job or not.

The Republican Virginian candidate, Bob McDonnell ran on a motto “Bob’s 4 Jobs” and to me that is a campaign message in a nut-shell with the national unemployment rate running at close to 10 percent. America so wants to work!

While the Democratic controlled federal government is trying to push forth healthcare reform when it needs it: My question is, if a person is without a job, how can they afford to pay any premium to an insurance company or the government for that matter? They simply can’t. If they cannot afford to pay either two since they do not have a job, should they be penalized? People’s first need is to eat in order to survive and they need money to pay for their groceries.

Perhaps that is exactly what the voters were playing with in their minds as they entered the voting booths today. Maybe those who refused to show up showed a weakness in the Democratic Party machine over the Republican machine. I can attest to the strength of the Republican Party here locally on Long Island as a former Republican. It used to be when you were called to show up, you did just that. That has never been the strength of the Democratic Party here on Long Island and perhaps that is the way other Democratic Parties operate nationally.

In my new job as a cashier for a food store, I do speak with my customers and in the fore-front of their minds is the high-cost of living. Sorry for all that are pushing healthcare, I have not once heard that. I see customers sticking to a budget. That is the real economy. With the unemployment rate hovering at ten percent, the most powerful words in today’s economy are “I have a job” and sorry to say, not healthcare. Perhaps jobs not healthcare for all should be the issue of the day.

While many progressives tried to paint the ‘tea baggers’ as a crazy bunch, there may have been something simmering just below the surface which delivered today’s off-year election results.

To close out this piece the difference between Nassau County Executive, Tom Suozzi and his Republican, Edward Mangano challenger is 237 votes. If you are a Democrat in Nassau County, this does not bode well. If you are a Republican, it gives you energy to fight another day.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please contact the author.

The Ineptitude of the US Gov’t in Continuing the War in Afghanistan

2009-10-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
October 27, 2009

I just love when another’s prose hits you over the head and where you shout out: “YES!” That is exactly the response I gave after reading Paul Craig Robert’s piece: US Joins the Ranks of Failed States. So, much so, I had to spread it far and wide using Twitter and Facebook.com as you will see below. My suggestion to you is, READ IT!

US Joins Ranks Of Failed States: http://tinyurl.com/yh6yfoo Again, Paul Craig Roberts hits another home run! This is a MUST READ!!!

The other day, I wrote a column addressing war vs. healthcare titled: Baghdad bombings: We are a warrior nation instead of a healing nation citing the total amount of money it has cost so far in running these wars in the Middle East. But, thanks and I mean, thanks to Paul Craig Roberts, he breaks those numbers down further and will clearly show why we cannot afford healthcare. Example as cited in his eye-popping article: “According to reports, the US Marines in Afghanistan use 800,000 gallons of gasoline per day. At $400 per gallon, that comes to a $320,000,000 daily fuel bill for the Marines alone. Only a country totally out of control would squander resources in this way.” Exactly, how are these wars in our own national and even economic interests when we are spending money hand over many fists in order to pay for them?

In referencing a past column of mine which is no longer on-line: “You Don’t Defend America with a Lie” written back in May of 2003 I wrote: “A strong country means a country that is economically solvent, instead of insolvent. We have basically allowed a lie to put us in the red.” The lie I speak of is the Iraq War.

In addressing the ‘right war’; Afghanistan if any war is a right war, it too is draining us. First, we are losing our soldiers, innocent Afghanis and yes our fiscal treasure. We simply cannot afford this war.

To the war-hawks of this nation: Exactly how many years do you want to spend fighting this war? One year, two years, five years or a war without end? If you are in support of fighting a perpetual battle, then, hawks, you are fools! And some of you call yourselves fiscal conservatives. To that I add: Hah!

On September 17th, 2009, I came across an article on Truthout.org titled: Afghanistan: Where Empires go to Die. Alone, that title speaks for itself. No further words are needed given any nation’s history fighting a war in Afghanistan. But, according to this article: “The United States Empire is following a long line of empires and conquerors that have met their end in Afghanistan. The Median and Persian Empires, Alexander the Great, the Seleucids, the Indo-Greeks, Turks, Mongols, British and Soviets all met the end of their ambitions in Afghanistan.” I highly recommend to all that they read this insightful piece.

Yet, some want the United States to stay the course in Afghanistan. History is indeed repeating itself even thinking we can win. We are sending our men and women into a meat-grinder as our country’s fiscal reserves are facing the same fate.

Think of this, we are printing dollar-after-dollar to fund these wars, borrowing handily from China and quite frankly handing all of them over to the defense industry. Those blood suckers are draining we the people.

Some will scream of the cost of healthcare; yet say nothing and I mean nothing when it comes to the cost of these endless wars. Do they think that at one point, we can defeat say Al Qaeda and the Taliban where they will throw up their arms and say: “You won!” at some point? Nonsense, this is a major blow-back just waiting to happen. Then again, we are already feeling the financial blow-back by throwing our good money down the drain in supporting these wars.

Again, reverting back to my 2003 column, I wrote: “should a greater threat occur, how will we pay for it?” That threat can come in many ways and perhaps it already has when we as a country cannot even afford basic healthcare for all. What of any new enemy that looms large on the horizon who can attack us given the right set of circumstances? Are they just laying in wait as we spend our selves out of control with these two wars going? Perhaps and more importantly, yes.

What of the millions we displaced in Iraq? Are a good number of them just waiting their turn as we turned their homeland into a hell on Earth? Just something to think about.

What of the devastation we may face should another attack occur within our borders or a series of attacks? A nightmare scenario would be if a nuclear plant was attacked. I have addressed this in the past and where the casualty rate will be higher than the casualty rates of 9/11. But since some would rather focus on the costs: Exactly how would we pay for said nightmare scenario or a series of attacks?

I will end this piece with a quote made by Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson (former Chief of Staff to the former Secretary of State Colin Powell) who once said of the “ineptitude” of the US government: “If something comes along that is truly serious, truly serious. Something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major city or a pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence.” He opined this as he was interviewed on CNN's "Late Edition" on November 20th, 2005.

This ineptitude of fighting years-upon-years in Afghanistan is driving all of us off the financial cliff. $320,000,000 for a daily fuel bill in Afghanistan: How many uninsured Americans could be seen by a doctor using that figure?

I would like to add an addendum to this piece: In posting my article, I read where we just lost eight U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan today where October has been one of the deadliest months. How many more shall the US gov’t kill should we fight a war without end? Enough!

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

Baghdad bombings: We are a warrior nation instead of a healing nation

2009-10-25T21:35:00.001-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
October 26, 2009

We say we are a nation at war, but how can we actually say that upon reading that suicide bombers took the lives of 147 Iraqis and where 500 more were wounded? We the United States of America had a causal affect in these lone bombings since we destabilized this sovereign country.

As I have said from day one when we launched “Shock and Awe”, the Iraqi people have undergone a 9/11 event on a daily basis for six years without any end in sight. Through our own actions at the hands the previous Bush administration, we became the terrorists of an innocent people. When will it stop? We who voted for President Obama were hoping and praying for a real change, yet, the killings go on. They are not only felt in Iraq, but are consistently being felt in Afghanistan and as reports are filed; Pakistan.

How can we exactly say we are a nation at war when we are not suffering from daily attacks? Yes, our military and their families do, but not we the people. We would rather focus on the ‘Balloon Boy’, Michael Jackson, Paris Hilton and the list goes on. We cannot even imagine the life of an Iraqi citizen or an Afghani citizen. Their lives are a daily hell on Earth.

While I am not a subscriber online to “The New Yorker” I was able to pick out key points in Jane Mayer’s article “The Predator War”. In it, Mayer writes: “reports of fatal air strikes in Pakistan emerge every few days. According to a new study by the New America Foundation, the number of drone strikes has gone up dramatically since Obama became President. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, the defense contractor that manufactures the Predator and its more heavily armed sibling, the Reaper, can barely keep up with the government’s demand. With public disenchantment mounting over the U.S. troop deployment in Afghanistan, many in Washington support an even greater reliance on Predator strikes.”

Just think about it: You are an innocent Pakistani family who had no part in 9/11 and a bomb comes crashing through your home through a predator bomb delivered by a drone. You are not Al Qaeda, but a family trying to get by in this arduous world filled with war and violence.

I wrote exactly the same way after the launch of “Shock and Awe” as it affected the Iraqi people.

Yes, ‘Tenthers’ you are paying for wars without end, yet gripe when it comes to healthcare. You cite where providing healthcare for all is unconstitutional: What of perpetual wars?

In reading my Sunday edition of Newsday, I came upon a photo where a group of protesters were holding a sign stating: “Our “10” Amendment Means NO!! To Gov’t Healthcare!!” I would love to pose the question to these protestors: What of warfare since we have been at war in the Middle East since 2001? Oops, I forgot about the Iraqi War during the first Bush administration and the sanctions during the Clinton administration. When exactly will we exit this region and put a stop to our footprint in this region? After all, we the taxpayers are paying for these perpetual wars without any end in sight.

In a tweet on Twitter.com, I posed this question yesterday: “GOP say Dems health care plans too costly: http://tinyurl.com/ygzutqx What price war?: http://www.costofwar.com/ $924 billion!” Tenthers, where is your angst at that amount of money being spent on wars? You gripe at the amount to be spent on healthcare, what of war?

Just before the previous Bush administration launched “Shock and Awe” those of us who protested this ongoing war in Iraq were not listened to, yet, ‘tea-baggers’ who oppose real reform in healthcare are? Our morals are skewed if we can see merit in being a warrior nation as opposed to a healing nation.

Author’s email address is xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

A change of heart: Sex offenders who kill deserve the death penalty

2009-10-23T21:36:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
October 24, 2009

This will be one of my shortest op-ed pieces within nine years of writing them, but I must come clean. In as much as I say that I am pro-life where I have stated I am pro-life from cradle-to-grave, I must, I must take back that mantle especially when it comes to child sexual predators. These monsters will at times take the lives of innocent victims, namely children. Our precious children gone before the promise of their lives not realized to all of us.

If a writer is to be honest with their readers, then they must be honest with themselves first and foremost. Over the years I have read up on pedophilia and have written of it. There are no words to adequately describe my feelings towards these predators. If I had to choose one word, it would be ‘hate’. That word at times seems tame.

In delving into the heinous world of pedophilia, one cannot take enough hot showers to clean themselves from reading story-upon-story of children raped and murdered by demons. I want these demons dead. I cannot stomach their apologists or those who try, try to explain away their deviant behavior. How dare they?! Let them face a child who has survived a predator or a parent whose child was taken by one.

I do not want these demons out within our neighborhoods being told to register under Megan’s Law, I want them locked up. Is that so much to ask of our stupid politicians who think this is the best way of dealing with sexual offenders? In doing so, it is their abdication of judicial responsibility to deal with these predators. They expect us to deal with them instead of them. I have stated that from the get-go, yet, yet no one listens.

Tonight, I had to put out a tweet on Twitter.com and my Facebook.com page this entry: “My tears and anguish go out to Diena Thompson whose daughter Somer was killed by a child predator: http://tinyurl.com/yzw7g4a. Fry him!”

It is my sincere hope that you sit and listen to Diena Thompson openly grieve fully knowing that her beloved Somer will not come back to her again and murdered at the hands of a predator. Whose rights should we as a society be protecting? The rights of the victim(s) or the rights of the predator(s)?

Somer Thompson and children just like her namely Jessica Lunsford will not be coming back to their loved ones or to us and it is time we stand up for them. We as a society must demand of our politicos that if you sexually harm a child and are declared a level three sex offender, you are never getting out of prison. If you kill a child in the act of any sexual act, you will face the death penalty. It is the least we can do for those most innocent amongst us; our children.

So, I guess I am not pro-life from cradle-to-grave; but justice for the most innocent amongst us rings louder in my ears. I hope that you hear them too.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

Email sent to Suffolk Cty., NY politicians regarding mass transportation

2009-10-22T20:54:00.001-07:00

To My Elected Officials, October 22, 2009

At the bottom of this email to all of you, I will name all of you whom I elected to serve the people. I fully believe that transportation within Suffolk County, NY is key to getting people where they need to go. I am not speaking of cars or other forms of personal transportation, but mass transportation. First due to the economy, many cannot afford to own a vehicle, fill its tanks and pay for the insurance. How are they supposed to get from point A to point B? By bus? I invite all of you to look over the Suffolk County bus schedule and see if there are buses for you to take to your work or those who work for you.

As you will see, NO buses run on Sundays or after dark and people do work on Sundays and after 6 PM throughout the week. So, how are they supposed to get to and from work or shopping for that matter? This is where I wish that politicians would place themselves in our shoes for at least a week to see the burdens we face.

I can attest to the fact that being an epileptic who does not drive for medical reasons, being without personal transportation is akin to being a prisoner in one’s home. I am at the mercy of cabs for the most part and let me tell you as a cashier at Stop and Shop who makes $7.50 per hour the fare to my job costs $8 dollars per fare. Thankfully there is a bus that I can take, but it is not frequent enough and only costs me $1.50 to get there. However, it does take me ten-to-fifteen minutes to walk to my bus-stop and after being on my feet for hours, walking is the last thing I want to do.

If I am scheduled to work on a Sunday or at nights, I am out of luck and I am then at the mercy of Lindy’s Cab Company. How would you like a life like that? I have had friends and family say to me: “Call me if you need a ride” and while I am grateful, it is NOT their responsibility to get me to and from work. It is mine.

Do you finally get it now of the hardships we who do not drive for medical or economic reasons face? This is our world and welcome to it.

As a former political activist who routinely receives emails asking exorbitant amounts of moneys to donate to this campaign or that, it sickens me when I have to plead to all of you to help me get from point A to point B by bus. At times, I feel as if no one is listening to my pleas by only wish money sent to all of you in order to help you get elected or re-elected. Well my wallet is closed shut!

All I am asking or rather pleading for all of you to do is to help me and others like me get to work or shopping and liberate us from our prisons when we have no way of getting to where we want to go. That is what we elected all of you to do. It is time you serve we the people and not the other way around!

Sincerely,
Mary MacElveen

Email sent to:

Congressman, Tim Bishop
County Executive, Steve Levy
County Legislator, Dan Lasquadro
Councilwoman, Jane Bonner
Assemblyman, Marc Alessi
State Senator, Ken LaValle

An idea how to help the Clinton Global Initiative

2009-09-22T21:58:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
September 23, 2009

Tonight, I watched former President Bill Clinton on the Dave Letterman Show and he asked if anyone has an idea to help those most needy not only in our country, but the world. I was personally touched when he reached out to the audience not only in the studio, but those viewing the broadcast.

As a writer, I am going to let you into my personal life somewhat. A few weeks ago for very personal reasons, I found myself not able to provide food for my two children ages 19 and 17. I will not go into those reasons why, but tell you that a dear friend of mine who works for my local church availed me of their food pantry as well as ways of gaining employment. I was extremely thankful to her and the church as well. The food we ate that came from that pantry tasted like manna from Heaven.

Since then, I have gained employment at my local grocery store and I have come up with an idea to help the Clinton Global Initiative. Each time you go food shopping, pick up items that you can donate to your local food shelters and pantries instead of the junk food one can purchase while shopping.

With obesity being one of the main killers in our society, my suggestion would be is to pick up canned fruit, or fresh vegetables to donate to one’s food pantries or shelters. It does not have to be costly, but merely a substitute for the high-fat and high-calorie foods the poor of our society have been forced to purchase due to the low-price of fast food. Let us all help steer them towards a food pantry instead of McDonalds or Burger King.

Many within our United States congress have been obstructionists towards healthcare for all and simply by purchasing food items that are healthier for the poor to eat, we can change the healthcare system. Instead of the poor in our society having to eat a burger from one of these burger chains, they can gain sustenance from a box of pasta with the sauce that goes with it. Please make sure that the sauce is low in sodium content.

In working for a local grocery chain, there are many weeks we do have healthy food items on sale. All it takes is for you, the consumer to look in your flyers to help your fellow citizens. Instead of that bottle of soda, you can purchase a staple item that will fill the bellies of children within your neighborhood. As they eat it, they will be grateful to you even if they do not know who you are. I can personally attest to this.

I am truly thankful that David Letterman had on as his guest our former president, Bill Clinton to spread ideas of how we can help our fellow citizens as well as people all around the world. Now let us go out shopping to help those most needy around us.

Author’s email address is xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, no permission is needed, simply spread the word.

September 11th anniversary: We must realize wars without end is not the answer

2009-09-10T23:39:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
September 11, 2009

On both my Twitter page and my Facebook.com page, I wrote this entry concerning the of eighth-year anniversary of the September 11th, 2001 attacks upon this country: “With reverence to the victims who died on September 11, 2001, we must realize a war without end is not the answer!”

At this point, hearing or reading upon death upon death, I do not care what your belief of how so many died on that day. All I care of is how many took place because a government dropped the ball and how many lives were lost due to those circumstances. Each life lost on that day was precious and most importantly we must realize that fact.

According to Anti-War.com, they have listed every single name of one of OUR soldiers who have died since May 1st, 2003 in Iraq without bringing those who lost their lives in Afghanistan. As we concentrate on beefing up the forces in that country, many more will die as we have seen with increased military deaths in the past few months. We must NOT forget of the civilian deaths in both Afghanistan and Iraq. What crime did they commit to die by the hands of our country? Nothing!

As many have concentrated solely on military deaths, I have taken important notice of the civilian deaths, especially babies. I have seen their photos and it sickens me to death. I have seen the photos of our soldiers whose faces and bodies have been ripped to shreds realizing there is NO purpose to these endless wars. Oh God, stop these wars!

Last night as our President, Barack Obama was discussing healthcare before a joint congressional message to both houses of congress, a South Carolina congressman, Joe Wilson called him a liar when it came to the question of coverage for undocumented immigrants of this country. According to the AP, he shouted out with finger pointed: “You liar”. At that point, I wanted to smack him across the face! I still do as he was forced by the Republican leadership to apologize to the president.

It galls me that if someone had done the same thing and directed it at former President, George W. Bush, he or she would have been scorned for a life-time and thrown out of either the senate or congress. Most likely, he or she would have been branded un-patriotic and thrown into GITMO.

Here we have a president who is trying to save lives through better healthcare as opposed to a former president who lied through his teeth to end lives. I would call that unforgiveable.

Looking back and remembering that bright-sunny day where over 3,000 lives were lost: one of the most memorable visual imageries I will take away from that day is of how many leapt to their deaths from the Twin Towers or the first-responders who climbed their own stair ways to Heaven in order to save lives. We must not forget their selfless sacrifice to our country and their fellow human beings.

I fully believe that we who cherish life must own this day forever more instead of those who seek to destroy lives. The victims of that day would be screaming from the Heavens above for us to do so. After all, they know what it is like to lose their lives where we do not.

As many of our fellow citizens scream out for healthcare not only for themselves, but for others, we must remember how much money is being spent on wars without end. While some estimates say this new healthcare package will cost $900 billion over ten years, the wars without end have so far cost you and me, a little over $908 billion dollars and still climbing by the second.

Do we say to the victims of September 11, 2001: We do not care how you died, we only care of war, or do we say to them we for once will get this right? What is right after all? Till we blow each other to smithereens or till we finally get it that life is worth preserving?

Attacks to our country come in many forms and one of them is nature. Nature has taught us that if man does not strike, oh she will. These lessons can be learned from the hurricanes that struck us in Katrina, Rita and Gustav to the firestorms that have hit California lately. All of these events bring about terror to their victims and let us not forget about the costs of helping these victims.

In these events, we do not have any body or any group to target, but the lives lost are as equally important to those who died on September 11th, 2001. Perhaps, that is our lesson after all.

To those who lost loved ones on September 11th, my heart breaks for you. All who died on that horrific day are forever in my prayers as I oppose these wars without end. We have had enough people dying and it is time to say enough and to change the course of this country.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: To use portions of this column, please email the author.

Is protecting health insurance companies truly healthcare reform?

2009-09-09T10:11:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
September 9, 2009

We have all seen commercial ads for prescription drugs one can take for any number of ailments: such as taking Lipitor for one’s cholesterol and if I were an uninsured citizen of this country who suffers from high cholesterol, I would quite frankly see that ad as a tease. Oh sure, you can take this drug, but it is going to cost you. But before being prescribed this drug, one must see a doctor. Wait, without being covered and being able to see a doctor, one cannot get this drug.

Here is the latest Lipitor ad that is currently running on most stations? Is he simply an actor or someone that does suffer from high cholesterol? Regardless of who he is, still to produce that ad and air it costs money and more likely than not the cost of producing it trickles down to the price of the drug.

How many of us have gone to the doctor if we can afford it and say, “I want to be placed on this drug” instead of letting the doctor diagnose your ailment and prescribe the best course of treatment. Drug companies bank on you doing just that.

Just recently, Brookhaven Memorial Hospital began running ads on cable networks hoping that YOU will choose it should you need healthcare. It begs the question: If you do not have health insurance, just how are you going to afford to become their patient? If I were an uninsured person, it would be akin to a child looking through the window of a toy store knowing his or her parents could not afford said toy.

Ad-buys for drugs or hospitals cost money, so it should not be a total surprise to any of us why healthcare for all Americans is out of reach for the 47 million who presently are uninsured.

Here is an ad for Anthem-Blue Cross and I would love to know how much they spent in the making of that commercial which likely uses actors. How much did it cost them to buy ad-space on the television networks that carried it? Let us not forget the actors, since they are paid to appear in commercials. Do these ad-buys contribute to high premiums one must pay? You actually think the executives of these companies would eat the cost of making these commercials? Like any business, the cost is born by the customer.

Those politicos who are presently railing against the ‘public option’ or dare I say single-payer health care foresee competition between these health insurance companies as our best bet. Wait a gosh darn minute. In order to compete: Wouldn’t these companies need to advertise their rates and services by using commercial ad-buys?

In reading this article published today: How Much Do Television Ads Cost?, please take note of this passage: “It has been estimated that the average cost of producing a 30-second national TV commercial is nearly $350,000. But before you panic, understand that like any other form of advertising, a television commercial can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. Not surprisingly, the cost to produce the commercial goes up as the quality and complexity of the commercial increases.”

