Monday, 20 August 2018

Another weekend is over.

This weekend, I decided to try to make my comments on news stories from the local papers I read.  I am not sure what I will do with them.  I am attaching a computer written page with my opinions to different articles I have saved.  Once the anger and dissatisfaction fall away, it is hard to keep up the effort.  We get so irritated with our society, and feel so helpless.  Giving my opinions is about the only thing I can do.  I personally care about some of the issues, people, programs, charities, etc., and am just frustrated with others, like the media.

I have said I am a topic kind of person ::  taxes, social services, government waste (and debt), homelessness, poverty, education, immigration, GOD in the world, salvation, church doctrine, internet sales, marketing, social media, and more... I suppose topics that are about people surviving... oh, yes, and prison reforms.  This means I have a lot of opinions.

I get mad when people complain and don't try to find a better solution, so I am always looking for ways to make problems work better, like prisons.  We need prisons, but do we need all this disarray and confusion and privacy that is a breeding ground for abuse?  No.

My main solution to the problems I encountered in the prison systems is to require each county to operate a single joint facility that would house local, state, and federal prisoners that would be released to that county, and a medical facility within the prison for inmate needs.  I suppose a mental health ward would be required, too.

Why county facilities?  Because the money invested and programs that can be created would benefit the citizens of that county.  Mentoring, work programs, family relationships, and more.  Visiting is one of the best interventions for inmates, their families, and system oversight, but most of the poor people who are in prisons and their equally poor families cannot visit unless they can reach the prison.  Making the system put people close to their homes and families will increase visiting options and help a lot of people, including the government.  It would be a national transfer system, combined and separate (funding).  Better for everyone, including the government, and communities.

The other problem is inmate income.  With the internet available for sales, we need to create income options that inmates can take with them when they leave, plus the ability to pay their debts, support their families, and provide for themselves.  But the issues of payment and shipping require the government to maintain the access to an internet sales site for inmates.  The government would also be creating income to pay for the program through the same fees charged by regular sales sites.  It would force the prisons to change the way they see rehabilitation, and extend a positive relationship to the parole department.  After release, and until inmates can establish their own financial foundations, the same account can be kept open for them... forever.  Internet sales increase honest income options for inmates who now leave prisons alone and virtually penniless.  Inmate sales would provide money for everyone, inmates and prisons.  Income for inmates means less state funding for child support and restitution and education and....

I have stated these two points of view before.

One of the articles I commented on this weekend was about a dangerous neighborhood pathway for kids walking to and from school.  The want the government to fix the problem.  My complaint is that the government doesn't need to be involved in every little detail of our lives... why can't the neighborhood build the sidewalk (somehow)?  I also went into another example about potholes.  They are dangerous.  They can cause injuries and death to people but no one sees this in any data.  I used the example of a bicycle rider that crashed on a busy street for no apparent reason... and a curb area that could cause elderly people to fall and be hurt, among others.  All that needed to be done was a temporary fill, with something like Quikrete -- or even gravel, but cement would be better in my view.  Many cities have Neighborhood Associations now.  They could oversee the community process.

My point is that it is not an earth-shaking event to do something like fill a pothole or create a safer pathway.  It doesn't have to be done by the government... at least, not immediately.

I ended up with TWO pages of comments about the fake news defense by media organizations in recent days.  It was in two editorials that I saw, locally.  My main point is that BIAS in the way news is reported makes it fake news.  I may share it in a blog post.  I'm not sure.  I didn't edit it for value, just wrote it and printed it.

I still want to write comment pages on taxes and homelessness... those two will take a long time I think, if I really write about them.

On a lighter note

I harvested my son's garden tomatoes because they were rotting all over the place.  One of the plants is all bad, some kind of disease from within, like the apple and pear trees they have here from the previous owners.  I hoped some of the tomatoes wouldn't have the problem, but all of the ones I picked to check were bad.  It may be the whole plant is bad, infested with something.  It isn't a familiar tomato to me, looks like a Roma tomato, but isn't.

I'm not sure what they are going to do about it.

I did look at the corn.  It seems to be growing, but small ears.  I'm not sure how corn grows as I have never grown any.  My grandmother had a farm with acres of corn.  We use to run through the rows.  Now I know we are lucky to have gotten out alive!  Small people and tall corn can be dangerous.  I do remember we use to go pick the corn for a meal from the field.  :-)  Those were good times.

Another FIRST happened this weekend.  I made a tomato sauce from four of the heirloom tomatoes I salvaged from the garden.  I was AMAZED at how fantastic it was !!!  I can see some tomato canning in my future... today, I think.  Small batches, but so amazingly good.  I hope they can well, and retain that wonderful flavor.  I made some noodles right away and ate it all up, half freshly made, half as leftovers (for breakfast today).  Next time, I will pour it over something instead of adding everything to the sauce.  It was so great tasting just as a tomato sauce... without anything but spices and a little sugar.  I am looking forward to growing tomatoes next year!

And...

This morning I heard a comment from one of the preachers on the radio and it stunned me.  I had no idea this was true, and I am assuming it is true because of the source.  He said that the Jews were not allowed to own land for about 1800 years !!!   I knew they were in exile for the Sabbath issue, for over 400 years, but I never thought about the land issue like that before.  The preacher was talking about Israel's history, so that is why it came up.  I guess it was the years before they had their own country again.

Having been homeless most of my adult life, with children and without children, the idea of so many years as GOD's people without their own homes makes me terribly sad.  I never really thought about it before.  I knew about the Jubilee process, but not the details of their history... like that.

Another program I listened to this weekend stated that Jerusalem was returned to Israel as its capitol on the day of it's birthday celebration.  The idea in American Christianity is that salvation solves a lot of our life problems... which it doesn't.  Mostly it changes our view of our problems, and how we handle the solutions.  As I focus on the End Times and all the persecutions coming into our lives, it is hard for me to know how bad it will get before the Antichrist kills us all.  How do you prepare for a life where the government can take everything when they want to?  I figure we have to provide for ourselves and protect us all as long as we can... then we can die together.

Sounds so morbid, doesn't it... but that is the future of people who believe in GOD, in Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit (which technology will mimic and use to deceive many).  I keep telling myself to "think of how the world will be when all the good people are gone."  That is like prisons and inmates and crimes everywhere, like the movies that clean it up so we can bear to watch it, and like nothing we can even comprehend.


I guess I am repeating a lot of my theme songs in this post.  I better end here and work on my tomatoes or my commentaries... or take some aspirin and rest this headache I am dealing with.  No one in any church or government or business or organization likes to talk about the hard things we deal with.  It is hard.  If we don't prepare for it, it will be like an earthquake that suddenly destroys everything and there is nothing to help us recover from it.  It's coming, we know that, we just don't know when.

Until next time,
In Christ,

Deborah Martin

work2gather.us
Working Together Inc
Building for the End Times


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My GOD help me to find the words and income and help I need to make a place for the future by starting the process today.  Amen.