We have all heard of how much ads cost to run during the Super Bowl and will these health insurance companies run ads during them all in the name of competition? Instead of $350,000 going towards patient care and coverage, competition between health insurance companies will bring about an explosion in ad-buys.

I can almost hear the salivating of advertising agencies just ready to exploit this fraud perpetrated upon the people called, “Health insurance company based health reform”

One does have to wonder if cable and broadcast networks are almost banking on the competition between insurance companies as being their best bet to make money. Should this be the reform that will be shoved down our throats: How much will cable networks such as Fox, CNN, MSNBC and others like it make? How much will broadcast networks like ABC, CBS and NBC make as well? I can almost hear the CFOs of all just waiting for the big-bucks to roll on in.

The AFL-CIO just recently reported of claims being denied out in California and where they opined that these companies are the truth ‘death panels’. These health insurance companies are first and foremost businesses who rely on people buying their product. Your dollars are their life’s blood. Instead of paying a claim: How many of them have been advertising and please keep that $350,000 ad-buy rate in mind.

Named in their report was PacifiCare which: “denied 40 percent of all California claims.” Interestingly enough, I found this PacifiCare ad on YouTube.com. How many will purchase their healthcare product not knowing they have denied claims to Californians? More importantly: What chunk of the claims benefits denied went into the making of this ad?

I cannot understand how protecting insurance companies is our best bet when this news report on PacifiCare told how they dropped a man’s coverage, which cost him $60,000. He had to have a kidney removed which had a cancerous tumor on it.

I know free-market thinkers and believers just hate the term regulation, but we saw the damage done by banks who went for years unregulated. If this is the health reform package shoved down America’s throat that solely supports health insurance companies, then they need to be regulated.

As we watch the President’s speech on healthcare reform tonight, look out amongst the sea of faces who would rather protect insurance companies than providing healthcare for all Americans. There are 47 million Americans who are in dire need of healthcare who have been shut out of our present system.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

I know first-hand that Joe Kennedy serves the public good in heading Citizens Energy Corp.

2009-09-07T22:18:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
September 8, 2009

While I suspect many in the political arena were wishing to see the Kennedy legacy move forwards by seeing another Kennedy in the seat recently vacated by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, it was not to be. Today, the former congressman, Joe Kennedy decided not to run for the senate office held by his late uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Am I sad concerning his decision not to run for his uncle’s seat? Absolutely NOT!

Service to the public good can come in many forms and I do think that the former congressman found his niche. He has worked tirelessly through Citizens Energy Corp. to deliver low-cost energy to the poor and needy within the United States of America.

As some within this country castigate the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez by stating he hates America, let me say nothing can be farther from the truth. It is through President Chavez’s love for the poor that Joe Kennedy is able to help heat the homes of America’s poor and I have seen it first hand.

Through Citizens Energy Corp. they are able to deliver low-cost heating oil to the poor and needy so they do not put themselves in danger by heating their homes from an oven. They are able to do so through men like Joe Kennedy.

Back in December of 2005, I covered a story for VHeadline.com where CITGO delivered oil to the poor of the Bronx titled: From Venezuela's Heart help came to the Big Apple. Within that piece which touched me to the core of my soul, I was able to interview the Venezuelan Ambassador to the United States, Bernardo Alvarez as well as Congressman Jose Serrano. For a non-paid editorialist, it was an honor to interview them both as well as to get their take on why CITGO and the government of Venezuela was reaching out to America’s needy.

In that piece, I wrote: “We did not create America’s poor.” Opined by Ambassador Bernardo Alvarez and his feelings were reaffirmed when Congressman Jose Serrano said “America is not taking care of its own, and this should not be looked upon as a political motive.” Both were and still are correct as we have moved forwards.

On that bitterly-cold day, I witnessed first-hand, high powered politicians and corporate leaders in Felix Rodriguez (the CEO of CITGO) move mountains in order to deliver low-cost oil to those within this country. This oil is sold to the poor and needy at 40 percent below market price the last time I checked. It is sold to America’s poor with the approval of President Hugo Chavez so fewer Americans suffer through the fall and winter.

In these lean economic times, I want you to place yourself in the shoes of those most needy in this country as they try and heat their homes.

This is the work that Joe Kennedy has been doing to help the people of Massachusetts and without legislation to approve his works. He is able to cut through the red-tape in order to help those he serves. And he does so without having to raise campaign donations and endlessly campaign.

If anything I have learned through this oil program that serves the needy, is that his Dad, and two uncles are smiling down from the heavens above knowing that he has served the public good. He is doing more for the needy than I suspect any politician has for a long time. While many politicians give stump-speeches, he is out there with sleeves rolled up, so that Americans can stay warm in the colder months. How great is that?

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please contact the author.

President Obama welcomes children back to school: A speech every child should hear

2009-09-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
September 7, 2009

As a parent, I want to send a message out to other parents who may keep their children home tomorrow because President Obama will deliver a speech welcoming the country’s children back to school: You are failing your job as a parent. Keeping your children out of school in fear of what may be said by the president is sending the wrong message to your children. Basically what you are teaching them is if something is being presented in school you or they may not agree with, it is okay to skip school.

Our country’s children are expected to attend school each and everyday unless sick and to keep them out for this one speech which by the way I have read, you are aiding in their truancy. If you do keep them out, it should be noted they were absent on that day.

Any school district who fails to air the President’s speech to our country’s children, you as well are failing as educators. You are allowing your politics of fear to interfere with our children’s learning and/or you are listening to either Glenn Beck or Rush Limbaugh way too much.

Having been raised by a single-mother, if he complained about getting up early to learn extra lessons from her, President Obama’s mom would say: “This is no picnic for me either, buster." I do suspect other single-parents have had that same discussion with their children.

Knowing that our president has two young girls both he and the First Lady, Michelle Obama are successfully raising: do you think for one moment he would put your children in danger? Both Sasha and Malia are growing up in the public-eye and while that can be hard for children born to presidents or celebrities, and they are a delight to behold.

As many schools combat a high drop-out rates, this president’s message to every single one is to stay in school and to work hard. No subversive message there, but a message all children do need to hear.

President Obama reminds our school children that nothing is just given them in life and that they also must work hard. As many are addicted to reality TV, the President cites: “I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work -- that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.” I think that dose of real reality is something our children do need to hear.

Within the text of his speech he reminds children if they want to go on in life to fulfill their dreams of becoming a teacher, a scientist, a writer or even a politician, they must pay attention to certain classes they are taking and do their homework.

The President also cites that it is okay to fail, but to pick yourselves up and try, try again. One person he does use as an example is famed author, JK Rowling who wrote the Harry Potter series. Now she is richer than the Queen of England and she came from being on welfare.

It is important for each parent to read the full text of the President’s speech to see he is challenging our children to go on and live successful lives not only for themselves but our country. After reading his speech, if you as a parent are inclined to keep your child out of school, take a long look in the mirror and ask: Am I leaving my child behind?

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please contact the author.

Why are those without healthcare at town halls treated like Al Qaeda?

2009-09-03T22:12:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
September 4, 2009

I think that this will be one of the most brutal op-ed pieces written in the course of nine years. How I wish I had the power of Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow to deliver it, but I do not. But, here I go.

In watching the coverage of the town halls that primarily encompass the healthcare debate, I have seen the worst of America. We have always prided ourselves as the beacon of democracy where each voice IS supposedly valued. If I were a citizen of any other country looking in, I would frankly be horrified to see citizens of this great land of liberty shouting down others who share the same birthright. If I were a citizen of any other country who has healthcare for all, I would say to the United States of America: you just do not get it!

It takes GUTS to come to a town hall meeting to discuss any number of problems. In order to come to any town hall to discuss one’s personal problems such as the lack of healthcare, one must reach down deep inside to summon their courage to air this specific grievance. It takes a spine made of steel in order to do so and to somehow placate yourself in front of an elected official and those gathered.

When one is rebuffed by an elected official or the head of the RNC, Michael Steele for not having healthcare coverage, they are treated as if they are Al Qaeda or the Taliban. There, I have said it. Yes, they are treated as if THEY are the enemy of America where in fact those who are complicit with the status quo are indeed the enemy. They have accepted the notion that health insurance companies raking in the dough with giving little back to those they are supposed to cover as being the best this country can offer.

As these nut-jobs, birthers, tin-foil hatters look out to their neighborhoods seeing foreclosed home upon foreclosed home, they should really ask of themselves: How many of these foreclosures occurred because a person lacked health insurance. They must ask, how many of these foreclosures brought down the value of their homes? Something to think about, folks.

Getting back to Al Qaeda and the Taliban, to those who rebuff those without healthcare, you allowed for a previous president to lie this country into wars without end. So far these wars have cost the American people close to $1 trillion dollars. Imagine if that money could have been used to fund healthcare for every man, woman and child in this country? There would be no fear of your fellow American for going to the doctor for the slightest of ailments. Gee, they could actually take their child for an immunization shot.

In the past, I have written of Venezuela’s and Cuba’s healthcare and have praised them both. Each of those countries have not invaded another country using up their fiscal reserves, but chose to use their reserves on their citizen’s healthcare needs. I have been called every name in the book in doing so. Names such as communist, pinko-liberal and socialist. Let it be so. But, as I have spoken out on healthcare for all Americans, I pride myself as an American patriot first and foremost. I am sick and tired of hearing of my fellow citizens suffering because they have NO health insurance coverage. Any of us are just a heart beat away from being one of the uninsured and that is something we must all pay attention to.

As we pride ourselves a constitutional democracy, I want to point out to you that the Constitution of Venezuela specifically mentions their citizens rights to full healthcare in articles 83 through 85. Why can’t ours? Hmm, could it be the health insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies having their grip on our politicians? Oh, you betcha as Sarah Palin used to say.

I wish to God I knew why those without health insurance are treated like Al Qaeda in these town hall meetings. Can’t Americans feel any compassion towards their fellow citizens anymore? Evidence throughout this summer proves NO!

It is my sincere hope that President Barack Obama delivers a speech next week in front of both houses of congress telling them each American gets coverage and their pockets be damned. It is my hope that he hears his mom who suffered from cancer and had to fight for healthcare coverage up until she died. It is my hope that he says to them that healthcare is an inherent American birthright and to deal with it. I for one am sick of my fellow Americans without health insurance being treated like Al Qaeda. They are human beings for God sake!

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

How many times do I have to say, Megan’s Law does not work?

2009-08-31T23:48:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
September 1, 2009

In a previous article where I lashed out at Bill O’Reilly of Fox News who opined this of the Shawn Hornbeck case: “You know the Stockholm syndrome thing, I don't buy it, I never bought it, I don't think it happened in the Patty Hearst Case. I don't think it happened here." One must ask what O’Reilly thinks of the present case before us where, Phillip Garrido allegedly kidnapped and raped Jaycee Lee Dugard over an eighteen year period, thereby producing two children from Dugard. I only say allegedly because the case against him has not been proven by a court of law where he has been convicted.

With no opinion coming from O’Reilly that I have heard, I will leave that aside, but broach a larger issue: Does releasing sex offenders from prison actually protect us as a society? I have written of this subject for years-and-years and have come to the opinion, the answer is an emphatic NO!

For eighteen years, Jaycee was held captive and where society did not come to her rescue. A monster by all definitions, kidnapped her, raped her and produced two offspring by her and it happened in plain sight. He should not have been released on parole to re-enter society especially when a former rape victim of his appeared on Larry King Live tonight. To hear her story, he was a threat to all women and now we learn a threat towards children.

Now police and FBI are investigating if he was tied to the deaths of other women and children? How this monster was released from prison in the first place, is something I cannot comprehend.

I have written editorials in the past challenging the effectiveness of Megan’s Law and according to Wikipedia came across this opinion: “A December 2008 study by Kristen Zgoba Ph.D., Philip Witt Ph.D., Melissa Dalessandro M.S.W., and Bonita Veysey Ph.D. found that Megan’s Law has no effect on community tenure (i.e., time to first re-arrest), showed no demonstrable effect in reducing sexual re-offenses, has no effect on the type of sexual re-offense or first time sexual offense (still largely child molestation/incest), and has no effect on reducing the number of victims involved in sexual offenses.” I fully concur as I have addressed this one issue for close to two decades.

In the same state, California where Jaycee was kidnapped and held prisoner for eighteen years, you will be alarmed to read this 2003 article published on SignOnSanDiego.com which reported: “The data show that the state does not know the whereabouts of at least 33,296 sex offenders, or 44 percent of the 76,350 who registered at least once. Many of these ex-cons haven't been heard from since.” I once reported of this high number on my former blog which is no longer online.

You will be shocked to read: "No one knows how many of these missing sex offenders have struck again. But nationally, 52 percent of rapists are arrested for new crimes within three years of leaving prison, according to the U.S. Justice Department." The question begs: Why aren't sentences longer if not life for these heinous crimes instead of releasing them back into the community? We are simply not prepared as a society to deal with these predator/monsters. The reason is that those who commit these heinous crimes will often do it again. Rape especially the rape of a child has a high recidivist rate. I cannot fathom how they are released back into society.

When they are released and I have addressed this as well: What training do we as a society have in order to deal with these predators? No one saw the signs that Jaycee was being held captive. As I have said before and for years, it is the judicial system's abdication of their responsibility to protect society, namely our children.

I am thankful that Jaycee was found alive along with her two children and they will need years of therapy and at present deprogramming to recover from the years of abuse at the hands of the Garrido’s. Let us not forget, he along with his wife Nancy held these children prisoners yet no one picked up on it. Both the judicial system and society failed these children.

As I have written of in earlier pieces, there are children who have been murdered at the hands of registered sex offenders. So, what good is Megan’s Law any way when children have been raped and killed at the hands of these monsters?

One case that had the hairs standing up in the back of my neck was the case of Jessica Marie Lunsford; a nine year-old girl killed at the hands of a registered sex offender, John Evander Couey. I cannot even fathom her last moments on Earth as this monster raped her and then killed her. Talk about the ultimate terror.

In reading where, "Police found the body of Jessica Lunsford buried in a shallow grave under the back porch of a mobile home less than 150 yards from her home on March 18, 2005, a day after a convicted sex offender told authorities that he had killed the nine-year-old." when it happened, I was sickened beyond belief and angry at our judicial system for allowing such a monster out of prison, only to kill this precious child. This could have very well been Jaycee. There are others like Lunsford killed at the hands of registered and convicted sex offenders, yet it boggles the mind that they walk amongst us to target children.

In society, people think that having sex offenders registered is the answer and if anything this latest case where no one picked up on the fact that children were being held against their will proved no one was paying attention.

I would like to ask my readers, whom amongst you actually go searching on the Internet for pedophiles living in your area? Whom among you actually read post cards mailed to you by your school districts alerting you who is a registered sex offender in your community? If you have not, this case should not horrify you since you too have not been paying attention.

How many more victims like Jaycee are being held against their will in our communities till we finally get it that Megan’s law and early release of sexual predators is NOT the answer? If a predator is convicted of rape, especially the rape of a child, they should be locked up for life. No, ifs ands or buts. Let the prison system take care of them since the community where Jaycee was being held against her will failed her.

In closing, it is my hope that Jaycee heals as well as her children. I wish them a peaceful life since they fully deserve it. I would like to thank the two officers who did pay attention and finally rescued them from their hell on Earth.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

Good bye, Senator Edward M. Kennedy: Be at peace and rest

2009-08-29T22:08:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
August 30, 2009

Last year after attending a friend’s funeral, I wrote a personal narrative of the end of his life’s story to be shared with friends and the family left behind. In part, I wrote: “if the amount of people showing up for one's funeral was truly a measurement of how they loved and affected so many, Tim's funeral tipped the scales. The church was filled with so many people that came to know Tim and came to know his love for all of us. In his short life, he touched so many with his larger than life persona and I feel truly blessed to be one amongst so many.”

While my friend died at the age of 50 and Senator Edward M. Kennedy died at the age of 77, both men loved life fiercely and were larger than life. As the media interviewed those who knew Kennedy, they spoke of his thunderous laugh, my friend Tim also had a similar laugh.

In watching the full coverage via MSNBC where Senator Kennedy’s casket moved from Hyannis Port to the JFK Library, the throngs of people who came to show their respect for him truly was remarkable. As they gathered on the streets of Hyannis, the highways to Boston and the city streets of Boston, it was breath taking. I sat fixated watching the mournful and thankful faces of those he served so well. To see them lined up three-deep to wait for hours to say their final good byes, their thanks and say their final prayers, it was riveting.

In between meeting up again with past members of his family who went before him, I am most assured he was smiling down from the heavens above. One can almost hear his befallen brothers, Joe, Jack and Bobby saying: “You fulfilled your destiny in the service of mankind. Now rest my brother.”

To hear the different stories told at his Irish wake of a public memorial service where we got to know more about Teddy was simply remarkable and where we gained an insight into his personal life in the senate. I have to say that my favorite testimonial came from Senator Orrin Hatch. In a time of grief and mourning his brought thunderous laugh. Being Irish myself, it is the very make up of an Irish wake.

I did not know that the funeral mass would be televised, but I am thankful to whoever decided it should be. My guess it was the Kennedy family itself. We who loved him also got to attend it from afar. I truly believe that as it rained, they were tears of a nation pouring down on the city of Boston, a city he so loved. To see throngs of people gathered in that working class neighborhood who could not view the mass, but came none the less was a tribute to his life’s work on behalf of the poor and powerless.

As Teddy Kennedy Jr. recounted his amputation due to leg cancer, I do remember writing him at that time how sorry I was and my hopes for his quick recovery. I cried when he brought that up for another reason than the one he so beautifully expressed. After writing that note to him, I received one back from Teddy Kennedy Jr. thanking me in his personal handwriting. As a young teenager, I was simply floored and humbled that he took the time out to write me. It became my connection to the Kennedy family and how I wish I could find that note today. Even without the tangible proof in hand, it is the very memory of opening up that letter to me, I will take with me as I live out the rest of my days.

I thought that would be the last viewing of his final send off into the heavens above, but was awestruck as his coffin made a stop in front of The Capitol. To see so many people standing patiently to say their final good bye was a tribute to a great man. A man who was much larger than politics itself, but a man of the people. To hear them cheer and clap and say thank you is a testament to such a leader.

As he made his way to be in the company of his brothers, Jack and Bobby, it was suitable it happened as the sun set and where cameras could not capture each and every moment of a family’s good bye to a dearly departed. After all, burial services are more for the family. Perhaps after decades of losing family members, they needed their privacy to grieve without the American people being a part of it. This family after all gave so much to us.

In viewing all of the ceremonies that paid tribute to such a wonderful man and leader, I gathered my children for the most important parts. I felt it was history and remembered how Senator Kennedy’s niece Caroline stated he was now a part of history.

While an empty hole has been left in the senate, it is my hope that the other 99 senators take into account the thousands and thousands who came out on days that were hot and humid to a day filled with torrential rainfall to know how one man touched a people. It is my hope they can ask of themselves will that many show up for my funeral should I die quickly or after a lengthy illness?

Here is my personal opinion, if consistently saying no to getting the people’s business done such as health care for every single American citizen, the answer will be no. Do what Teddy did, get what you can now to cover some and keep on coming back to include more and more until each and every American is covered. After all, through our taxes each and every one of you are covered.

In closing, my heart aches tonight as Senator Edward M. Kennedy has left us all. I sat transfixed to listen to each and every account of his life by so many including the President of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, his family, friends, colleagues in the senate and local government. If I could add to the mix, I would say thank you on behalf of a grateful nation, Senator Kennedy. You did good! As a New Yorker, you were my senator. Be at peace and rest.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Hear the Liberal lion’s roar and get healthcare passed

2009-08-28T12:29:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
August 28, 2009

While some conservatives are crying foul that people will exploit the passing of a great senator in Senator Edward M. Kennedy. In my humble opinion we who believed as he did that every person mattered in this country are celebrating his beliefs. Yes, his liberal beliefs.

To these conservatives: are we to drop his charge to us all to finally deliver healthcare for each and every American? Nonsense I say. Note to conservative Americans, Senator Ted Kennedy even wanted you to benefit, so you would never have to worry about going to the doctor, being hospitalized or taking your next dose of medicine.

Senator Kennedy along with Senator Orin Hatch even sponsored the SCHIP program to insure America’s children, including those born to conservatives. It was none-other than former President George W. Bush who vetoed its expansion. Coming to the aid of America’s children was President Barack Obama who signed it into law.

If you are a poor conservative whose child is covered under this program, you have Senator Ted Kennedy to thank.

To conservatives who believe that a government run healthcare system would include a ‘death panel’, again, I say nonsense. Just look at how private insurance agencies who profit will at times deny claim benefits to realize that they are truly the active ‘death panel’.

Question to be asked is: How many Americans who are presently covered by private insurers have died when their coverage does not pay for their needed care? Many CEOs of these private insurance companies make millions of dollars per-year.

Sean Hannity warned: “Remember Paul Wellstone's death? You know, 'Let's do everything for Paul.' And we're now being implored to get behind Obamacare because it's what Ted Kennedy would have wanted,” First of all when Wellstone died, it was a different time with conservative Republicans in charge. So there was very little any of us who believed like Paul did could do at that time. We were simply outnumbered and out of power.

Today, it is a different story and yes elections have consequences which means that the Republicans were rejected in the past election. Americans wanted a new course and it is up to our Democratic leaders to deliver, even if it means going it alone. Make the case to the American people. 47 million Americans who presently go without are depending upon such leadership.

Senator Ted Kennedy's life-long passion while serving in the senate was healthcare for everyone, but I do not remember him using the term 'Obamacare'. He was championing this cause when the president was a child.

The late senator was often referred to as the 'Liberal-lion' of the senate and lions are not timid. I do not think he would think less of anyone pushing his dream forward to finally deliver healthcare for all Americans in the wake of his death. I do not think he would think this final push to get it done as politicizing his death. The roar of the lion screams out to all of us to put the spines back in our back and to confront these racist fear mongers at these divisive town hall meetings.

In the below piece I wrote after Senator Paul Wellstone's death, I wrote: "If you are a liberal, stand up and proudly say, "Yes I am! So what?" Paul did." Let us go forward to help realize the senator's dream and make it our reality. The vulnerable of this country are dependent on we liberals to do so.

To Senator Edward M. Kennedy, I want to thank you for 47 years of service to God and country. It will be hard to find another senator like you, but then again, no one can fill the big shoes you left behind. All they can do is to measure up and lead a charge that all Americans deserve quality healthcare.

I will leave you to read my celebratory piece written after the death of Senator Paul Wellstone who too was one of America’s greatest senators in our lifetime. It is my hope that you see a similarity between the two late and great senators.

The Night We Celebrated Liberalism: The Paul Wellstone Legacy Ignited
By Mary MacElveen
Oct 31, 2002

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines a liberal as "one who is open-minded or not strict in the observance of orthodox, traditional, or established forms or ways," and "an advocate or adherent of liberalism especially in individual rights."

Synonyms for liberal listed in the Merriam Webster Thesaurus include: free, generous, munificent, openhanded, and unsparing. They cite these related words: advanced, broad-minded, progressive, radical, tolerant, exuberant, prodigal, benevolent, charitable, and philanthropic.

Here are some of the contrasted words listed: rigid, miserly, stingy, tight, tightfisted; meager, scanty, dictatorial, doctrinaire, dogmatic, oracular; conservative and reactionary.

For far too long, we in the Democratic Party have lost our way. We have forgotten our roots. I hope that through the death of Senator Paul Wellstone, his wife, his daughter, and staffers, we find our way back to our core beliefs. If we truly love Senator Wellstone's political and more importantly his personal beliefs, then we owe it to him and his memory to carry on the torch of liberalism, with our heads held high. That is what he and other liberal leaders such as John F. Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr. would have expected us to do.

In many campaigns our candidates are vilified for being liberals, and frankly this tactic is where we have to grab the bull by the horns and connect with everyone out there, that being a liberal is not a bad thing. It's something to be celebrated and embraced. After all, the term liberal comes from the root word liberty. Something that has been lost in this country for a very long time. Liberty for every man, woman and child. No matter, their walk or way of life.

When Senator Tom Harkin shouted over and over to the thousands gathered at Senator Wellstone's memorial service, that Paul was a real "DFL liberal" The emphasis was on liberal. And by his statement it was a badge of honor to be worn and celebrated. He kept chanting on and on and with more reverberation coming from the thousands there, liberal became, LIBERAL!

That to me, is what Senator Paul Wellstone's true legacy is all about.Senator Wellstone's definition of liberal is where everyone matters. He refuted the big money and political influence in Washington and back home in Minnesota, and in this day and age, that is something to be celebrated not vilified by those who choose to do so.

Living in New York, I can tell you that Senator Wellstone was my senator too. Because the votes he cast in the senate were representative of my beliefs, and championed the liberal cause. When people are elected to the office of senate, their constituents are from all walks of life and from every corner of this great land of ours.

Yes, even conservative senators are your senators as well, because their votes effect the direction that this country will go. When a vote by them goes against yours, it is up to you to contact them, and demand better leadership. Liberal leadership.

Senator Wellstone would have challenged all of us to do so. We are the people, and our power does matter. That was his legacy. The powerless over the powerful. Perhaps with Paul's heavenly guidance, we the people can become the powerful and take back our country from those who have polluted our American way.

When the numerous speakers talked about his life, and the life of his wife, daughter and staffers, they did so eloquently and joyously. Paul and those that perished on that flight were shown for who they truly were. They were champions of the people. We must never forget that. They were not the villains’ as those on the right wing would have us believe. They were you and me. Raising our children, working within our communities, coaching wrestling teams, cheering their children on at soccer matches, going to work and being upstanding citizens in our country. Isn't that what America is all about? Leading good and productive lives even in the face of adversity?Paul most certainly did and died with his liberal beliefs intact -- not compromised. That is to be celebrated, and one we must not run from even in the face of adversity. If you are a liberal, stand up and proudly say, "Yes I am! So what?" Paul did.

It is up to all of us in these last days of this election to reclaim the true meaning of liberalism and honor Paul by doing so. We must do so for Paul and the countless people within our country who have not been represented in Washington.

As I watched the broadcast, there to be seen were many notable Democrats present, such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al and Tipper Gore, Tom Daschle, Terry McAuliffe, Edward Kennedy and many more. But, the camera also caught the many faces of those less notable, and the very people Paul represented to the best of his ability. People like you and me.

Senator Wellstone, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for being here, leading us and truly doing God's work here on Earth. You truly listened. I think had God been a senator, he would have been a liberal one at that.Let’s do it for Paul!

Author’s email address is xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

I cannot forgive, Michael Vick who profited off of death

2009-08-15T23:36:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
August 16, 2009

Like man’s best friend, I have been known through my many columns to stick to a subject akin to a dog chewing on an old bone. I do so because an issue has reached out to me and I just cannot let it go.

With that said, one person who read my article concerning the Philadelphia Flyers signing Michael Vick wrote this email to me: “I understand your feelings for the lives of the animals. But Vick did not kill a human being. God says, "Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone". If God forgives you & I, why can't you forgive Michael Vick? It has been said that "dog is man's best friend", but believe that "man should be man's best friend". What do you think about the dog pounds that kill animals everyday?”

So, in this subsequent column, I would like to reach out to this reader and commenter. No, Vick did not kill a human being, but he still bank-rolled the killing of one of God’s creatures through dog-fighting and for that, I cannot forgive him in watching feed-after-feed of this horrendous blood-sport if one can call it a sport. To me, it is inhumane torture at its finest and worst.

While I may have my own sins to contend with, I have never, ever killed another human being or animal. Nor have I profited off of the killing of human being and animal alike.

Throughout history, man has failed at being man’s best friend either through greed, war, lust and other examples to numerous to list.

I cannot forgive anyone who profits off of the deaths of both man and animal alike and that has been my stance throughout these years as I have written of war. If I can call Bush a butcher for the senseless killings of innocent human beings, namely Iraqis, I can surely call Vick one for the senseless killings of dogs. To me, both profited off of death. I have seen the flesh ripped off of both human and animal alike and it sickens me to death.

The reader asked of me: “What do you think about the dog pounds that kill animals everyday?” My first response is that you cannot even compare the two. In these harsh economic times, many people facing foreclosure are forced to sign their pets over to various shelters and pounds and due to budgetary reasons, many of these shelters just cannot house them and care for them. So, they are forced to humanely euthanize them. It is a painless procedure as opposed to dog-fighting where these dogs are trained by their handlers to rip the flesh off of each other. All of which causes pain, suffering and more importantly, death. How exactly does one forgive that?

Had Vick been part of any other profession, he would have been ostracized by the community and business world. But because he is a foot ball player where he does have the ability to bring in millions to the Philadelphia Eagles, I feel he is being treated far differently.

As days, weeks, months, and years go by, I feel that people will forget how Vick brought pain and suffering towards innocent animals and will cheer him on. In speaking to a friend today, he bluntly said to me, Vick should be put into the bloody-pit and forced to suffer as these animals did. In earshot was another friend who does own a pit bull and he is angered as well.

To the original commenter and the rest of my readers, I ask that you view this most graphic feed, The Horrors of Dog Fighting. This is exactly the world that Michael Vick bank rolled and for anyone to ask me to forgive him is something I cannot do. Nor should you.

Lastly, if you see evidence of dog fighting within your community, I ask that you call your local police department as well as your local human society. Let us help put an end to the suffering of these animals. As dogs have been called man’s best friend, let us be their best friend as well and come to their aid.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

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Shame on Philadelphia Eagles: Many pit bulls used in dog fights do not get a second chance

2009-08-14T07:44:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
August 14, 2009

Animals like children are the most innocent amongst us and I for the life of me cannot understand how the Philadelphia Eagles have agreed to sign on Michael Vick who bank rolled dog-fights.

According to CNN: Eagles starting quarterback Donovan McNabb stated: “I pretty much lobbied to get him here… Because everybody deserves a second chance." Well, McNabb, dogs who are forced to take part in these fights, most do not get a second chance as they are killed within the bloody-pit. When they are trained from puppyhood to fight in these pits, any chance of living a loving life is obliterated. And, if they are rescued, some do need to be humanely euthanized. The reason is that they are badly wounded or where they cannot be rehabbed and placed up for adoption. Where is the second chance for these dogs? It is gone as the needle goes into their veins and potassium chloride drips into their body, thereby stopping their hearts. An animal heart who only wanted affection and to give it back to a trusting owner.

While pit bulls are the dog of choice for these dog-fights, their breed has been tarnished over the years due to these fights. Most think they are aggressive from birth and that is simply not the case. Pit bulls are a loving breed and a wonderful addition to any family setting and are great with children.

According to the Pit Bull Rescue Center: “When you adopt a pit bull, you adopt the most energetic, intelligent, and loyal friend you’ll ever have, but you also take up a responsibility to represent the entire breed.” They go onto say: “Adopting a pit bull, loving it, and training it as a breed ambassador are the most important things any of us civilians can do to combat people like Vick.”

Because of these fights and people’s misinformation of the breed, many communities across the United States have banned the ownership of these dogs. Perhaps if these communities opened up their eyes and learned of the breed, hearts and minds would be changed.

While there have been incidents of mauling, blame the owners and not the breed in its entirety.

There are several pit bulls within my community and upon approaching them, all they want is love. Their mouths are used for licking instead of biting and fighting. It is a tribute to their breed and their owners.

As a fan of “Animal Planet”, especially any of their shows such as “Animal Precinct” where animals are rescued from such horrid conditions, often you will see pit bulls rescued. To see their open wounds, one can feel their pain. To look into their eyes, one can see their feeling of being betrayed. Michael Vick betrayed man’s best friend and does not deserve a second chance.

Yes, I realize that this is a money-making business where he may add to the coffers of the Eagles, but I am sure there is a high school or college football player whose star is on the rise who deserves to be signed. Oh, and where fans can be proud of cheering for him as he runs out onto the field. If I were a season-ticket-holder, I would ask for my money back. Any company that bankrolls their operations or advertizes with them should be boycotted for also betraying man’s best friend.

While Philadelphia is known as the city of brotherly love, its football team, the Eagles have failed to live up to it. The Eagles in signing Vick turned its back on the suffering of animals, namely pit bulls.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove were the ultimate ‘death panel’

2009-08-13T11:08:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
August 13, 2009

So, the GOP is doing a bang-up job at scaring people off of healthcare reform by stating it would include a ‘death panel’. I guess they want to scare grandma and grandpa. Aren’t seniors already scared enough with some forced to choose between eating and taking their meds? If that is not terror, I do not know what else is.

A man by the name of Jim Brennan from Rocky Point, NY wrote a letter to the editor of Newsday directing his aim at Sarah Palin’s claim that such a ‘death panel’ would be included in the President’s healthcare plan:

For Sarah Palin to suggest that President Barack Obama's health care plan will employ a "death panel" to ration care to the sick, elderly and disabled is a blatant lie ["Palin calls health panel evil," News, Aug. 8].

This claim is thrown into the mix of what could be a useful discussion of the sorry state of health care.

Jim Brennan

I adore when ordinary citizens take the time to call people a liar when needed and for a newspaper to actually publish their letter. Once again, Palin is playing on people’s fears and shame on her. She did so during the past presidential race by stoking up the fires of hate and playing ‘Tinderbox’ politics. Yet, she does have an impressive following who are all too ready to believe a liar. Is she trying to compare the President’s healthcare plan to Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’? I think so. Again, ‘Tinderbox’ politics at its best and worst.

We see these angry mobs showing up at various healthcare town-halls and I have to liken them to the same angry mobs that shut down the 2000 presidential recount in Florida.

To those who believe in this ‘death panel’ the true death panel were assembled when the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and Rove team chose to invade Iraq killing innocent victims. They were the ones to truly practice Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’ with the use of fire power that left their cities demolished and through the use of depleted uranium and white phosphorus. Just ask the citizens of Fallujah.

Over the years since the start of the war in Iraq, I have seen death through photos and feeds. They are nightmarish and yet, I want to know where were these angry mobs when proof was found that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld and Rove lied? Where exactly were the town-hall meetings when it was found we were all lied to by these merchants of death? Their silence was truly deafening.

Every soldier who has given his life and every innocent Iraqi who lost theirs and labeled collateral damage, the onus is on all of us as a country. Blood is truly on all of our hands. Many did stand up to the Bush administration and were summarily ignored. Now these hecklers think they deserve a voice? Where were they as we protested this holocaust?

I will say it again, just before Bush gave the go ahead to launch “Shock and Awe” the late Pope, John Paul II stated, “You go without God” He knew all too well that death would occur as the bombs rained down on the city of Baghdad.

George Galloway had this to say as he appeared before the oil for food scandal and tore into former Senator Norm Coleman (Republican) from Minnesota.

"I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims, did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.

"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies”

On that day, May 17th, 2005, George Galloway became my hero for speaking truth to power.

I will leave you with this feed which I included in a past piece written for VHeadline.com titled: Why are they not in front of their cameras calling Bush a butcher? Where I wrote:
I first want to thank Mark Parent and LiveJournal.com for bringing this video feed to the attention of many (English Version from Italian TV): US Chemical Weapons Attack on Iraqi Civilians.

But before you watch this video which is 27 minutes in length, I want to strongly caution you that what you are about to see is so horrific and if you have children, under no circumstances are they to view this feed.

Then ask yourselves after watching it if you can: Wasn’t Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rove the ultimate ‘death panel’? This is what your hard-earned tax dollars paid for. One trillion dollars to end life instead of preserving it.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Hecklers at town-halls are a selfish bunch as people die without healthcare

2009-08-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
August 12, 2009

As I view these servile town-hall protests where the topic de-jur is healthcare, some have become bellicose in their actions and words. They will disrupt the proceedings and I find it unconscionable to say the least. First of all, they who are doing the disrupting are a selfish lot and I would love to ask them this question: Do you have health insurance? As you bloviate citing that the President wants to kill off seniors which is patently false, I want to bring to your attention that people are dying without healthcare. Oh yes and that includes seniors.

According to SeniorJournal.com, only half were being screened for colorectal cancer which has taken the lives of many and the reason for the other half not being screened is due to lack of insurance.

Pay close attention to this passage within the article: "Colorectal cancer is one of the leading cancer killers in the United States, behind only lung cancer. Screening has been shown to significantly reduce mortality from colorectal cancer, but a lot of people are still not getting screened," said Jean A. Shapiro, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).” Shapiro also stated: a major problem appears to be insurance coverage.”

I would have to opine those who died because they could not be screened is the reason they are dead in the first place and they will continue to die unless they are covered. President Obama did not kill them: Our country’s lack of affordable health care did.

I would love to know the opinions of those who have died due to lack of medical insurance are thinking right at this very moment as these hecklers shut down these town-halls. Oh wait, I cannot due to the fact they are DEAD!

As I read this KTAR.com article which was published on April 8th, 2008, they cited where one quarter of Arizona residents DO NOT have health insurance. That is a staggering number.

As one reads this passage: "In the period 2000 to 2006, we estimate that more than 3,500 people died because of a lack of health insurance coverage," said Ron Pollack with the advocacy group." Um, who was in charge during those years? Oh yes, the Republicans. So, 3,500 of our fellow citizens died on their watch. That is roughly the same number that died on September 11th, 2001. Yet, their cries from the grave still go unheard because hecklers at town-halls refuse to be their advocates.

I would love to know where Senator John McCain's voice was when this article cited: "In Arizona, in 2006, approximately 720 people died due to a lack of health insurance." He is after all still their senator. Also that was the last year that the Republicans controlled this country's agenda. 720 call out from the grave asking, why they had to die in the land of plenty.

In reading this beautifully worded op-ed piece by Marianne Wright-Edelman titled: "Children Dying, Lacking Healthcare" tears came to my eyes as she wrote, "How did America get to the point where Deamonte Driver, a seventh grader in Prince George's County, Maryland, died because he didn't have health insurance to cover an $80 tooth extraction and his mother couldn't find a dentist to treat him?" I would love to shove this article in the faces of those bellicose hecklers.

Many children of course died when President Bush vetoed the SCHIP program. Thankfully coming to the rescue of these children left behind was, President Barack Obama as he signed it into law.

As these hecklers and their backers cite the cost of healthcare reform, the total cost of Deamonte’s was $250 thousand dollars as opposed to the original cost of an $80 tooth extraction. What should be frustrating to all is that he died.

I am sick of hearing folks like Limbaugh and Dobbs bloviate out of their pie-holes as children have died, seniors have died and over three thousand citizens of Arizona. I am most assured that there are stories equally maddening and saddening out there where people have died and could have been saved. They are the ones who we all should be listening to now, instead of hecklers.

To anyone distorting the facts, disrupting civil proceedings at these town-halls, give it a rest as your fellow citizens are dying from a lack of accessible healthcare.

We have always prided ourselves as a can-do-nation, but we seem utterly pathetic and weak in passing this healthcare reform. We are showing our soft-underbellies to those countries we have chided in the past and present who do provide healthcare which is a most basic human right for their citizens.

At least Deamonte Driver would not have died in Cuba as one reads: “where 9,877 dentists serve 11 million people (a ratio of approximately 1:1,100). The clinics care for an average of 700 to 900 local residents from cradle to grave. They provide annual dental examinations for all Cubans (twice annually for those under four years old or over 60), pre- and postnatal infant oral health instruction, and 16 annual fluoride mouth rinse treatments for all school-age children.” For a small island-nation who we have basically turned our backs on through the Cuban embargo, I would say they are doing an outstanding job in caring for their citizens especially the most innocent; their children and seniors.

Oops, did I forget to mention: At least Cuba did not illegally invade a country, namely Iraq which has cost us $1 trillion dollars. Imagine how many lives we could have saved in this country? Talk about sticker-shock brought to us all by a government controlled by the GOP.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

Remembering simpler times as mailboxes and pay phones leave our sight

2009-08-04T09:12:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
August 4, 2009

I want to shout BRAVO to those in Otisfield, Maine who are trying to save one mailbox. I feel as if they are guardians of simpler times where life made sense. Many of these mailboxes are disappearing as the article states because people are choosing to pay bills online and email. While convenient to many these actions are one of solitude where people do not have to leave their home and I find that incredibly sad.

As people choose to pay bills online or email, lost is human contact when one reads of post offices being closed. As one met up with friends at their local post office, they would stop and take a minute out of their day to shoot the breeze.

I never thought I would ever say this, but it used to be where bills were mailed. My mom would sit at the dining-room table doing the bills, placing each one in an envelope along with the payment as she reached for her book of stamps. I still remember her saying, “Bills, bills, bills, bills, bills” She would then ask one of us to walk the pile of bills up to our mailbox. While this lone action may seem foreign to today’s youth: We who lived in simpler times were getting exercise and fresh air by walking to that mailbox. While we may have grumbled being asked to do this one chore, at least we felt as if we were contributing to the family-unit. As we walked back home, we often met up with a friend or two and stayed out and played. Life was good.

In dropping either bills or personal letters actually written into that solid-mailbox, we felt secure they would get to their final destination. While paying a bill online is convenient, we have often heard of web sites being hacked into and an increase in identity theft. We who grew up in simpler times just never heard the terms ‘hacked’ or ‘identity-theft’ and I feel that to be a positive.

As people choose email over snail-mail, the art of letter writing has died off where many of our children do not even know how to formulate a sentence. In fact computer language has turned up in many a term paper. Has technology made us lazy?

As the article cites these mailboxes are going the way of the pay phone. The only ones I know of are in the supermarkets I choose to do my shopping in. I still remember the days of the phone booth where one can sit within it, close the door and have a little privacy when making that call. There used to be two at the local candy store which was just up the block from me. Just thinking of those phone booths brings back memories of simpler times. Back in the day, there was no texting. My friends and I would simply meet up at this candy store to talk to each other face-to-face and have an ice cream soda or buy a piece of penny-candy. How I wish our kids today had them.

Through the disappearance of phone booths, we are confronted with noise pollution when we are forced to hear other people’s conversations in public through the use of their cell phones. No, I really do not want to hear of the hot time you had last night which did happen to me as I sat waiting for a cab. In listening to every single detail, I felt the need to take a long hot shower when I got home. Yuk!

We are also confronted with accidents occurring when people choose to use their cell phones while driving. I often wonder is the price of making that one call worth the life of another? I would have to say, thank goodness for hands free components and remind all that holding one’s cell is against the law while driving.

In handling the receiver of a pay phone and dropping money into it, we knew the person on the other end could hear us now. Rarely were our calls disconnected as cell phone calls can drop. A solid machine for solid times.

People today feel the need to be connected second-by-second by using cell phones, yet if a phone company wishes to put up a cell tower in one’s community, at times the residents of it have screamed, “NIMBY”

As mailboxes disappear as well as phone booths, human jobs have been lost. The same can be said of the good old-fashioned newspaper where jobs have been shed. All signify to me the passing of an era where we valued humans and their contributions through hard work to our society. I suppose some who grew up in much simpler times do mourn their passing as we are faced with living in more complex times. With the advance of technology our society seems to value employing a computer over a human being and that to me is so, so sad.

Will we ever return to simpler times as I have expressed above? I suppose not since the world is fast-changing. However, I feel truly blessed in growing up in amazing times where mailboxes and pay phones were apart of our everyday existence. For those who are growing up in the Internet age, you are most likely saying, “Does not compute” In looking back, at least we did not have to know technology in order to live and thrive as a society. We just lived.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

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Sen. Jim DeMint and Bill Kristol are miscreants who offer nothing

2009-07-22T08:29:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
July 22, 2009

As I was reading my Twitter.com page this morning, a woman from California who goes by the name, lasurfgrl asked how much “longer are you on Capitol Hill going to ignore our problems? The American Dream no longer exists in CA. We have gigantic problems here” I do suspect no matter where you live in the United States there are pervasive problems that have not been addressed in quite sometime. Like infrastructure.

Two weeks ago, the Throgs Neck Bridge in New York City was accidently set ablaze due to a blow torch which basically shut the bridge down. Travelers had to make other plans using the Whitestone Bridge as well as ferries which can take passengers off of Long Island. Some have said we are in need of another bridge. New York like California is a cash-strapped state and frankly, we cannot afford another bridge.

Then we have the ominous eight-hundred pound gorilla in the room which is healthcare. Presently, there are over 47 million who go without and that number does not include the underinsured. Yet, obstructionist senators like Jim DeMint instead of trying to deliver such aid and comfort to a people had this say: “If we're able to stop Obama on this, it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

While some decry the President’s plan as not being one to solve this crisis and it is a crisis, at least we have a President who is willing to step up to the plate and help bring relief to many millions of people. Unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush.

Forget any history lesson by mentioning Waterloo, Senator DeMint, there are countless citizens who are being broken financially due to the bills incurred when they had to seek medical treatment. This as you are covered by we the tax payers. If anything, my little mental-fantasy would be to break you by stripping you of your government sponsored healthcare package.

Not to be outdone, you then have Bill Kristol who stated: “My advice, for what it's worth: Resist the temptation. This is no time to pull punches. Go for the kill.” In referring to the President’s healthcare plan by calling it ‘Obamacare’. My reaction to his statement on both Twitter and Facebook.com was, “Go to HELL!” Sorry for such foul language but it needed to be said.

In both cases and statements it reminds me of a statement made in the movie, “The American President” when the fictional president, Andrew Shepherd had this to say: “We have serious problems to solve, and we need serious men to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is, friend, I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is interested in two things and two things only: Making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and American values and personal character."

This my friends and readers is the gist of the blowback to President Obama’s healthcare plan by folks like DeMint and Kristol. In fact, you can substitute their names when Shepherd refers to Rumson. Both offer you nothing when so many of you are hurting out there. They are zealots and miscreants as far as I am concerned when this country does have serious problems to solve and America should rise in anger towards obstructionists like them and say: “ENOUGH and SHUT UP!”

Kristol, was a student of Leo Strauss (the father of the Neoconservative movement) and he like others who believe in the Neoconservative mentality which is crap in my book, gave us only wars has cost this country dearly. These wars have now cost all of us over $1 trillion dollars and yet they wish to scare you of the sticker-shock of any healthcare package? Nonsense!

I find Kristol’s statement of going for “the kill” to be telling since he has been a proponent of these wars which have only killed our soldiers and innocent Iraqis. Yet, folks listen to this garbage?

We as a nation must remember that it was a Republican President, George W. Bush and a Republican-led congress who did nothing to address the healthcare problem, did nothing to rebuild this country as they destroyed another by illegally invading it. They shoveled your hard earned dollars out the door to level complete cities such as Fallujah, Iraq.

Do you really want to revisit those darkened years by listening to Kristol and DeMint? Nothing was done for you as you sit waiting for the next bill from any doctor or hospital to come in. That is truly their legacy. To any Democratic congressional leader who fears for his or her own reelection by going up against the President, you have no place in congress if fear is your guiding force. To me, healthcare is a civil right and a right that should be guarded and protected by every single legislator at any level of our government. People have the right to live and thrive!

Americans went to the polls in record numbers this past election to send Barack Obama to the White House to work on behalf of all Americans. While I have taken issue with some of his plans, I refuse to listen to those whose sole mission is to break the President for their own selfish desires. Their words mean nothing to me and they should mean nothing to you!

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

Suffolk County, N.Y. Junior Police Academy Graduation: Media Absent

2009-07-19T23:01:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
July 20, 2009

In modern society, we as a nation sit glued to our televisions when senseless, meaningless and most of all heinous killings are reported to us by the media. The people’s names we often remember are the monsters who carried out these massacres and NOT the names of the victims. Even when the monster took his own life, their names live on. Also, no one knows of the names of the police officers that responded to these massacres. Imagine just for one tiny-second the scene that is presented to them upon arriving. Without a moment’s hesitation, they respond. They do so to help the victims who are often dead at the scene. Just imagine in your mind’s-eye having that in your head as long as you live. To me, I cannot.

In a past piece discussing the Virginia Tech massacre, I wrote where the mainstream media interviewed: “every forensic expert they could find, every security expert they could find and every psychologist and psychiatrist they could find. They lured us all into a psychosis in which we had to know every little detail of the story. Do I feel it is healthy? Not really.” Quite frankly, I do not care what led these monsters to take the lives of so many innocent people.

I guess I am tired of society itself being blamed for their blood-filled massacres. They alone are responsible for their own actions.

When bad kids do bad things such as Eric Harris, age 18 and Dylan Klebold, age 17 who were both responsible for the Columbine massacre, we want to know every little detail which led them both to this destruction of human lives. Their victims ran from them and many knowing it would be their last day on Earth. The same can be said of Seung-Hui Cho age 23 who became known as the Virginia Tech murderer. He too left behind many victims and like Columbine, a community to grieve a lifetime.

Leaving these high-profiled cases aside, look in any newspaper, any broadcast to see the coverage of young men for the most part taking the lives of innocent victims. It makes one want to scream out; enough! Even though I am a fan of the History Channel, I am sickened that they chose to produce a show, “Gangland” Why does the media choose to focus in on gangs, instead of those who wish to protect and serve?

It makes one want to say: What of the good kids who decide to make this world better for all of us? You know the kids who step up to the plate who only wish to make a difference for the betterment of society itself. How I wish the mainstream media would concentrate on these fine young men and women. These fine young men and women are the ones who wish to go running towards any horrific scene and to protect human life itself. Yet, there is little reporting done on their behalves. They are after-all our future heroes. You never see on any broadcast sociologists or psychologists explain to the rest of us exactly what makes them tick. In my eyes, it is a sense of service, duty and a desire to protect us all.

The reason I write this column is on behalf of my son and the other junior cadets who took a week’s time out of their summer fun to attend the Suffolk County, N.Y. Junior Police Academy. These fine young men and women only want to serve and protect, yet very little is written or reported of their efforts. No one knows their names, yet everyone knows the names of young-murderers.

In order to attend this junior academy, they had to be recommended by their high school guidance councilors and a background check done to see if they could become potential police officers. While many names were submitted, only a few were chosen. In that short week, they learned the basics of what it will take to protect both you and me as well as society itself. Yet, no one knows their names.

They had to learn search and seizure laws, how to arrest someone and protect the public. While my son is young in my eyes, he grew up this past week having driven a police vehicle and responding to certain commands given by his instructor. He learned what respect and responsibility was. He even had to press his own uniform. Parents were told we were not to press it for them. That little attention to detail may seem small in your eyes, but a lesson is instilled in these young citizens by having to attend to it. In addressing any instructor, they had to say: “Sir/Ma’am, yes, Sir/Ma’am”

In their training, they had to learn how to act as a unit to protect you and me in the future and that is to be commended as we see our police officers today respond to a crisis to protect the public. Police officers often leave their home not knowing if it will be their last, yet these fine young men and women fully understand that hard-cold fact chose to step up to the plate and attend this junior academy. Yet, no one knows their names. Well shame on the mainstream media for not reporting these stories as they concentrate on the lowest amongst us.

These fine young men and women also learned of other training techniques that will help them to protect and serve all of us in the future if they make the final cut and enter any police academy. While too many to list, it is to their credit and honor, I write this column.

What deeply saddens me is that this may be the last year of this junior academy due to budget cuts. Yet these are the fine young men and women we will surely need in the future to help protect us all. They will be the ones to respond to the monsters that take the lives of the innocents every single day of the year. They will certainly be the ones who will respond to the next Columbine and again, no one knows their names. If you live in Suffolk County, NY sometime in the future as you dial 911, it will be my son God willing that will respond to your plea for help and you will be thankful that he came to your aid. My son’s name is Christopher MacElveen and I want you to remember his name.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Walter Cronkite taught me what was news instead of noise

2009-07-17T21:45:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
July 18, 2009

When Berry Gordy of Motown records had this to say of Michael Jackson: “Michael was and will remain one of the greatest entertainers that ever lived," I would opine of Walter Cronkite that he was THE BEST journalist that has ever lived in my lifetime and the lives of millions more. He touched not only my life but the lives of millions of Americans and citizens around the world. If you are not old enough to remember his broadcasts on CBS, his reporting to this nation was similar to a State of the Union Address given by every single President of our country. He captivated all of us with his straight reporting, never interjecting any bias coming from him.

While he died at the age of 92, his death hit me harder than Jacksons. As a boomer, I grew up with Mr. Cronkite as he visited my home each and every night and was the voice of calm and most of all reason. In the age of cable and the Internet where thoughts are transmitted second-by-second, he allowed you to think of what was happening in our world. He reported the news and never became the news. That will forever be Mr. Cronkite’s legacy.

In the days of Cronkite, we lived our lives instead of being addicted to information and news broadcasts either on television or the Internet. He reported what was relevant and we simply heard him report it, and moved on. I so miss those days. There was no need to hear from pundit upon pundit or others that we think important in today’s broadcasts and simply moved onto the next story.

As a young child each and every lift-off into space became a magical moment when Mr. Cronkite was reporting on it, especially the Apollo 11 mission where we as a nation landed on the moon’s surface. In that very moment we rose to an immense challenge whose challenger was the late President John F. Kennedy. The elation he showed while reporting on that one single event was ours as a nation. To sit in front of one’s TV sets to hear the countdown of any mission captivated us all. As we all heard the voice of mission control cite, “10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 blast off” our hearts lifted up with those brave souls. Our emotions enjoined with Mr. Cronkite’s in that very moment in time.

Tonight while listening to many showing their respect for this premier journalist; I heard the term icon and he was more than an icon. Walter Cronkite was an informer, a teacher and any other term one can use to fully educate us all. As I listened to many premier journalists speak in deference to this great man, I pulled my 19 year-old daughter into the living room to help her understand the significance of his passing.

Mr. Cronkite was with many of us during many historic moments such as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the assassination of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy and the assassination of the late Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. He was also with us during the entirety of the Viet Nam War and long after it and covered Watergate which led to the resignation of a president. Mr. Cronkite was an historic figure, and he will be sorely missed by millions who sat night after night to be informed of their world and ours.

During the many years that we as a country watched him and heard what he had to relay to us, it was broadcasted in black-and-white. No streaming feeds, no YouTube.com, no Twitter.com, no Facebook.com, and other forms of communication available to us all today. He became the fabric of Americana and for that we must thank him.

Mr. Cronkite was the standard-bearer of the news itself. No bells, no whistles but the straight news itself and in the days of confusion that surround us, we could surely use journalists of his caliber, his talent and his desire to get at the heart of the news itself. For those who never viewed his broadcasts, you missed out. Because there are very few journalists left today who are able to report the news with such an understanding of our history as a nation.

Thank you, Mr. Cronkite for helping me understand my world while growing up. As you were invited into my living room each night, you never disappointed me. In fact, I learned from you. You taught me what was news and what was noise.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

My letter to Newsday citing Suffolk County's pathetic bus system

2009-07-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

July 13, 2009

Dear Editor,

As I read your article, LI Bus rolls out fleet of 100 greener vehicles, I seethed in anger being a resident of Suffolk County, NY. While Nassau County will get this new fleet of buses, the bus system in Suffolk County is one of the most pathetic bus systems going. While money was doled out for these buses, very little has been done to solve our transportation problem here in Suffolk County. If you are not a driver for any number of reasons, try getting from point A to point B. You can’t with a bus system where one has to wait and wait for a bus.

Our buses do not even run on Sundays, and don’t people shop and work on that day? If one cannot afford a car due to this abysmal economy, those living in Suffolk are at the mercy of cabs whose rates are through the roof as opposed to the $1.50 fare. I have spoken out of this over a number of years, yet NOTHING has been done. Over the years, I have read of road expansion projects being approved, yet no funds allocated for improving our bus system? If one can call it a bus system. So, I am at the mercy of cabs. Not being able to go where you want is akin to being a prisoner in one’s own home or apartment.

To those politicos who have the power of the purse, here is an experiment to try. Pretend you do not drive or have a car, and figure out how in the world you are going to get to work, shopping, a doctor’s appointment for one day. This has been my life living here in Suffolk County since 1991. While I love where I live, life was easier for me when I lived in Nassau County. At least I could go to any corner, board a bus that could take me where I wanted to go, and even on Sundays. While I have used myself as an example, I am speaking out for the countless citizens who deserve a first-rate bus system like Nassau County’s.

Sincerely,
Mary MacElveen

Today, I mourn the death of Lt. Brian Bradshaw

2009-07-07T08:37:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
July 7, 2009

In reaction to my piece citing that 7 soldiers died in Afghanistan prior to the Jackson memorial and the media’s coverage of his death, I received some feedback from my readers. One stated that he (Jackson) deserves millions of dollars being shelled out for police security since he paid he paid millions in taxes. That one still boggles my mind given the fact there have been many social programs cut, workers being laid off, IOUs as paychecks and homelessness within the city of Los Angeles and the state of California. By the way, the State of California is suffering a $24 billion dollar deficit. That directly affects those living in the City of Los Angeles.

L.A. simply cannot afford this protection which will cost the city $2.5 million dollars when they are a half a billion dollars in debt. But, the memorial will go on.

One reader stated for me to show some respect and I have, but I question where America’s priorities are when it comes to elevating a celebrity over those who serve our country.

A reader cited that Jackson gave to many charities and that is true, but our soldiers give their life for this country. As Jackson will be buried in a gold-plated coffin, our soldiers come home in flag-draped ones with little fan-fare. What if any celebrities choose to go to their memorial services?

If you think I am not the only one raising this valid point comparing the coverage of Jackson’s death over our soldiers, you would be wrong.

Someone sent me a link to a story as published on Fox: Relatives of Soldier Killed in Afghanistan Decry Lack of Coverage Amid Jackson Spectacle and these relatives would be correct. In watching a repeat of “AC 360” last night, Anderson Cooper while speaking of Jackson’s death, gave only two minutes in reporting of these fallen soldiers. Why, Anderson?

As reported by Fox: "Lt. Brian Bradshaw, 24, died in Kheyl, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle." In reaction to his death and the coverage of Jackson by the media, his aunt, Martha Gillis wrote the Washington Post asking: "Where was the coverage of my nephew or the other soldiers who died that week?" Bravo, Ms. Gillis!

Fox also reported: "He (Lt. Brian Bradshaw) was one of at least 13 U.S. soldiers to die in Afghanistan since Jackson's death on June 25." Now we have a name of one of our fallen heroes.

Mary, who is the mother of Lt. Bradshaw added that the constant coverage of Jackson's death was: "totally ridiculous" She also added: "I can watch the news many nights and there's no mention of what's going on in Afghanistan or Iraq and there's boys dying over there," War is simply hell and perhaps if there were wall-to-wall coverage of the death and destruction over in Iraq and Afghanistan the American people would strongly react by telling our government we have had enough. After all, these wars are costing the American taxpayers dearly if one chooses to focus on the money-angle over the death-count. We have spent $1 trillion dollars to be specific.

The only media coverage, Bradshaw received as reported by Fox was in: "Steilacoom, Wash., and those where he was stationed before his deployment in March."

While I do not know the rest of the names of these now dead soldiers, I do know of one and his name was Lt. Brian Bradshaw and today, I mourn his death. In his life prior to his military service he was a “search-and-rescue volunteer, an altar boy, a camp counselor," According to his aunt.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

On the eve of Michael Jackson’s memorial, seven soldiers lost their lives

2009-07-06T22:09:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
July 7, 2009

On the eve of Michael Jackson’s public memorial where it will cost the city of Los Angeles $2.5 million dollars for police security at taxpayer’s expense, I want to scream. I want to scream at the fans of Michael Jackson as well as the celebrities who will attend it. I want to bloody-scream at the media who will cover his public memorial. You may ask why I wish to scream and here is why. On the eve of this public memorial to Jackson, 7 troops died in Afghanistan and yet, no one knows their names. No one!!!!

These troops leave behind loved ones, yet again, no one knows their names. These troops did the heavy-lifting for all of us; yet the media chooses to give wall-to-wall coverage on Jackson. Wake up, media! Forget about the King of Pop and report on our brave soldiers who enter a world where they face our enemy day-in-and-day-out.

Prior to his death, Jackson was preparing for his concert tour as our soldiers hunkered down knowing they would face a certain death.

Those who died on the battle field, will not have anyone logging onto any website to take part in their memorial for a coveted spot. They will not have celebrities taking part in it like, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Hudson, Magic Johnson, Smokey Robinson, Brooke Shields, Usher and so many others.

To this, I say, shame on all of us for elevating celebrities, while forgetting our troops. Yes, we may remember them on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, yet choose to forget about them all the rest of the days of the year. They are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters and our fellow Americans!

Our troops do not seek out doctors to prescribe them pain killers and other narcotics as some believe contributed to Jackson’s death. They enter into a battle field none of us would dare to enter and where their lives can and have been taken in an instant by a road-side bomb. Their bodies are not intact as Jackson’s was at his time of death, but blown apart with their innards coming out of their bodies. I have seen their pictures where their faces have been completely blown off and other injuries just as devastating. Upon seeing these photos, I have cried and cried.

I do not care what you think of the war, but there are soldiers who are ready, willing and able to go into a hellfire none of us would venture into. As I read this: "The seven American deaths came as thousands of U.S. Marines continued with their major offensive against the Taliban in Helmand province," the hairs on the back of my neck stood up.

In war, I fully believe those who are called to fight in these wars act as if they are already dead in order to complete their missions. It was something I learned from watching the movie, "The Band of Brothers" which is one of my favorite movies.

I cry for our soldiers and their families and not for Michael Jackson. If that seems callous; well tough. I have followed these wars since they started and we have lost far too many brave soldiers, yet the focus is on one man some call an icon? Oh please, please help me understand this as I read where 7 soldiers lost their lives.

As the fans, celebrities and media focus in on his children, for many years, thousands of knocks have been knocked and where many children have learned that their mom or dad were not coming home. No one knows their names as the media has reported Michael Jackson’s children’s names. Children of military personnel do not stand a chance at inheriting millions of dollars and often are left with nothing.

The Reverend Al Sharpton has called for tomorrow to be a day of mourning for Michael Jackson. Me, I will call it a day of mourning for these seven soldiers who lost their lives. With that said, I will ask America: Where do your tears and sorrow belong?

Author’s email address, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

Los Angeles should bill the Jackson family for the cost of Michael Jackson’s memorial

2009-07-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
July 5, 2009

I know you are probably screaming: Not another Michael Jackson column, but this one must be written. It does not involve how he died, but who will pick up the tab for the police force used at his memorial service this Tuesday. The onus for this security force will be born by the taxpayers of Los Angeles and will cost $2 million dollars.

According to the L.A.Times, “The city of Los Angeles is a half-billion dollars in the hole. Layoffs. Furloughs. Potholes unfilled, trees untrimmed. Animal services, the ethics commission, whack whack whack.” Fan or not, it is uncalled for to put such a strain on a city that is overstressed economically. It is only right and just to ask that the Jackson family shell out these funds so the taxpayers are not forced to.

In reading another L.A.Times article, L.A. City Councilwoman Jan Perry stated that the city would “dip into a special fund set aside for extraordinary events to pay for the security costs associated with Michael Jackson's memorial service Tuesday at Staples Center.” Again, given the fact that the city itself is a half-billion dollars in debt: This special fund if one can believe a city has set aside should for such an event given its deficit should be used on behalf of the taxpayers. After all, Jackson died leaving millions to his beneficiaries. Knowing how fans would react to his passing, Jackson should have set aside funds to pay for such an elaborate memorial service given the city’s deficit.

While the Councilwoman stated that they are reaching out to private donors to help fund this memorial service, there are taxpayers who go without and to ask them to pay for a service is uncalled for since she was elected to represent the people. She should instead be reaching out to private donors to help with the needs of her constituents. I would suspect that many of her constituents cannot even afford their own burial at this point.

According to this article, Perry told CNN: "that the Jackson family had not come forward to pay for taxpayer costs associated with the memorial..."I am not aware of any activity from the family to do that" I say to the Jackson family, pay up! It is unconscionable to drain the city coffers to pay for your son’s and sibling’s memorial.

Outlined in this L.A. Times article dated, May 28th, 2009 are the deep cuts facing not only those who live in Los Angeles, but the state as well. As you will read, California is now faced with a $24 billion dollar deficit and where it "would halt medical insurance for more than 2 million Californians, sending them streaming into emergency rooms and costing the state billions of dollars for the more expensive care -- and potentially causing deaths." Many of their deaths will not be overly reported as Jackson's was and still is. In fact, these deaths will not be reported on in the media. No one will know their names.

As reports are coming out that drugs may have directly caused Jackson’s death, there are many in California with deadly diseases who only want to live.

I was taken back as I read, that a woman, named, Linnea went before “legislative panel” to plead for her life. As she addressed this panel, she stated: "If these cuts take place, you're not just cutting money from the program -- you're cutting my life...I choose to live," she said, her voice shaking and tears falling. "Please don't make me die. My choice is life." Perhaps the doctor(s) who prescribed Jackson these harmful drugs should have said no to him and gone on to help treat patients like Linnea. She only wants to live.

Given the hardships which many citizens in Los Angeles are facing, it is up to the city government to bill the Jackson family for the entire cost of Michael Jackson’s memorial on Tuesday.

If you are a fan who has already descended on this city or have planned to, you are placing a strain on an already strained city. You must ask yourselves: Is my presence here more important than those who will be forced to pay for it, namely the taxpayers of Los Angeles? Is Michael Jackson more important then those who services have been cut?

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please contact the author for permission.

Happy Fourth of July

2009-07-04T07:45:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
July 4th, 2009

Today I want to wish each and all of you a Happy Fourth of July. To me, it has never been a day set aside just for picnics and store-sales, but a day to remember who we are. We must ask ourselves: How many men and now women have spilled their blood on past battle fields to preserve our freedoms and continue to do so? They are the ones we must pray for today and continue to pray for each and everyday.

At this time, I want you to listen to the words crafted by our founding fathers as they penned the Declaration of Independence. While mortal men, they breathed a certain immortality to these words that have defined us all these years. While we are a free people as declared by these men, often we do not assert such freedom and accept what laws are passed and taxes imposed. It is our right and duty to become ‘We the People’ stating to any elected official once they have breached their sacred promise to any of us, to speak up and not just at the voting booth. We must remember that they serve us and not the other way around. Thus has been my journey, my mission during these past nine years.

Have I affected any real change? I do not know. But, I know this: The founders would have expected me to speak out as they expect us all. They were geniuses in crafting a democracy beloved by many, and feared by others.

If I were to pick my favorite part of the Declaration of Independence, it would be the stanza below:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

At this time, I want all of you to enjoy the words to the Star Spangled Banner which was written by Francis Scott Key. The founders of this country were and forever will be men made of the right stuff. They did the heavy lifting for all of us and it is our duty to heed their words.

Happy Fourth of July,
Mary MacElveen!

Farrah Fawcett was the Queen of Girl-Power

2009-07-02T22:38:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
July 3, 2009

When “Charlie’s Angels” aired, it became the start of a movement called, ‘girl-power’ within this country. No more would a girl see herself boxed in a submissive role within the American culture. When the show first aired, I was a teenager, and yes it made me think of what my future could become. Shows like this and the “Mary Tyler-Moore Show” were a far cry from the roles women normally took on television such as “Leave it to Beaver” where June Cleaver stayed at home tending to it, her husband and children, and we have powerful women like Farrah Fawcett to thank for that.

As a grown woman, I am concerned that the death of Farrah Fawcett has been overshadowed by the death of Michael Jackson. His death from what some have reported was due to an addiction to pain-killers and other drugs; whereas Farrah’s death was due to anal cancer which metastasized. Farrah, fought a long, hard battle against this disease and let others into her life to see how she was battling it while Jackson remained secluded.

While Jackson was labeled as the King of Pop, I would label Fawcett as the Queen of Girl-Power. While “Charlie’s Angels” was just a show, it showed girls that at some point, they could bring down the bad-guys. One must wonder after that show premiered: Just how many girls signed up to their local police academies or service to this country. While not as glamorous, still the message was there that women could do anything they wanted in life.

In today’s society, there are many women who are victims of domestic abuse and on October 8, 1984, Farrah Fawcett starred in a movie titled: “The Burning Bed” where she took the law into her own hands by killing her abuser. I do remember watching this earth-shattering film and it spoke for the many women at that time who were victims of domestic abuse which still occurs today.

While she never married her soul-mate, Ryan O’Neill they remained together as a loving couple and in today’s society, it must be heralded. They did not need a marriage certificate to consummate their love for one another. They just loved one another. Now think of how many celebrities, politicians and other famous people have cheated on their loved ones. I cannot even imagine being in Ryan O’Neill’s shoes the day after he buried his soul-mate. It is life imitating art as he starred in the movie “Love Story” where he lost his love to leukemia played by actress, Ali McGraw who incidentally lost her love, her soul-mate, Steve McQueen to cancer. Freaky, I know!

As the character, Jill Munroe, Fawcett would listen as one of ‘Charlie’s Angels’ to hear her next mission. Upon her death from cancer, she listened to a far greater power calling her home. Those like Ryan O’Neill and their son can take comfort that she is now within the loving arms of our God. Rest in peace, Farrah.

Author’s email address is xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

The true face of politics as 467,000 jobs were shed

2009-07-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
July 2, 2009

I read in horror the Washington Post column which reported that 467,000 jobs were lost in the month of June: One must wonder if any of these people who lost their jobs care of the inner workings of political organizations? I would bet you any amount of money, they do not. All they care about is how they will feed their families, provide shelter, and oh yes, health care.

For years, I have received emails coming from one political organization and in this case, I choose not to name it. But, I want to clue my readers in the amount of money being asked by this one political organization to those they are asking to attend it. They do so while America suffers and they are not alone, since other organizations will continue to hold pricey fundraisers. Why not ask the email recipients to donate these vast sums of money to food pantries, health clinics instead of any golf-sponsorship?

This is what politics is truly about no matter which party. Do they even care when our jobless rate which presently stands at 9.5 percent will exceed 10 percent as reported by the Washington Post? They say they care in the many emails I receive from them and it boggles the mind how they can have any golf outing when so many are going without food today. I find it repugnant to even circulate this email which states they will have a cocktail and dinner outing when food pantries go bare.

According to the Post: “The nation now has 14.7 million people who are looking for a job but can't find one,” Yet, it is business as usual when it comes to political organizations as they prostrate themselves asking for donations.

I am most assured that the millions who have lost their jobs would love to have brunch on a patio and a fine barbeque lunch as well. Not stated in this email those would be present at this outing. Quite frankly, I do not care when I think of the millions upon millions of Americans that are suffering today.

When you see the press release photos of who is attending various fundraising events, keep in mind images of those standing outside food pantries because this country cannot find it within its will to address the millions who cannot find work. Should the jobless rate continue to rise, know that the two main political parties are stuffing their coffers as they send out emails such as the one below. They will also point the finger of blame at each other instead of coming together to solve this pervasive problem to get Americans back to work.

11:00 AM Registration opens
* brunch served on the bay patio

12:30 PM Golf Shotgun start
* barbecue lunch on the course

5:00 PM Cocktails
6:00 PM Dinner

Individual Golf Tickets $375 per person

Golf Foursomes $1,500
Includes brunch, golf and dinner for four and a tee sign

Tee Sign $150

Driving Range Sponsorship $500

Includes sponsorship recognition

Putting Green Sponsorship $1,000
Includes sponsorship recognition and two dinner tickets

Refreshment Stand Sponsor $1,500
Includes special signage at the various refreshment stands
and two dinner tickets

Brunch Reception Sponsor $5,000

Includes brunch, golf and dinner for four, a tee sign and
prominent recognition as the sponsor of the brunch reception

Dinner Reception Sponsor $10,000
Includes brunch, golf and dinner for eight, two tee signs and
prominent recognition as the sponsor of the dinner reception

By the way, those who did attend this fundraiser dined on steak and lobster as some go without tonight, tomorrow and for the foreseeable future.

Look at the sums of money this one organization was looking for, and then imagine how this money could have been used to feed the hungry in this country. Hunger comes from bread-winners not being able to provide food for their families. This is the true face of politics.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Abercrombie and Fitch’s ‘look’ policy: Would they hire vets with lost limbs?

2009-06-29T08:18:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
June 29, 2009

I never knew that Abercrombie & Fitch had a ‘look’ policy in reference to where they placed those employed within their stores. Such shallowness if you ask me. I have only been in their store once and swore never to go back. First, the prices and second the music blasted at one particular store was a bit too much for this boomer to take and it also aggravated my tinnitus.

After reading a column where, Riam Dean, 22 was demoted from a sales position to a stock position in their London flagship store, I was deeply appalled. The reason being is because she has a prosthetic arm. I would call that the third and more important strike as to why I will never cross their thresh-hold again.

The article states: “Dean, 22, was allegedly moved from a sales job to a stockroom post -- away from the eyes of shoppers -- after her managers discovered she had a prosthetic arm.”

If anything, whenever I see a disabled person working in any store, I give that store credit for believing in their desire to work. Some may work in performing mundane jobs, but they are working none-the-less. At my local Waldbaums who does not have a ‘look’ policy, a mentally disabled man works at collecting the shopping carts left in the parking field by customers. He puts himself out there to his credit and I credit Waldbaums for hiring him where he is in the public-eye.

My guess is that this over-the-top price-point store would not dare hire those returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan who have lost limbs and now wear prosthetic limbs. I mean, after all, they would violate this store’s ‘look’ policy.

This store can be found in many malls which are considered ‘soft-targets’ when it comes to terrorist attacks. Presently our soldiers are trying to fight a battle so that a store like this is never attacked. So, if a soldier comes home wounded, needs a job: Will he or she be told, “Sorry, you cannot work in sales” If that were the case, the patriotic thing to do is not shop at this high-priced store.

Getting back to the blaring music played within that store, the article also states: “A former A&F employee once told me that the reason the stores keep the music so loud is that the company wants customers to feel slightly intimidated approaching the floor attendants,” As a shopper, I do not wish to feel intimidated when it comes to parting with my money. I want a relaxed atmosphere given these harsh economic times. Besides when one is faced with increased taxes on every front coming from the government, that is intimidation enough.

Dean’s case is not the only case of discrimination as one reads this U.S.A. Today article: Where A&F was forced to pay a $40 million dollar class action suit by minorities in a 2004 case who felt they were passed over. Included in that group were blacks. Would they even attempt doing so today knowing our President is African-American? It astounds me that a future president would in our recent history be passed over because he did not have the right look.

While we have heard for years of racial discrimination in the work place, it sickens me when a store would discriminate against the disabled. In both cases, all you have are people ready, willing and in Dean’s case able to do the job they were hired to do. There is great dignity in work and for any company to discriminate such as A&F has, a dignified public should send them a message we will not tolerate such behavior.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Michael Jackson: The print medium becomes our personal memento

2009-06-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

As I logged onto the Internet this morning to read the relevant stories on my Yahoo.com page, there were several articles pertaining to the death of Michael Jackson. In my opinion, he died far too young leaving behind many to grieve especially his family which includes three children.

His death is being felt world-wide where people from all corners of this planet are coming out to grieve and say goodbye to the ‘King of Pop’. Many did not know him, yet felt connected to Jackson who grew up in front of millions and became an icon.

This out pouring of grief is truly a phenomenon as are other historic events that have taken place within our lifetimes. While we may not know the subject, often we want some thing to keep for generations to come. It helps us to say to future generations: “I know where I was when the death of Michael Jackson occurred” and be able to hold up a memento.

These mementos are newspapers and magazines. Over time, the Internet has pushed many newspapers out of business which I find truly sad. This intangible world cannot be saved to help future generations understand an important story or one of historical relevance such as the election of President Barack Obama; the first African-American president, unless one has a printer.

Still, a printer cannot compare to the print medium. This ethereal world known as the Internet while reporting on key stories; one may not be able to find them in the future. How many times have you gone back to read an article pertaining to an event only to read: “File not found” or where a web site is no longer in existence? I know personally since my former blog marymacelveen.com is no longer online.

But your newspapers and magazines are the premier force of information since they are tangible and where people can save the front covers of them. While yellowed over time, I still have a few Newsday covers as they reported on the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton. Somehow, I thought it important to save. It is history.

In looking over the photos attached to Jackson’s death, I noticed several where fans from India were holding up newspapers. India is not a rich country and one where poverty reigns. While a child in that country may not have access to a computer, they do have access to a newspapers. In purchasing that newspaper, they will forever have their own personal memento to remember Michael Jackson. Also, newspapers and magazines as I have reported in the past are far more democratic where they are available to everyone.

If you are poor, no matter which country you reside in, the Internet may not be accessible to you since the cost of computers, software, ISP subscriptions come with a hefty price. Also, one must remember it takes electricity to power one’s computer. Should one’s power be lost due to any circumstance, so goes one’s connection to the Internet. What happens if one’s server goes down or becomes overloaded as Twitter.com often does? Newspapers and magazines are a frugal way of obtaining information. It may not be up-to-the-minute or second news, but it is still news which costs a fraction of one’s connection to the Internet.

As we keep hearing of job-losses in this country, all I ask is that you help save the jobs of those who work for the print medium by purchasing a newspaper. If you were a fan of Michael Jackson, in your hands you have your own memento to save throughout the ages. Those who work for the print medium go to work day-after-day so you can have your own piece of history to show future generations.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Carbon Sequestration is No Solution

2009-06-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

To My Readers,

It is not often if at all that I would post the words of a fellow writer and friend to those who read my columns. But, in this case I must. John Schwam is a dedicated journalist as well as activist who has investigated the coal industry in Appalachia. He has seen first hand the devastation the coal industry has brought upon those living in within it. Many online-citizen-journalists will not venture to the places they write of, but John does on his own dime. He runs a site called LiberalPatriot.org and I can vouch for his many years of dedication not only to the Appilation community, but to this country as well.

Sincerely,
Mary MacElveen

Carbon Sequestration is No Solution
By J.G. Schwam – June 23, 2009

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act), was enacted in February of this year. It included hundreds of billions of dollars intended to stimulate the US economy. Through funds allocated by this act the Department of Energy (DOE) has announced three anticipated funding opportunity announcements (FOAs) since June 3, 2009 regarding geologic CO2 sequestration, the industrial CO2 capture and sequestration and beneficial use of CO2 and for Round 3 of the DOE’s Clean Coal Power Initiative (CCPI) that increases the funding available for it by approximately $800 million.

While technology to reduce or abate the atmospheric release of CO2 from industrial processes or power generation is a valid goal, carbon sequestration is by many analyses little more than creating underground landfills for carbon. The evil carbon molecule broken from it's oxygen partner is buried, out of site out of mind like plastic shopping bags and used paper diapers, but not without impact nor cost. The only difference being a more complex technological bulldozer (metaphorically) is required.

Perhaps the DOE views this as a short term solution to deal with a long term problem. It has not said so. Do we really need to spend $800 million to develop a technology to dispose of the byproducts of an inefficient coal based power generation industry that relies on a 19th a century fuel to feed its profits?

Inherently coal is dirty. It is dirty to extract, it is dirty to process and it is at its dirtiest burned to boil water to make electricity. The idea of clean coal technology beyond its Madison Avenue birth is flawed. You can't make dirt less dirty. You can only move it somewhere else, like into clean water when you use Tide to remove dirt from your blue jeans. That only makes the jeans clean not the dirt or the water supply where it went.

This part of the Recovery Act is no more than corporate pork, promised by the Obama administration as part of his campaign to the powerful coal extraction industry and the power generation industry it fuels. Carbon sequestration is no more than an attempt to couch the filthy byproduct of a 19th century industry into a more seemingly more palatable. Carbon sequestration is no more than a fancy technological buzzword for a landfill, underground or otherwise, but a landfill none the less.

The great minds of the United States Government and the people they serve and upon whom their futures depend should focus our vast resources on solutions that eliminate inefficient obsolete industries of the past like the coal industry. And instead develop industries that create new jobs in clean industries born of 21st century ideas. Not simply waste hundreds of millions to perpetuate and attempt to make more palatable politically powerful filthy industries of the past like the coal extraction and coal based power generation industries.

These funds instead could and should be used to apply existing scrubber and CO2 ablation technology to the hundreds of dirty coal fired power plants that next to motor vehicles are the largest source of CO2 emissions in North American. Improving this technology and expanding our manufacturing base of it would create jobs would create advanced industrial products that could be exported to the BRISC nations that themselves face the same challenges.

We expected President Obama to be different, forward thinking, a harbinger of change and the future when we voted for him. Now we must demand it. A few thousand new jobs and a few billion in new export dollars instead of gobs of millions of dollars for fanciful research wouldn't be bad either.

Should you wish to contact John Schwam, his email address is, vermontbear@yahoo.com

Iranians are doing what Minnesotans are failing to do and that is protest

2009-06-21T10:59:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
June 21, 2009

In a cross-entry on both my Twitter.com and Facebook.com pages, I just posted: "Hey, Minnesotans, take to the streets and protest that your senate election is being held up by Norm Coleman. Join with Iranian patriots."

While I abhor violence that has been shown on various news networks like CNN, MSNBC and yes, Fox concerning these protests, I commend the citizens of Iran for taking to the street when they feel their election may have been stolen. They are sure showing us up when NO one took the streets en-masse after the Bush V. Gore decision was handed down. We were told to accept that decision, and forgot that this government is of, by and for we the people.

In the Bush V. Gore decision five out of the nine Supreme Court justices became more powerful than ‘we the people’. Americans should have come to the aid of all Floridians whose votes were stolen in that election. Let us take care of our own affairs first when it comes to democracy before telling others how democracy works.

As much as some want the President to be more forceful when it comes to these violent protests: Are they itching to start another war? Isn’t three enough?! Are they forgetting that Iran has strong ties to both Russia and China and what will they say of any intervention in this Iranian affair by the United States of America? Please remember who holds the cards here as America is facing an economic firestorm where we continue to borrow huge sums of money from China. Can you see China cutting off the money supply? This is the tight-rope that the President has to be mindful of as some want and demand he interfere.

I would bring North Korea and the President does have a lot on his plate and wish to remind my readers that North Korea as well has strong ties with Russia and China. As our military is at the breaking point being deployed, redeployed over and over in the wars we are already engaged in, Russia and China’s are not.

Last week, the media brought into the mix Senator John McCain’s opinions of how the President should be more forceful. Exactly why are they giving him any podium when he jokingly sung that song: Bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran? This is what I would say to McCain: Shut up!

I am tired of the right’s bloviating when it comes to this election process and its aftermath meaning these protests when former Senator Norm Coleman is holding up an election that was decided 8 months ago. Yet, we see no protests coming from Minnesotans. Are courts the only way in which challenged elections get decided in this country? Were is the will of a people when it comes to our own affairs?

Then again, protests that do take place in this country are clamped down upon where the will of a people is not listened to as evident with the anti-war protests. Remember it was a Republican controlled government back in 2003. Was a Republican led government acting like the Ayatollah is today when they refused to hear our voices? To borrow a phrase by Gov. Sarah Palin: “Oh you betcha!” In both cases you had a Republican led government and the Ayatollah clamping down on dissent and the will of the people. Let the Iranian people speak.

As my prayers go out to all Iranians for their safety during their troubling times, I am mindful of the fact that it is their election and country; not mine. They should be the ones who decide their own destiny without any interference from any other country; namely the United States of America. We should have no say in their electoral process when we have shown the world the faults of our own. The only thing I can do is to stand in solidarity with the Iranian people to decide their own destiny.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Latest Amber Alerts

2009-06-19T21:52:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
June 20, 2009

I want to clue my readers into the latest Amber Alerts so that these children can be brought home safely to their parent(s) and or loved ones. Help assist various law enforcement agencies by being their eyes and yes, ears.

Please read the Amber Alert for Emanuel Guzman:

Circumstances: UPDATE AMBER ALERT - Photos added The suspects are wanted by the Colorado Springs Police Department for felony child abuse. They are facing charges relating to the abuse and burning of the infant son, Emanuel Guzman. Both parents failed to appear in court on 5/21/09 and custody of their son has been transferred to the Department of Human Services. Recent investigative information has determined that both suspects may be attempting to flee with the child to Mexico.

Missing Child
Name: Emanuel Guzman
Alias:
Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Brown
Skin Color: Hispanic Age: 1
Height: 2'0 Weight: 30 lbs.
Gender: Male

Latest Amber Alert for Haleigh Cummings

Missing From: Satsuma, FL
Missing Date: 02/10/2009 12:00 AM
Issued for: Florida: Statewide
Contact: If you have information, please contact Putnam County Sheriff's Office, 386-329-0808, 911
Circumstances: UPDATE: Clothing description updated Update: Added child's photo The 5 year-old child was last seen in the area of Hermit's Cove in Satsuma, FL.

Missing Child
Name: Haleigh Cummings
Alias:
Hair Color: Blnd Eye Color: Brn
Skin Color: Whi Age: 5
Height: 3' Weight: 39lbs
Gender: Female
Description: Unknown clothing

Latest Amber Alert for Daisja Weaver

Missing From: Dallas, TX
Missing Date:
Issued for: Texas: Anderson, Bastrop, Bell, Blanco, Bosque, Brazos, Burleson, Burnet, Caldwell, Cherokee, Comanche, Coryell, Ellis, Erath, Falls, Freestone, Gillespie, Hamilton, Hays, Henderson, Hill, Hood, Houston, Johnson, Kendall, Kerr, Kimble, Lampasas, Lee, Leon, Limestone, Llano, Madison, Mason, McCulloch, McLennan, Menard, Milam, Mills, Navarro, Robertson, San Saba, Somervell, Travis, Williamson
Contact: If you have information, please contact Dallas Police Department, 214-671-4268
Circumstances: Unknown male entered the child's apartment and took the child.

Missing Child
Name: Daisja Weaver
Alias:
Hair Color: Black Eye Color:
Skin Color: Black Age: 9MO
Height: 2FT4 Weight: 20LBS
Gender: Female

I am asking ALL of my readers to click on the hyperlinks of each name to view the photo of these missing children. Let us bring them home! Please pass this to everyone you know.

Author’s email address is xmjmac@optonline.net

Help find missing children: A lesson from a lost-boy abducted in 1955

2009-06-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
June 19, 2009

As we all know the case of the long-lost boy from Long Island, NY is still a mystery when DNA evidence proved that John Barnes is not the child taken in front of a grocery store back in 1955. I cannot even imagine the pain the Damman family has been put through where they are still wondering what ever happened to their son, and sibling. What of the pain, Barnes put his own father through.

According to the AP report filed on this story: “Richard Barnes, immediately dismissed the speculation as "a bunch of foolishness," and said John Barnes was born in a Navy hospital in Pensacola, Fla., on Aug. 18, 1955.” Yet out of a feeling of not fitting in with the family, John Barnes used the resources of the FBI in this DNA testing.

As I cannot fathom the pain both families were put through, what I can fathom the media-hype this story has created in the past few days as Newsday ran multi-page articles concerning this lone case. Yet, a community still wonders what happened to that little boy named Stephen Damman. In light of the DNA testing which was still ongoing by the FBI at Quantico, perhaps the hype by the media should have been kept low-key until the test results came in.

Maybe the lesson we should all gain from this lone-story is that each year many children in our country go missing and their families not knowing if they are dead or alive. We see their faces on hand-outs, our local news as well as cable networks and on “America’s Most Wanted” hosted by John Walsh. All I ask is that you pay attention. Incidentally Fox tried to pull this show years ago due to low ratings, but a group of governors petitioned Fox to keep it on since they felt it invaluable to fighting crime. Kudos to those governors.

After Adam Walsh was snatched from Sears back in 1981, and according to Wikipedia: “Sixteen days after the abduction, his severed head was found in a drainage canal more than 120 miles away from home. His other remains were never recovered.” During the time of his disappearance his parents John and Revé’s mission was to find their little boy. I remember watching a movie based upon Adam’s abduction and what riled me was a statement made by Mr. Walsh and I will paraphrase him, it was far easier to find a missing car then a missing child and abducted child. At that time, both local and federal data-bases kept track of stolen vehicles, not children.

In hind-sight, perhaps if such a data-base been in place before Adam’s abduction and murder, the mystery of the Etan Patz case could have been solved. He was abducted in Manhattan on May 25, 1979. We shall never know.

Upon Adam being found, both John and Reve grieved as any parents would. After the mourning was over with, which still lasts to this day as one looks upon John Walsh’s face as he speaks of Adam, they went onto co-found the Centers for Missing and Exploited Children. As many of us surf the Internet for information we must ask ourselves: Is this a site we often go to? Perhaps if we made it a habit to at least visit this site once a day or once a week we can help reunite these missing children with those who pine their return home safely; their family.

As cited on the Centers for Missing and Exploited Children: “If your child disappears in a store,
notify the store manager or security office. Then immediately call your local law-enforcement agency. Many stores have a Code Adam plan of action— if a child is missing in the store, employees immediately mobilize to look for the missing child.” When a store mobilizes for Code Adam, they will lock down all the exits and entrances. If the store you frequently visit does not have this system in place, approach the manager of the store and ask: Why not? I think that every parent of a child should do so. We must be our children’s advocate.

If you are a parent, carry with you at ALL times a current picture of your child and make sure their dental visits are up-to-date. This way, dentists have on record their dental x-rays should the worst case scenario happen or to prove a child found dead is not your child.

Other tips to help locate missing children are listed below:

When you call law enforcement, provide your child's name, date of birth, height, weight, and any other unique identifiers such as eyeglasses and braces. Tell them when you noticed that your child was missing and what clothing he or she was wearing.

Request that your child's name and identifying information be immediately entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Missing Person File.

After you have reported your child missing to law enforcement, call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on our toll-free telephone number: 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). Or you can use our Live Hotline to talk to NCMEC through our web site.

While we may not be able to solve mysteries decades old of missing children, I do feel we can play an integral part in helping to prevent children from becoming the next missing child or worse; murdered. In any broadcast where a child has been found murdered and their remains found, I cannot help but to think of that child’s last moments here on Earth. It offends the senses when such violence is brought upon a child.

In reading this column, what I ask of all of you is to click on the Centers for Missing and Exploited Children and see if you do recognize a child that is missing. If you do, then please contact your local law enforcement agency as well the Centers for Missing and Exploited Children. Let us not leave these children behind when their parents desperately want to be reunited with them. Imagine if it were your child: You would want this from every single American. Let us keep our eyes open and bring these children back home.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: In this case, please circulate this column to everyone you know and YES you have my permission to post it on every single blog or site you know of.

Imagine 47 million signs stating: “Where’s my health care?”

2009-06-16T07:32:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
June 16, 2009

Like millions of Americans especially the 47 million who have no insurance and those underinsured, I have been paying close attention to the health care debate on various networks. Whom do I see discussing it? The hosts of various news shows, pundits from both sides and politicians also of both sides.

Most likely they all have health insurance and do not even know the terror of those who go without. Are they the best people we as Americans should be listening to? No, we should hear from those who presently have no health insurance. Their stories should be broadcasted on all major news networks 24/7 so that our esteemed politicians get it. Then again, do they really want to get it?

This July, I will be 51 years-old and I am coming to grips where someday I will no longer have health insurance and just that thought terrifies me since I am an epileptic who also suffers from a heart arrhythmia. I take five prescription drugs so I do not seize or where my heart condition does not get worse. Forget the primary care since I must keep these two conditions in check. Copayments have increased.

The reason why I will not be covered at some point is that my husband craves a divorce although he admitted he cannot afford it right now. Reason is, he has a girl friend. Some have said to me divorce him now, but that is akin to putting a gun to my head and pulling the trigger since it will leave me uninsured. After a divorce decree goes through all of my medical benefits go with it since these benefits come from his job. So, I just deal.

To the naysayers of any government-run-health-care system, call it anything you want to call it such as socialized medicine: But from my perspective, I would rather be seen by a doctor than go without. The difference for me is life and death and frankly, that is the terror millions of Americans are going through this very moment. As I come to grips with my future, I can certainly understand their present.

Forget Al Qaeda when the terror that faces millions of Americans is no health insurance. Osama bin Laden is so far out of people’s minds as the medical bills come to their homes. Their enemy is not sleeper cells, terrorist cells in a far off land, but their own government as well as insurance companies as well as drug companies.

Yet, here we have the hosts, pundits and politicians bloviate where at this very moment, an American citizen has just died because they could not afford to go see a doctor. No one is hearing of their death and this one issue must be front and center as Americans are dying from lack of health-care. How many who succumbed to ‘Swine Flu’ did not have health insurance as the media concentrated on that story?

Some in Washington, D.C., screech about the cost of any government-run system, yet fork over billions upon billions to fund endless wars now approaching $1 trillion dollars. They seem to come together to spend these billions ending lives, but separate or switch sides when it comes to saving lives. How truly pathetic.

They may mock countries such as Canada, Cuba and Venezuela: At least their governments value human life by funding health care systems where each citizen has access to a doctor. The doctors in Cuba may work for pittance, but they are acting as healers instead of bean counters. Is their system perfect? Maybe not, but at least their citizens do not live in terror of not seeing a doctor.

In his speech before the A.M.A. (American Medical Association) yesterday, President Barack Obama asked those doctors gathered if they entered this field to act as healers or bean counters.

We seem to puff out our chests with pride when it comes to our health-care system over other countries, but when you have millions not having access to it: Is it a perfect system? No, it is not. Just how great is a new MRI machine or CAT-scan machine or treatments for one disease after another when millions cannot pay for these tests and treatments? It is like dangling a treat before their eyes, but saying: You cannot have it as you snatch it away.

Just for your information, I have had MRIs and the cost of each test is $1,500.00. If you are an epileptic without health insurance: How can you afford such a test? You cannot! MRIs are important since the first one I had showed what was causing my epilepsy. I have a lesion on my brain caused from a bike accident I had when I was six.

Contained within many health insurance packets are drug benefits and just the other day I had to fill my Tegretol prescription and the copayment was $40 dollars. I tremble in fear knowing someday, I will have to pay the full amount and that is just one drug that I take. To any naysayer of a government-run-system: Look in your medicine cabinet and see how many prescriptions you are presently taking, and if you are presently without health insurance you must be seething at those who wish to protect the pharmaceutical companies as well as insurance companies. If you are not; I do not understand why. Oh wait, I do understand why. You have allowed a government run system to be demonized with words like socialism, Marxism and the like.

It just seems to me that in this country, we protect profits over people’s lives. Oh and speaking of these big pharmaceutical companies: Just how much does it cost to air those ads on television? Is the increase in price of prescription drugs directly related to ad-buys? One commercial that gets my attention lately, is a drug for the treatment of depression; Abilify. I just wonder if they have seen a spike in sales given the myriad of issues that face Americans today.

As the media has focused on the protests in Iran where people have taken to the streets concerning their presidential election, in this country I feel it important that the millions upon millions take to the street who presently do not have health insurance or who are underinsured. We have heard from news hosts, pundits and politicians: Left out of the health care debate are the voices of millions. In viewing the protests taking place in Iran we witnessed some carrying signs stating: “Where’s my vote”, in this country, our country, I would love to see 47 million of signs stating: “Where’s my health care?”

As a writer, I love playing with imagery: Imagine if you will those signs being carried by folks in wheel chairs, wearing oxygen tanks, wearing chemo-tanks or coffins being pushed symbolizing just how many have died because of lack of health insurance. Think of how that would play around the world being covered by foreign news services. It would say, we are not able to take care of our own as we try and tell others how to.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Our clear and present danger is Sarah Palin, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh

2009-06-14T12:01:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
June 14, 2009

In reading Frank Rich’s column: The Obama Haters’ Silent Enablers published in today’s New York Times, a tip of the hat goes to Mr. Rich as he blasts Fox News as well as Rush Limbaugh and Frank Gaffney. Yes, I am all for free speech, but not speech which can ignite someone to assassinate anyone, as Limbaugh stated: “any U.S. soldier” who found himself with only two bullets in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Osama bin Laden would use both shots to assassinate Pelosi and then strangle Reid and bin Laden.”

Last I knew threatening speech is not covered by the First Amendment. Anyone can follow Limbaugh’s directives and actually take out the Speaker and Senate Majority Leader, Reid. Yet, there he sits and bloviates to millions. Then again, Ann Coulter has done so in the past where she stated someone should put rat-poison in Justice Steven’s crème Brule or that Timothy McVeigh should have bombed the New York Times building. Yet, both make millions coming from a froth-filled America.

While I cannot top what Mr. Rich opined of Fox News since he did a suburb job, I was struck when he mentioned the McCain/Palin ticket, since I feel it set the stage of this hate towards our President by lunatics. In fact I did write of it during the presidential campaign.

Before I get into what I wrote of the campaign, I wish to address Palin’s beef with David Letterman who joked of Palin’s daughter and Palin herself. He has somewhat apologized, but has Palin apologized to the nation for what she did during the presidential campaign? As we all know, she played tinder-box politics which could have done more harm to this country than any joke made by Letterman.

Back in October of 2008 I wrote this piece: Sarah Palin in engaging in tinder-box politics is a danger to our national security and you will see clear and concise evidence of how she was able to stoke the fires of hate and fear. Yet, the media reveres her and allowing her to opine of any issue facing the American people today. I am of the opinion it is akin to asking David Duke where he thinks this country needs to go.

In my past piece I wrote: “She has said of Ayers that he was a domestic terrorist, but in our recent history, we did in fact have a true domestic terrorist who was deluded and pushed to the breaking point in Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh’s anger at the government resulted in his bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City where 168 innocent people lost their lives. Can Palin’s divisive speeches create yet another one just as dangerous as Tim McVeigh was?”

At one of her rallies, Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott while dressed in his uniform, invoked Barack Obama's middle name which is Hussein stoking the fires of hate towards Muslims. That is far more dangerous to our nation than what Letterman did to her.

In her past rallies which thousands came to; only to hear chants of “Kill him” or “terrorist”, it was her responsibility to tell them to stop. At one of her rallies a black cameraman was told to “sit down boy”

Rush Limbaugh has often cited that Sarah Palin is the true head of the Republican Party and that should scare every single American if so many would follow someone so hateful. Do not let her winks and “you betchas” disarm you.

If she is that concerned over her daughter, then why did she take her children to so many of these hate-filled rallies for them to hear such racist feedback coming from those who attended them? Why did she take them to a Philadelphia Flyers game only for beer bottles to be thrown in their direction? One of those beer bottles could have killed one Palin’s children as they stepped out onto the ice.

The hate she threw out to her rallies did indeed come back at her at the Flyer’s game.

The thing that absolutely terrifies me at this point is if Heaven forbid someone were to actually get close to President Obama and take a shot; is what it would do to our country as we face a myriad of problems from the economy, health care reform, millions of people out of work and the list is endless. We do not need to turn on our news at one point only to hear that our President has been assassinated.

Those I would place the blame on would be folks like Sarah Palin and those at Fox News who try to connect the recent killings of an abortion doctor and a security guard by two madmen to our President.

The clear and present danger to all of us is to listen to hate-filled speech coming from anyone at Fox News, Sarah Palin’s past comments, Rush Limbaugh and the rest of their ilk. We have much to solve as a nation and we surely do not need their voices stirring Satan’s cauldron of hate.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author for permission.

Looking for employment one can do from home

2009-06-11T07:36:00.000-07:00

By Mary MacElveen
June 11, 2009

What may be my last post here on marymacelveen.com since I can’t afford to pay for it, I do have a free blog which is located at http://www.mary_macelveen.blogspot.com. I have never asked for donations as I have written my pieces over these past nine-years as a non-paid writer.

While I still enjoy writing, I have come to realize there is no money in doing so and quite frankly, I have to be somewhat selfish at this point and seek a job (preferably one I can do from home), since I am an epileptic and do not drive.

I am not a tech-savvy person, so intricate computer work is something I am not qualified to do. However, I am an energetic person who is willing to learn other jobs in order to make money.

I will be 51 years-old this coming July who wants to re-enter the job market after 19 years of raising two children who will soon be on their own. Getting one’s ducks in a row to plan one’s future is a must for me.

My strengths are sales since I once worked for Lord and Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue and JC Penney. Other strengths are writing and great communication skills since I am a people-person. As a writer over these past nine-years, research is something I am great at when sourcing information for any column I have written. I do not know if there is money to be made in researching information, but I thought I would throw it out there. If you are a private investigator, perhaps you need someone to do research for you? That is a field that has always intrigued me. If you are in the news media and do need a person to research information from home, I am trainable.

At this juncture of my life, my goal is to make money and I am a driven individual.

You can contact me at xmjmac@optonline.net

The Roloff Family: The giants of social activism

2009-06-10T21:40:00.000-07:00

The Roloff Family: The giants of social activism
By Mary MacElveen
December 17, 2006

In writing of any form of social activism some times writers focus on the negative instead of the positive. I have been guilty of writing in the negative which has often left me feeling empty and I suppose it makes those who read my pieces feeling the same way. In writing positive pieces or observing positive social activism, instead of leaving one feeling empty, it fills a person. One must admit by observing the positive or reading a positive social activism, it leaves one feeling inspired. What also transpires is the eruption of tears, not filled with sorrow, but ones filled with joy. It also leaves one smiling ear-to-ear.

If I were to ask you who you think are the most powerful forces of social activism, what would your answer be? What cause would they be serving and who would be the recipients of their kind deeds? More importantly are you hearing of them every day? While I will not answer those questions for you, I will choose to place the spot light on a family who I believe moves mountains for the smallest of citizens.

For quite sometime, I have been a huge fan of The Learning Channel’s show “Little People, Big World” which in this writer’s opinion is the best reality show on television. It also spotlights the Roloff family who reside near Portland, Oregon on a 34 acre farm. Matt Roloff along with his wife Amy are dwarfs. They have four children whose names are Jeremy, Zach, Molly and Jacob. Both Jeremy and Zach are twins, but you would not know it since Jeremy is of average height and his twin Zach is a little person. Both Molly and Jacob are of average height.

You would think that being dwarfs would be an arduous life for Matt Roloff, but it is not. In fact one of his favorite words is resilient. For a little person, he is a giant when it comes to social activism and his activism is to help those who are short in stature live lives to their fullest potential. This is not often a condition one thinks of when it comes to helping out their fellow man, but Matt saw a nitch, grabbed it by the horns and ran with it. As one watches him the term boundless energy comes to mind. He never stops and the community of little people are his benefactors.

Often when little people go to hotels, they meet many obstacles such as not being able to reach the sink or hang their clothes in the closet. In 2003, Matt started a company called Access Solutions which sells benches that little people can climb up on to reach what was inaccessible to them in the past. They sell them to many major hotel chains, so if a little person checks in a hotel, they can make use of their facilities. Matt founded this company with his partner, Mike Detjen. Those of us who have checked into hotels think nothing of grabbing for an extra pillow or blanket on the shelf of a closet, but for little people this is an obstacle. To meet that need they also sell a reach grabber.

Amy does not let her size stop her from coaching a soccer team. In one episode that I watched she became the coach. Parents of those playing on this team did not know what to make of her, but to her credit, she proved she could make a goal. Her son Zach since he cannot play for teams that are mainly geared towards average size people, has assisted his mother in coaching this team.

For those of you who are not fully aware of this condition, I invite all of you to read up on Dwarfism. As you will read there are many forms of dwarfism such as achondroplasia, spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita, diastrophic dysplasia and many other forms of this condition. These are the people that the Roloffs have been helping. While there is no known cure for dwarfism, there are treatments such as growth hormone treatment and those who have this condition have had to go through numerous surgeries especially on leg bones, hip bones and the spine.

Often those who are little people are discriminated when trying to gain employment and as one watches this show, ‘Little, People, Big World’, it helps to break down the barriers. Hopefully those who once discriminated against little people can see that they are just as able. Matt often speaks to school age children to explain what this condition is so that when they grow up, they will not be the ones that do make fun of little people.

Every year there is a Little People Conference held in various cities. It is a place where little people can come and just be themselves. Often the place in which they reside year round does not have a social support system or a huge population in which these teenagers can socialize. This is something that we average size people take for granted as we raise our average size teenagers. Each year, the Roloff family attends in order to help their son Zach to be with those his own age and more importantly size. It is also a conference in which little people can network. Leaving these conferences is hard since many will not see each other till the next one. Although, Zach has flown to meet two friends who are identical dwarfs. Like Zach, those twins also have boundless energy.

In one episode they met with an orthopedic doctor who examined Zach to see what further surgeries he will need since as I stated above dwarfs often have to go through numerous surgeries. But, as I have watched this show, it does not stop this teenager from fully enjoying life. At these LP conferences, he has made life long friends.

Amy Roloff has been actively involved in Little People of America for some time now and as one sees her network at these conferences as she speaks to teens that are also of small stature. In Amy, they do have a role model in order to learn from. We often see average sized teen girls having a hard time connecting, just think how a teenager who is a little person must feel. That is where women like Amy Roloff do play a huge part in making them understand that the sky is the limit.

In the episode “Matt’s on a Mission” the first mission undertaken by Matt's new organization, the Coalition for Dwarf Advocacy, was to help get a 5-year-old dwarf child adopted by an average-height couple. This little boy’s name is Chance. He was given up at birth since his birth parents were not able to care for him and for the first five years of his life, he spent it in a hospital. Thanks to Matt’s help, he is now adopted out and this organization helped with the cost of this adoption.

While the adoptions of average size children are expensive, the adoptions of these children exceed that since their medical care is something we often do not think of. Chance has been tethered to an air tube for most of his short life, but hopefully soon it will no longer be necessary. He cannot speak at this point, but as I watched this episode, he was able to communicate with his eye brows and hand motions. His new average size parents had been trying for a long time to have a child, without success, but when they saw Chance, they knew they had to adopt him. I must say when seeing this little boy, I did not see him as being physically disabled, but a beautiful little boy with an expressive face.

Everyone has heard the term ‘Must see TV’ and I would have to say that this reality show, “Little People, Big World” is as real as it gets. They are not creating drama, but just showing how a family lives, works and helps their fellow little people. While I have not really spoken of Jeremy, Molly and Jacob who are of average size, Matt and Amy treat all of their children the same. They all work as a family unit and as one watches this show, one does not see the differences only how alike they are. In fact, I no longer see their disabilities, but their abilities to live life to its fullest.

Author's note: Ever since writing this article, I have noticed for quite sometime that this one article has remained in the top ten and even the top five articles read on my blog. I marvel at this and would like to hear feedback as to why you are choosing to read it and how you came about reading it. I am both humbled and honored that Matt Roloff and his mom, Peggy Roloff did email me to thank me for writing this column.

Author's address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Copyrighted material: Should you wish to use any portion of this column, please email the author.

A message to Republicans and others: This economic crisis is our new security threat

2009-02-13T06:36:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
February 13, 2009

Lost to all as Senator Judd Gregg backed down smiting the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama to be his Commerce Secretary was this most important story I read in today’s Washington Post: Financial Crisis Called Top Security Threat to U.S.. Which I will get to in a few moments.

Upon hearing this breaking news that Gregg took his name out of consideration as Commerce Secretary was, how dare he embarrass this new president whose polling numbers are stronger than those within the Republican congress. How dare he make this move the day before the Stimulus Bill is to be voted on where hopefully the tools contained within it can turn around this dire economy. Real people’s lives are being affected who are not even a part of this political process and the games played in Washington, D.C. by senators like Gregg is paramount to all of us. With Gregg out of the nomination for that seat, it is not the president’s loss, our loss and that is what we must take away from this. Be gone, Gregg is all that I will say.

With Republicans so concerned with the price tag of this stimulus package and not seeking any bipartisanship, exactly where were they when it came to the billions upon billions spent during the Bush presidency. Instead of reaching across the aisle to seek this elusive bipartisanship, they grabbed across the aisle demanding all get in line with former President Bush or be tagged as being unpatriotic.

We are facing unprecedented times and those Republicans who rebuke this president should be shamed instead of honored for standing on principle as Gregg tried to do yesterday. The American people need all of our elected leaders help and so does the rest of the world as we face down a new and real threat called the global economic meltdown which is affecting this planet in its entirety. The citizens of this country and the citizens from each and every country do need strong leadership and not gotcha games as displayed by the Republican Party.

In listening to President Barack Obama speak at the dinner in honor of the late President Abraham Lincoln who is the father of the Republican Party: I wonder, I wonder what this late president would think of the actions of those within this new Republican Party. Not much I would say.

Now back to the original focus of this piece is the security threat due to this global economic meltdown, the Washington Post wrote, “Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told Congress yesterday that instability in countries around the world caused by the current global economic crisis, rather than terrorism, is the primary near-term security threat to the United States.”

As we deal with this economic crisis that is endangering our national security, I invite all of my readers to read the original piece I wrote back in May of 2003 titled, President Bush, you do not defend America with a lie or a series of lies. Within it, I wrote which is pertinent to our present day circumstances, “A strong country means a country that is economically solvent, instead of insolvent. We have basically allowed a lie to put us in the red.” Little did I realize just how prophetic those words were.

Isn’t the security of this country paramount instead of playing partisan games as the Republicans are doing? They prided themselves as the party of security during the Bush years and now they decide to drop the ball? Then again, by leaving President Barack Obama with a budget deficit of over $1 trillion dollars, in that act, the ball was thrown off of the basketball court. Thankfully, we have a president who knows a thing or two or three of how to handle a ball both on and off the courts.

Let this be an ominous warning coming from Blair to these Republicans, bank executives who helped cause this crisis and to blowhards like Rush Limbaugh, where Blair stated, "Roughly a quarter of the countries in the world have already experienced low-level instability such as government changes because of the current slowdown," This economic crisis is far more dangerous than Al Qaeda and yet those who refuse to help stem this tide who think, who think the economy will be able to turn around without any intervention are the threat to our security as well.

Tax cuts, tax cuts and tax cuts cannot be the only tool used to stare down this new threat which is a clear and present danger.

Yes, elected leaders like Senator Gregg, Senator McConnell and Congressman Boehner are security threats not only to this nation but the world as a whole. Those who shout out from the sidelines like Limbaugh and Coulter as well as other notables like former Vice President Cheney are the threat and we should treat them as such.

As many within the Republican ranks stood against Immigration reform citing security reasons, I want to point out this observation made and written in this WP article, "He [Blair] also saw the prospect of possible refugee flows from the Caribbean to the United States and a questioning of American economic and financial leadership in the world." What say you, Congressman Peter King, Congressman Brian Bilbray and others such Lou Dobbs now? Will this economic firestorm cause an invasion by said refugees? These are dangerous times and I cannot stress that enough and yet folks who rebuke this popular president who has extended his hand across the aisle are playing petty politics and this is where we as Americans must rebuke them back.

What truly freaked out this columnist was this portion cited in that WP article that, "high levels of violent extremism" in the turmoil of the 1920s and 1930s along with "regime-threatening instability" if the economic crisis persists over a one-to-two-year period." Someone had better send an SOS out to those who would vote against the stimulus that it is urgent in nature that we as a nation pull together and get our house in order. Should those who fail to hear this SOS or just vote no on said principle or smite a president, they are putting self above country. Now what would the late President Abraham Lincoln say to that?

I will leave you the reader to read this ominous column published in the Washington Post in its entirety. It is about time we as a nation start paying attention to what is truly important and relevant to us all for the sake and security of this nation instead of stories dealing with celebs. Paying attention to celeb stories should and must be left behind similar to the way we should and must put the former administration behind us. Get that through your noggin, former Vice President Cheney.

In closing, those like McConnell, Boehner, Limbaugh, Coulter and any within the mainstream media who are talking down this stimulus package and President Barack Obama’s presidency itself, you are all a threat to our national security. Even those who smite President Obama such as Senator Gregg did the day before the Stimulus Bill is to be voted on are as well.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Nadya Suleman is a one woman mini-bailout: Taxpayers may bear the cost

2009-02-12T07:34:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
February 12, 2009

In my prior piece written on February 2nd, I asked who will bear the cost for the California Octuplets? Upon reading a news article today, I did receive that answer and yes, it will most likely be the debt-ridden state of California.

The AP is reporting this morning, "A big share of the financial burden of raising Nadya Suleman's 14 children could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers, compounding the public furor in a state already billions of dollars in the red." This is unjust and unfair given the fact she already had six children dependent upon public tax dollars.

In reading that she received, "$490 a month in food stamps, plus Social Security disability payments for three of the youngsters. The public aid will almost certainly be increased with the new additions to her family." I find her decision to become impregnated with eight more children reprehensible given the fact that many families are struggling today and with some living out of their cars.

When the State of California is roughly $42 billion-dollars in debt without the cost of the care of these octuplets being disclosed, the care for them may in fact fall upon the citizens of that state as well Americans living coast-to-coast.

Los Angeles Times columnist, Tim Ritten opined of the Suleman story as being "grotesque" as he also opined, "It appears that, in the case of the Suleman family, raising 14 children takes not simply a village but the combined resources of the county, state and federal governments,"

The conundrum I do see is while I opine that she should be bear all costs of their care, should that occur much less be carried out, it will be the children who will suffer. This is where the private sector must take an active role should they wish to safeguard these children instead of putting that on the backs of the American and Californian tax payer. Is it correct to ask those 10,000 state workers who Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may have to lay off to bear her burden? No, it is not. They have enough problems already. Many of those 10,000 workers have their own families to worry about and tremble thinking of how they will feed their families.

When she told NBC news in her recent interview with Ann Curry for Dateline NBC, she did not consider the public assistance to her as welfare: Let us get this straight, it is.

In a column I started working on after viewing that interview, I wrote, “On Tuesday night, Ann Curry of NBC News interviewed, Nadya Suleman for Dateline NBC. In this interview, she expressed her need to have as many children as possible as if they were possessions. What I viewed was a woman who clearly resembled cat-hoarders. Not to belittle these precious children, but even cats do suffer at the hands of these hoarders.” One only has to view Animal Planet’s “Animal Precinct” for proof of that fact.

When I heard that one of her subsequent children age three has autism and two others having special needs my immediate thought was someone should have intervened on those children’s behalves. Someone like her doctor should have told her NO! Who is to say what birth defects these eight babies will have growing up? Premature babies stand a higher risk of having them and she may not be able to cope both financially or emotionally.

In that interview, she stated that the sperm-donor signed a contract not to have any financial responsibility for these children or be a part of the upbringing of any of them. On behalf of the tax payers, the state should look into having that contract dissolved especially if he knew of any instability exhibited by her.

She has set up a web site asking for donations and I find that unconscionable given the fact she made this calculating decision. By the way at the end of the AP article they did link the reader to her web site, but in this piece, I will not.

I brought to light in my previous piece of couples making a hard decision not to bring children into this world because of these harsh economic times: Yet you do not see them setting up web sites asking for donations for any children they so desire. Their decision is truly the responsible one and it must be hard on them as they read of her situation.

Many students are finding it hard to obtain student loans due the fact that banks are not lending right now to extend them these lines of credit and it is important for any reading this piece to pay attention here: "In the NBC interview, Suleman said she will go back to California State University, Fullerton in the fall to complete her master's degree in counseling, and will use student loans to support her children. She already owes $50,000 in student loans, she told NBC. She said she will rely on the school's daycare center and volunteers." So, she will be using student loans to care for her children? Isn't that fraud? Student loans are used to pay for education and not the rearing of children. If I were an aspiring student trying to get a college loan, this would anger me.

She already owes $50 thousand dollars and instead of going back to college she should be thinking of ways to pay down that debt since it is her responsibility. Many families are working one, two or three jobs if they have not been laid off and the actions of this woman are selfish. There are many students who work while in college to pay for it and they too are the responsible ones.

The AP also reported, “For a single mother, the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 ranges from $1.3 million to $2.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.” I was correct in stating that she may have become the recipient of a stimulus package paid for by you and me. I would rather see any stimulus money go to the thousands and now millions of Henrietta Hughes of this country who through no fault of their own or calculating decision find themselves on the street and living in cars.

I think it incumbent upon the California State Attorney General to look into this matter to see if charges can be levied upon the doctor who performed these treatments given the fact the state of California maybe responsible for their care. I would look into his holdings and seize them to recover the cost that the state may have to bear in relief to the tax payers.

When the volunteers who have come into help her presently fade into the background, it will be her responsibility to raise these children and will be left to a debt-ridden state to monitor through social agencies to see if these children are being well cared for. They may have to make the responsible decision in putting these children into the foster care system and that is not fair to these children who I see as the victims.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Henrietta Hughes is the recipient of my ‘Founding Fathers Award’

2009-02-11T06:10:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
February 11, 2009

I have not handed out my ‘Founding Fathers Award’ in quite sometime, but today, I bestow this personal award of mine to Henrietta Hughes who showed courage beyond belief in that town-hall meeting in Fort Meyers, Florida.

When people are forced to live under such hardships as she lives in her car, it can be a humiliating factor where one does not want anyone to know of their plight. Often-times, they feel they have failed in life and in these dire times, it is far from the truth. The government and the system itself failed her, yet she showed the courage to speak saying to the president, “Please help.”

Her pleas must not be ignored when the AFP reported that California may not have any alternative to then to lay off 10,000 workers. As Republicans in the U.S. Senate exhibit their obstructionist powers, Republican governors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Crist and Rell back President Barack Obama. They like mayors who came to the White House pleading for help are on the front lines as these Republican senators cling to their ideological beliefs.

As I heard her pleas to President Barack Obama for a kitchen and a bathroom to call her own, the tears came. I could not believe in that any American would be forced to beg to any president, yet she did and grabbed the heart of this lone journalist. She became my hero for speaking up for millions of Americans and she must be our hero as well.

Finally our collective-misery had a face in Henrietta Hughes and we must all in our souls be thankful to her for speaking out on behalf of we the people.

As I think of her courage, the bile rises swiftly in my throat thinking of the greedy CEOs at banks and those who have benefited from our tax dollars through the first TARP bailout. As they hide, swimming in our money, this woman stood up to be the opposing voice.

Ms. Hughes does not want a junket, or any of the perks that we the people have given to them through the first bailout package which had no restrictions: She wants a bathroom to call her own.

As Rosa Parks stood up and sat in the front of that bus telling America what was emphatically wrong when it came to race relations in this country, Henrietta Hughes stood up for all of us. She became the voice of all Americans no matter what race or class you belong to. Even if you are a member of the upper-class, be mindful of the fact, you as well may be forced to live a car like Ms. Hughes.

In looking upon her tearful face, the anger seethed in me knowing how any recovery bill that goes back to the senate after conference must meet the requirements of Senators, Specter, Snowe and Collins. How dare they hold onto their ideological beliefs when people like Ms. Hughes are suffering!

If I could grab the attention of these senators and other Republican senators, I would say, grab a cot for any filibuster they may wish to enact. We the people must be heard. I would remind them of the millions in this country who do not have any cot to sleep on as Ms. Hughes reminded all of us stating she is living in her car.

Lastly, as I viewed President Barack Obama walk over to her to hear her plight, I thought finally we have a compassionate president. As he reached out to her, and kissed her cheek he carried away with him her tears. Her tears were the tears of a true hero in my eyes. Thank you, Ms. Hughes for being the voice and face of we the people and we all owe you our debt of gratitude.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

I wish to add an addendum to this piece: Hours after writing that article on Henrietta Hughes, I was please to read where some help did come to her. As reported, “A White House press secretary said administration officials asked the local housing authority to contact her after the exchange in Fort Myers.” As well as this, “Meanwhile, the wife of Florida state Rep. Nick Thompson offered to let the woman stay in a house she owns that's vacant about 30 miles away. Chene Thompson isn't sure if Hughes will take her up on the offer.” Whatever the outcome is, I am thrilled beyond belief for her good fortune.

The $780 billion stimulus bill can be paid down if we legalized marijuana

2009-02-07T10:18:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
February 7, 2009

This may be the most controversial column I have ever written depending upon your views concerning the use of marijuana. Presently, the use of it is illegal for the majority of American citizens. The use of it for medical reasons is legal in 12 states who use different criteria for the use of it.

Just recently, Michael Phelps who won eight gold medals for swimming in last year’s Olympics was caught using marijuana as he smoked it using a water pipe. Since then, he has apologized publicly for doing so and has lost millions in endorsements from companies like Kellogg’s. I feel this is a knee-jerk reaction to punish an athlete for using marijuana where some of our politicians have claimed to have used it in the past. One such politician is our current president, Barack Obama and yet, look at what he has accomplished since he came clean in his past use of it. He became our first African-American president and not because of his use of it, but what he was able to accomplish in serving the people. Those companies pulling their endorsements from Phelps should reconsider.

Now here is the controversial part: Perhaps it is time to revisit this debate on whether or not to actually legalize marijuana. It just may be a boost to our ailing economy. If we actually legalize it to be sold in controlled businesses similar to liquor stores, just think of how the government can tax this new commodity. It can be taxed like cigarettes and liquor presently are and those who choose to use it can come out of the closet so to speak. This country already tried prohibition when it came to the use of alcohol and we see that it did not work. It drove many underground to consume it in ‘Speakeasies’. It was later repealed via the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Think of the manufacturing base that can spring up around it such as making good old American bongs. Something to think about as we see plant-after-plant close. As many industries go belly-up, think of the many cottage industries that can spring up by selling these products. New businesses are always a plus for an ailing economy.

In Rachael Baldwin’s column for The Collegian, right off the bat she writes, “The legalization of marijuana would greatly impact the U.S. economy. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, website, marijuana is “America’s most valuable crop.” With Washington looking for sources of cash to infuse into our economy, just think if it got down off its moral high-horse and legalized it. Found money!

Baldwin goes onto opine, "Marijuana crops in the United States are worth about 35.8 billion dollars per year, which is 12.5 billion more dollars per year than corn, the second most profitable crop. If taxed like alcohol and tobacco, marijuana could bring in even more money." I see revenue and where those who chose to smoke it, would not have to rely on this commodity coming from South America. Just think of how this will affect those drug lords? Oh they will be kept busy with the production of cocaine and crystal-meth which are highly addictive drugs and should be the ones targeted. But, if the production of marijuana and the sale of it is estimated in the billions, we can take those billions away from their deadly hands.

As congress will be looking to make cuts in certain programs such as food stamps which have been cut from this stimulus bill, Baldwin writes, "Legalization of marijuana could also save law enforcement agencies an astronomical amount of money. Miron estimates that marijuana legalization could save the United States as much as 7.7 billion dollars in law enforcement costs per year."

With the amount we can tax this commodity with, plus how much we can rake in growing our own crops as well as how much we can save in prosecuting any offenders: That $780 billion dollar stimulus bill can be paid down in no time.

Baldwin cites in her article that marijuana is not addictive as I have read in other articles in the past and that can allay the fears of those who would oppose this legalization. Your morning cup of coffee is far more addictive than marijuana. Should you discontinue the use of marijuana, there are no withdrawal symptoms as there is with cigarettes.

If folks are still afraid of legalizing marijuana, Baldwin writes, "there are an estimated 435,000 deaths per year in the United States due to tobacco use and 85,000 deaths due to alcohol...So, how many people die every year from using marijuana? Zero. That’s right, the use of marijuana alone has not been shown to cause any deaths." I have heard of these statistics in the past and it truly boggles the mind how liquor and cigarettes are the legal commodity instead of marijuana.

In the past, I have been resistant to this idea of legalizing marijuana, but knowing how much money it does bring in due to and underground market and seeing the facts of how safe it is compared to cigarettes and alcohol, I feel this is the time to revisit this debate. One thing about our government is if they see dollar signs mentioned in any debate, their eyes pop open and perhaps their minds can be changed. If the government sees something it can tax, that usually gets their attention.

Am I advocating the use of it? No, I am not. That choice if we made marijuana legal would be up the adults that choose to consume it. I say adults because there is already an age criteria for the consumption of alcohol and cigarettes.

What I have not even touched upon but equally important is the production of hemp which is also illegal in this country. In this USA Today article, you will read, “Hemp products still account for only a small percentage of the $15 billion a year market for organic goods, but the Hemp Industries Association says sales are rising by 50% a year. Gero Leson, an agricultural researcher in Berkeley, Calif., says hemp products will account for about $15 million this year in retail food sales and $40 million in cosmetics and body products.” This was an article that was published in 2005. Imagine if we legalized hemp how it can help jump-start this economy. Think of the products which are American products could be sold to consumers. Think of the industries that can spring up surrounding this commodity.

Back when this article was published, they wrote, "Canadian farmers planted more than 24,000 acres of hemp this year, nearly triple the 2004 total." Why not give the farmers in this country a chance when so many have been hurt and allow them to grow these crops which are not only financially beneficial to them, but to our economy as a whole?

Will our elected leaders think this idea is meritorious or stick to their old ways of thinking? Maybe it is about time that we as a people who do see the merit in legalizing marijuana and other products that come from it, should be the ones nudging our politicos along.

I know that this idea will be met with scorn from various anti-drug organizations, but as commercials remind us to drink responsibility, newer ones can say, smoke responsibly.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

To the Republican members of the senate….Pass the stimulus package NOW!

2009-02-05T21:51:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
February 6, 2009

I like many have been watching the debates concerning the ‘Stimulus Package’ for many days now and I will be brief in this open letter to all of you who are dragging your feet. We are in a crisis. Get it?! People have actually lost their jobs, losing their jobs or will lose them all together and while you grab camera-time thanks to a 24/7 news cycle, they suffer. Yes, real Americans are having a hard time out here. They have lost their homes, or are losing them. Real Americans are not able to eat as you so pontificate.

Tax cuts or cuts in taxes to corporations will not suffice. Real people need jobs in order to spend that money which will turn this economy around. The Reagan era is over with and thank goodness for this country!

In New York State where I live, a commercial is running pleading to Governor David Paterson not to close state hospitals as you so enjoy top-rate health care. That is where some of this stimulus package will go to. I tremble knowing that a community hospital that I have come to depend upon will be next on the chopping block.

I want you to envision this mental image, this economic crisis is just as devastating as 9/11 and Pearl Harbor where everyone got behind the Commander in Chief to support him and his policies. We as a people elected President Barack Obama and we demand that you get behind him as congressional bodies got behind President Franklin D. Roosevelt and President George W. Bush.

All of you who grab the cameras act as if your party won on November 4th, 2008 when the complete opposite happened. We as a people exiled you. No, you did not get your trip to Disney World, but were exiled to the farthest reaches of this planet given your past and dismal record these past eight years.

If there are elected officials that the American people should be paying attention to besides our president it would be our governors who have loaned their support behind his bill. Governors such as, Schwarzenegger, Crist and Rendell. These governors as are many are on the front lines as you whimper and plea to the American people why this bill is so wrong. They are doing the heavy lifting making executive decisions where you all huddle to in a plan to embarrass our president. Well, we the people will have none of that! As I watched Senator McCain speak of this bill, all I will say is, “Senator McCain, you lost, get over it and loan your support behind our president who was so gracious to you!”

We the people who voted in this change demand it, Senators, now it is your job to make it so. You lost and are in the minority and now is your time to back our president, President Barack Obama.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

Octuplets in California: Who will bear the financial cost for their care?

2009-02-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
February 2, 2009

In a past piece, I wrote where the State of California is now handing out IOUs since their debt has sky-rocketed and this has a devastating affect on families who need to provide for their families. IOUs do not put food on the family table.

With the birth of octuplets as with any multiple-birth comes with it a heavy financial burden. In the past, communities and corporations have come to the aid of these families, but in these harsh economic times, I do suspect that the unidentified woman who now has fourteen children will not receive as much as couples past.

Presently, we have over 47 million going without health insurance, and that number will climb as many are being laid off. Neonatal care is highly expensive and if a person has no insurance, it is the state who must pick up the tab. I do not know how the State of California can afford to pay for her care and the care of these eight children who will be in intensive care for roughly two months.

This woman along with her fourteen children will become a mini-stimulus package if the state is forced to pick up any portion of the tab. I feel it irresponsible on the doctor’s part to perform any fertility enhancing procedure on a woman who already had six children. In my opinion it is incumbent upon these doctors not only to check whether or not she is physically healthy to go through this procedure, but financially as well. Both patients and doctors alike cannot expect others to pay for the outcome should multiple births such as this one occur.

In this blog, you will read heart-wrenching questions posed by others who feel they cannot afford to bring one child into this world and this is where doctors such as the fertility doctors who performed this procedure on this woman should listen to.

One woman writes: "With the economy in its current edition, that plays heavy on my mind every day. I go back and forth on whether now (or ever!) is the right time to have a baby."

Another woman writes: "What if we weren’t able to make our mortgage payment and bills? I would feel guilty for choosing to have a child and then not able to afford it. What type of a parent does that make me?"

I now wonder how couples who are putting off having a child because of this dismal economy are feeling knowing aid will rush to this woman as is the case with other cases of multiple births. Their arms remain empty.

In November of 1997 in which the economy was fairing far better than today, a couple, Bobbi and Kenny McCaughey in Iowa gave birth to septuplets. They received the following help: “Millions of Americans followed the story. Carter's, Similac, Kmart, and other companies donated clothes, formula and shoes to the family, while Hannibal-Lagrange College (Missouri) offered scholarships for the children. Iowa's building contractors and suppliers gave the McCaugheys a larger house, and celebrities donated money to help the children. Citizens from all over the country sent clothes, money, letters and toys. In addition to financial help, hundreds of volunteers helped feed, clothe, diaper and cuddle the babies.”

Will a community or communities come to the rescue with the birth of these octuplets? Will corporations who are facing leaner times as well come to their aid? Right now, many parents can no longer afford to pay for their children’s tuition at college and how must they feel should any college(s) come forth to offer the aid to these children?

As builders came to the McCaughey’s aid in building them a larger home for their expanded family, in our harsher economy of today, many are facing foreclosure where they have no place to call home.

What those doctors did was perform medical malpractice and should be held to account. The one question they should have asked this woman first and foremost is, “Can you afford to bring these babies into the world?” when so many women are facing economic hardships having but one child. A doctor’s motto is “First do no harm” and medically and ethically, they did. What happens if one, two or more will face any number of debilitating conditions due to this birth? They will be the ones made to suffer as these doctors fade into the background.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

On a side note: Twenty-years ago today, I gave birth to twins. One lived three days and the other still born. The viable twin lived for three days and I can tell you that the cost of his care was expensive. The hospital two years later sued us for unpaid bills. We did pay them off.
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In NY State: Law abiding citizens need jobs instead of prisoners obtaining college funds

2009-01-30T23:12:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
January 31, 2009

Like most mornings, I sip my coffee and devour my Newsday, but upon reading this one article, Advocates seek college funds for prisoners, well I nearly spit it out in total disbelief. I would like to remind these advocates of our current economic crisis in which law abiding citizens are finding it harder and harder to send their children onto college. Some cannot even afford to go. Some must seek work if they can find a job.

What about the laid off workers in NY State who must say to their child, “Sorry, we just cannot afford to send you onto college.” Imagine their anger in reading this one article that some politicians would rather help prisoners than their own children. This is simply maddening if you ask me.

I was always brought up thinking that prison was a place for punishment. Yes, in more prosperous times, we did think of rehabilitating these prisoners so they would become productive members of society. But, can we afford to spend millions on these programs at this point? The sound response should be, no we cannot.

In past articles, I have cited how food pantries were going bare and being used by people working two jobs in order to make it. I think they could use those millions instead of prisoners in order to survive.

Newsday reported, "The Correctional Association of New York, a watchdog agency that pushes for legislative and policy reform in the state correctional system, released a report today extolling the merits of educated prisoners, saying college courses have long-term benefits that can be realized quickly." What I would say to this watch-dog group is that the stimulus bill has not even reached Pres. Obama's desk since it will be discussed and voted on in the senate and any benefits either short or long term must go to those presently unemployed to jumpstart this economy first.

This watch-dog organization even had the gall as to say that this "money should be dedicated despite the economy." Instead of issuing a 23 page report, what they should do is say that to the millions who have lost their jobs and the tens of thousands who the president cited lost their jobs this past week. The sum they are seeking is between $5 million and $10 million dollars. While a low sum as opposed to the billions handed out to banking institutions, still the unemployed must come first.

New York City's Mayor, Michael Bloomberg has called for, "huge job cuts in New York City, and remedies to help stop the fiscal bloodletting may range from thousands of layoffs to service cuts to a sales-tax increase," To even think of funding college programs for prisoners is insane at this moment in time.

This is where those who are calling for these programs to educate prisoners must think of those who are law abiding citizens whose needs must come first and foremost by our elected officials here in NY State.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

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Rod Blagojevich: Who will be the next to be tried by the media?

2009-01-30T08:40:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
January 30, 2009

With the removal of now former Gov. Rod Blagojevich from power as was done by the Illinois State Senate yesterday, do not expect a cheer coming from me. One must wonder how many of those who ousted him from power are nervous today that they too can be drawn into any future legal proceeding against them. Will they as well be tried in the media as former Gov. Blagojevich was? I wonder how many went home afterwards to pour themselves a good-stiff-drink.

Decades before the Internet and 24/7 cable news, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, Hugo Black cited in 1941, “Legal trials are not like elections, to be won through the use of the meeting-hall, the radio, and the newspaper.”1 In the last decade, it seems as though Justice Black’s fear that legal battles would be waged in the media has come to fruition.2 The public’s interest in high-profile criminal cases has grown dramatically over the last decade, increasing the difficulty of finding impartial decisionmakers.3 Because such a highly publicized atmosphere surrounds potential jurors, these triers of fact may be influenced as to the guilt or innocence of a high-profile defendant before the trial even begins.”

To those within the mainstream media who pre-judged his guilt; exactly how is he supposed to get twelve jurors to decide his guilt or innocence when you decided it for them? Call me finicky, but I believe in the rule of law where a person is tried within a court of law and not in the court of public opinion. Journalists can opine, but opining is supposition and not facts based on the evidence. It is supposed to be where said facts in evidence are challenged by the defendant’s attorney. By spouting their opinions, it is tantamount to them taking the stand without having sworn to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Even as I have written several columns on Blagojevich cannot opine if he is innocent or guilty because I have not seen the facts in evidence or have witnessed it challenged by his lawyers. So, if I am going to opine anything, he is still presumed innocent under the law.

To those who defend the Guantánamo detainees: What would you say if I said they were already guilty? The law must be driving some nuts right now as some look protect their rights, but not a former governor’s rights?

Case in point to prove how the media influences any trial proceeding is when the Church of Scientology asked that a case against them be moved to a different venue.

In reading this article, pay close attention to this item, "This week, it took the unusual step of asking the court to move a civil trial out of this area because, it says, potential Pinellas jurors have been prejudiced by negative media coverage."

Like the derogatory names used by the media in referring to former Gov. Rod Blagojevich, also cited in this article, "The community prejudice has been fueled by an ongoing barrage of negative media comments, principally by the St. Petersburg Times and the local television stations, including publication of inflammatory and unethical public statements by Kennan Dandar."

While this is all water under the bridge, I do opine that these state legislators should have waited for any indictment handed down by the U.S. Attorney, Patrick Fitzgerald and not a moment sooner. Indictments are handed down by grand-jurors who are the first decision makers in any legal proceeding with the ultimate ones being the jurors who at the end hear the case.

I too was upset with the former governor as he barnstormed the media pleading his case, but do feel he needed to since those in power were launching their case against him. Without a trial in the near future prosecuted by Fitzgerald, what was he supposed to do? Just stand there and take it on the chin by these state legislators who were not hearing his side? Did they in fact want to hear his side since many I suppose have their own political agendas? If political agendas were their motive, then shame on them.

As the mainstream media lynched him in the court of public opinion what they failed to present were the meritorious acts of this former governor. Since we are speaking of the court of public opinion where corporations are now demonized, it was the former governor who proposed a Tax Fairness Plan. This plan, "would shift the tax burden away from individuals, who have been carrying an increasing share of the burden over the past thirty years, to large businesses, which have paid little to no income tax." As we face a global economic meltdown, to his detractors, I strongly suggest that you read of this plan which was proposed by the former governor two years ago.

As President Barack Obama reminds parent’s of their responsibility when it comes to their children spending huge chunks of their time online or in front of computer games, it was former Governor Rod Blagojevich who chose to go up against this multi-billion dollar industry. This industry produces some of the most violent and sexually explicit games that our children are being exposed to. The next time there is a school shooting at the hands of a teenager, keep that in mind.

In the end, I wish former Gov. Blagojevich my best wishes since I am not cheering his removal from office today. I am also waiting for who the next person to be tried by the media instead of in a court of law. Good luck, Mr. Blagojevich in finding impartial jurors since the media already tried you.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

In addendum to this article, as one clicks on the link to read the former Governor Blagojevich’s Tax Fairness Plan, you will see listed as the governor, Gov. Pat Quinn. This was not Quinn’s proposed legislation, but that of former Governor Rod Blagojevich.

The Republicans failed at listening to the personal and shame on them!

2009-01-29T09:25:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
January 29, 2009

In his Inauguration Speech, President Barack Obama directed these very words to the Muslim world, “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.” As far as I am concerned, this statement equally applies to the Republican Party since not one of their House members voted yes to the stimulus bill which passed by the Democratic majority.

To his credit, President Barack Obama kept his promise to reach across the aisle to the Republicans and what did they do, they slapped his hand. Some would rather kiss the ring of Rush Limbaugh than do what is right for the citizens of this country.

Some Republican members threw a hissy-fit as they came before the cameras yesterday citing they wanted their voices heard. Not remembering that for a majority of the Bush years, they had their say and what was the end result? Millions of jobs lost where tens of thousands were lost this past week.

In reading an op-ed column in today’s Newsday, Carolyn Gusoff formerly of WNBC news in New York relayed her story to those willing to read it of her new-found-status in a growing club of sorts called the unemployed.

As we all know, with work comes a sense of dignity and pride in what we as Americans do. It is where one is able to have a conversation with another of what we do for a living. So, I was struck when she had this to say, “I am unemployed.” She goes onto say, “There - I said it… It sounds embarrassing - something you wouldn't want to shout out in a crowd. And it's something, after two decades of quite gainful employment, that I never imagined would happen to me.”

We often think those in the media are not representative of we the people, but here a former news reporter and a good one at that chronicled her feelings and I do suspect, many do see themselves in her shoes.

The reason for her job loss is at the hands of the Internet where people do not want to wait for the news and the advertising base is being lost to these local news departments. As with print news, the local news is one that I rely upon to see what is happening in my world. It is getting harder and harder to know what is happening within one’s own community.

In fact, I did touch upon this subject in a column, Cable News: I long for the days of “We now resume normal broadcasting”

Getting back to Guoff’s powerful commentary, somehow this one item written by her stood out and I do suspect that the millions who have lost their jobs could easily identify with "And what do you do?" leaves me at a loss. "I am, I was, I ... um ... and what do you do?" As I said, with a job comes a person's identity and how we show ourselves to the world, how we move within it and for millions, it is lost. Yet, these Republicans who failed at voting for this one bill simply do not get it.

In a prior piece, I wrote a similarity between the world we inherited after 9/11 to these stark and dark economic times. Directly after 9/11 both parties did come together to show a sign of strength not only to the American people, but the world in the name of patriotism. Gusoff's words spoke to the very heart of it as she listened to President Obama's speech in which she wrote, "As I watched him usher in a season of change across the nation, I hung on every word. Because for me, like so many other Americans right now, hoping he succeeds is not just patriotic, it's personal." In these bleak economic times, the Republicans by not supporting this one bill are failing the American people.

As the Republican members gathered in a mob-mentality to show themselves flexing their political muscle, what they failed to do was to listen to the individual voices of those who have lost their jobs. They failed at listening to the personal and for that, I say, shame on them!

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

GOP complain about the stimulus package: How much has the Iraq War cost we the people so far?

2009-01-27T20:39:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
January 27, 2009

As President Barack Obama made his way to The Hill on Tuesday to meet with House and Senate Republicans to gain their support for the $825 billion dollar stimulus bill, it was met by all of them with the frost that remains days after Pres. Obama was sworn in. In the spirit of bipartisanship that Pres. Obama is trying to instill in Washington, the Republicans would have none of that. I would first like to add, weren’t they listening to the American voters on November 4th, 2008 as they swept Pres. Obama into office with a greater amount of Democrats in both houses of congress? Wasn’t that a clear signal to all of them, their leadership in D.C. was a failure? I guess they were still wearing the ear-muffs they wore on Inauguration Day.

In the first six years of the former Bush administration, the GOP was in power of both the executive and legislative branches and they expected Democrats to capitulate to their will all in the name of patriotism. America is staring down a different yet still devastating threat today that cannot be seen and it is up to the GOP to rise to the occasion to show how patriotic they really are in the face of this crisis which has equally imperiled the American people.

I would say that this economic threat is far more devastating than Al Qaeda, since it tentacles reach from sea to shining sea. I would also love to remind the GOP that former President Bush lied to the American people as to why we invaded Iraq. Yet the GOP expected not only congress, but the American people to fall for that hook, line and sinker.

As people have lost their jobs, and have continued to lose their jobs along with that are the health benefits they had and their ability to put food on the table as well as keep a roof over their head. This economic threat does not reside in terror cells, but in corporations that are no longer able to sustain the ability to employ these workers or states which are no longer able to meet their citizens needs. It was reported on Tuesday in The L.A. Times, “The budget deficit is $40 billion and growing. The state is so short of cash that, within days, it may issue IOUs, rather than checks, to pay its bills. The Legislature, bitterly divided, seems unable to agree on a way out. The governor warns of "financial Armageddon."

Yet, the GOP squawk at the amount it will take to get America working again in order to rebuild this economy, but no squawking took place when it came to the price tag of the Iraq War. To me, the Iraq War was the ultimate earmark and it did not get as much in-depth discussion of it and its price tag by former Pres. Bush, the congress and the media.

Since I chose California to prove the dire straights they are in economically, so far this war in Iraq has cost the American tax payer as a whole, over $591 billion dollars and counting by the second. Listed below is what the State of California could have used their portion of the funds for.

Taxpayers in California will pay $83.1 billion for total Iraq war spending approved to date. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

34,208,306 People with Health Care for One Year
OR
148,087,070 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year
OR
1,484,827 Public Safety Officers for One year
OR
1,174,122 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year
OR
12,490,710 Scholarships for University Students for One Year
OR
248,783 Affordable Housing Units
OR
31,068,375 Children with Health Care for One Year
OR
9,941,768 Head Start Places for Children for One Year
OR
1,193,726 Elementary School Teachers for One Year
OR
1,049,740 Port Container Inspectors for One year

If I were Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, I would have an up-close meeting with these House and Senate Republicans and no using that phrase, “I’ll be back”, but stay there until they listened to reason as his state is in fiscal chaos. Without the Iraq War, they would have been in the black.

Oh and last but not least as the Republicans haggle over the cost of that family planning portion of the bill which was taken out, let me remind my readers that all of us as tax payers paid for an American Embassy to be built in Baghdad which cost over $500 million dollars. Yet, another earmark and of no use to we the people as we face this economic firestorm.

To the Republicans on the Hill, just how are you the conservators of the people’s tax dollars? I just do not see it since no example has been proven to we the people.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

To Gov. Rod Blagojevich: Americans have their own problems and do not need to hear yours

2009-01-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
January 26, 2009

As the lone voice out here who has written column-after-column in support of the embattled governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich, I must say at this point, he is looking pathetic. To me, a strong elected official faces the music so to speak by participating in it to show his or her constituents’ the lynch-mob that he or she believes it to be and not running from it. That to me his actions signify cowardice.

Governor Blagojevich and I will not use any pseudo-names for him like others have within the media has chosen to air his grievances with this process on shows such as ABC’s “Good Morning America, “The View” and CNN’s, “Larry King Live” He is quoted as saying, "I'm here in New York because I can't get a fair hearing in Illinois, the state Senate in Illinois," he went onto say, “They've decided, with rules that are fixed, that don't allow me as a governor the right to be able to bring in witnesses to prove that I've done nothing wrong." Allow me to say to this governor, that not all get the choice whether or not to face their music. I do not know what sympathetic ear you may have here in New York, but New Yorkers are known to be tough and the harshest of critics to boot. Try selling your story to anyone from Brooklyn or the Bronx and see how far it gets you. I am from Long Island and right now, my teeny-tiny violin played with my thumb and forefinger are playing right now for you.

There was a man who the system was stacked against and his name is Marty Tankleff where he was accused of killing his parents, was tried for it and ultimately convicted. I know it is a far different case, but still, he sat there during that trial and heard a case that was stacked against him. He showed to many what true character was all about. He even took an unjust punishment by going to prison for most of his adult life. People fought for his release for years and years and were ever faithful to his cause. At the end, he was let out of prison when it was decided the proceedings were stacked against him. He is now a free man. I was one of those ever faithful who stood beside this courageous man and cheered when he was released from prison. While he lost so much, namely his parents, what he gained was the respect of those who did stand by him year-after-year. Ultimately it was decided by the Suffolk County, D.A. not to retry this case and now he is forever free.

At this point, I can no longer stand in support of Governor Rod Blagojevich as he runs from these proceedings trying to garner whatever support he thinks he has by pleading his case on the shows mentioned above. Life isn’t always fair, Governor Blagojevich, but one must show it so by looking it square in the face instead of running with one’s tail between their legs.

I want to remind this governor of whom he is speaking to: They may be viewers who are huddled around those sets who have lost their jobs, their homes and are truly frightened of their futures. They are the ones who gain any sympathy from me. They have no one to air their grievances with as you think you have the right to, governor.

The economic deck was stacked against the workers at Caterpillar who announced today that 20,000 jobs will be cut. Do they have any place to run? Home Depot announced today that 7,000 people will lose their jobs today and the same question should be asked: Do they have any place to run?

As President Barack Obama, the Senate and House try and stave off a complete fiscal meltdown here in the United States, it was announced today that the government of Iceland “collapsed Monday, leaving the island nation in political turmoil amid a financial crisis that has pummeled its economy and required an international bailout to keep the country afloat.” You are but one person, governor as millions upon millions are facing such hardships.

In reading an AP article, the bile rose as I read, “He said that when he was arrested on federal corruption charges, he took solace from thinking of other jailed leaders — Nelson Mandela, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi.” Do not even go there, Governor Blagojevich. You do not measure up to those leaders who went through such suffering for years and years and where one namely, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was ultimately assassinated.

Lastly, to Governor Rod Blagojevich, go back to Illinois and face the music as any real man or elected leader would do. If you feel the system is corrupt do so from within and not from outside. Americans have their own set of problems to deal with and they do not include yours.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net

To Senators McCain and Cornyn: President Barack Obama was correct in saying, “I won!”

2009-01-26T06:19:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
January 26, 2009

Now that the inaugural ceremonies are over with where 1.8 million braved the cold to be a part of history to see President Barack Obama sworn in as this country’s 44th President of the United States, what is left is the cold and some ‘rivals’ showing their true colors. The rivals I speak of are the obstructionists in Senator John McCain and Senator John Cornyn.

As many opined that Senator John McCain would be President Barack Obama’s Republican go-to-guy in the senate where President Obama hosted a dinner in his honor the night before being sworn in, he must remember this is the man who ran against him. President Barack Obama must remember this quote coming from then GOP candidate, Senator John McCain, “This is not change we can believe in.” One can say there are many things stated in a campaign and at the end the victor may forget in a state of amnesia remarks such as that. But, we who monitor campaigns and their messages must revisit them to remind the victor who they ran against.

After the momentous election of President Barack Obama, we witnessed him surround himself with people of opposing views where Doris Kearns-Goodwin’s book “A Team of Rivals” became a best seller. While it may be good for the governance of we the people, the message directed at Republicans is that the ultimate decision lies with the Commander in Chief, President Barack Obama. I would like to remind President Barack Obama that instead of McCain being said go-to-guy, he was and is his rival first and foremost.

Why am I zeroing in on McCain? On Fox News Sunday which aired yesterday, McCain said this of the Obama stimulus plan, “The plan was written by the Democratic majority in the House, primarily, and so, yeah, I think there has to be major rewrite," He went onto say, “I am opposed to most of the provisions in the bill; as it stands now, I would not support it." It was reported last week of Obama where he cited in a meeting between House and Senate Republicans and Democrats, “I won!” and that is what he must take away from all of this. It was President Barack Obama who placed his hand on that ‘Lincoln Bible’ and not John McCain.

It was reported that 58% of those who voted for McCain supported President Obama as he neared Inauguration Day and if he is looking for bipartisan support, reach out to those voters instead of people like McCain. To his credit, President Obama has as he gave his first Saturday morning chat both on radio and the Internet. These are the ones who matter most and President Obama must call upon them to contact their elected officials to support of his plan. Ask them to light up the switch boards as was done during the immigration reform vote which went down in flames. In fact, the senate switch board crashed with so many voters calling into their respective senators.

In his call where he stated he would not support President Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, all I would say is to remember that Senator John McCain was caught up in the Keating-Five scandal. That is what we must remember as it was brought up in the campaign. At the very heart of this economic meltdown is greed and at one time, McCain was the picture of greed.

Now we come to obstructionists’ like Senator John Cornyn who are making noise concerning Eric Holder who is President Obama’s pick to fill the Attorney General spot and remind him too, “I won!” Cornyn and others are fearful he may launch investigations into those who committed torture where Holder even stated that water boarding is torture which is a war crime under the Geneva Convention. To them, I say, let the chips fall where they may. If any of them are fearful of investigations, perhaps the lesson to be learned is, acts such as water boarding should never have taken place to begin with.

My message to the Republican Party is that elections do matter, they do have consequences and at the end the Democrats did win. You witnessed how many of your elected officials and candidates got picked off one-by-one and this is where the people spoke in great numbers. President Barack Obama’s victory was not a fifty-fifty split, but where he won a decisive victory. Just look at how many red-states flipped to blue and there in lies a resounding message to all of you. This was not only the success of the fifty-state strategy, but a signal of disgust and anger towards Republicans.

What continues to be lost as one reads any business section are jobs and those losing their homes and they are the ones who matter most. Those suffering from these events are Democrats, Republicans, Independents and non-voters alike.

It is time for these Republicans to get on board, lose whatever selfish pride they may have and get to work on behalf of we the people who handed your party a resounding defeat. After all, our memories are as long as an elephant and we do remember how devastating the Bush administration was along with the Republican Party who led this country with such brute force during the first six years of it. By forgetting all of that, the symbol of your party is not one of an elephant, but of those three monkeys who hold their hands over their mouths, ears and eyes. The reason is, that we were forced to speak no evil, hear no evil and see no evil when it came to your party.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net Print Article
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John McCain is a true patriot unlike Rush Limbaugh

2009-01-23T07:38:00.000-08:00

By Mary MacElveen
January 23, 2009

On his web site, radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh states of the new Obama administration, “I hope he fails”, which I will get to in a moment. But, it is this quote that I must confront head on, “They didn't give Bush a chance in 2000. Before he was inaugurated the search-and-destroy mission had begun.” First, I would love for him to clarify who “they” are. Liberals? People who voted for former Vice President Al Gore?

As an American, I can say that I did give him a chance having voted for former Vice President Al Gore in the 2000 presidential campaign. When our now former President, George W. Bush was sworn in on January 20th, 2001 I did get behind him. Yes, I did write my own pieces concerning that election, but realized George W. Bush would be our president for four years.

I stated my peace concerning that contested election which every American has the right to do using the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution. I cherish that amendment and will defend Limbaugh’s right to use that amendment as well even if I despise the very thing he is opining. If Limbaugh reads this piece which I highly doubt, I have never taken part in any boycott of you or others like you and that is truly the American way. Our soldiers throughout history have died on the battlefield in protection of our freedoms and one of them being the freedom of expression, to assemble and freedom of the press.

Now I would love to address his opinion where he states of the new Obama administration, “I hope he fails”. If he has cited that others did not give Bush a chance, isn’t it up to him to at least give President Barack Obama a chance? This is where I find the hypocrisy coming from him. It is he who should live up to his own words as he chides others.

Let us take a look at both elections. In the 2000 presidential election, then candidate Gov. George W. Bush through his lawyers went to the Supreme Court to stop the recount in Florida. One phrase within the Bush V. Gore decision was that “No irreparable harm should come to George W. Bush” I do opine that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of few and the one. Those who cast their votes in that election were more important than George W. Bush and yet the Supreme Court in that Bush V. Gore decision decided they were not. Our soldiers also have spilt blood on many a battlefield protecting our right to cast our votes and more importantly, have them counted.

In this past presidential election, it was a swift and decisive victory for President Barack Obama where the outcome came early in the night with no recounts needed. There was nothing to contest, only dismay and anger coming from those who abhorred its outcome.

As Senator John McCain gave his concession speech one can hear such dismay and anger coming from his supporters. At that moment in time, it was John McCain who realized that elections do matter especially their outcomes as he comforted his supporters and gave them a new charge to get behind then, President-elect Barack Obama.

Contained within his speech were words of a true patriot when he said, "These are difficult times for our country and I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges that face us." That is what being an American is all about. Coming together for a common good even if you disagree with a contender’s agenda or the direction in which he wishes to take this great country of ours.

If there are any words that should be listened to by those who did not vote for President Barack Obama are these cited in that same concession speech given by John McCain, “I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited.”

This is still a dangerous world where millions are not prospering and they put their trust and faith in our new president. For Rush Limbaugh to even state, he hopes that President Obama fails is not the American way. In times of crisis such as September 11th, 2001, we as a country came together behind our new president and in this economic fire storm, even those who did not support or support President Barack Obama must do the same and give him the same chance.

I would suggest to Rush Limbaugh to truly live up to the words of our Pledge of Allegiance which states: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Yes, one can dissent in this great country of ours as many have done under former President Bush, but many did give him a chance. It was former President Bush who broke the sacred trust with Americans as he lied this nation into a war. A war that President Barack Obama must deal with now. To even state that he hopes he fails, well isn’t that playing into the hands of those who seek to destroy this country?

During this past presidential campaign, I was a critic of Senator John McCain, but have come to realize that it is he who is a true patriot as he has chosen to back President Barack Obama in words and in deeds. Something that Rush Limbaugh will never understand.

Author’s email address is, xmjmac@optonline.net