Comments on: Gratitude http://firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/ Firedoglake weblog Thu, 16 Feb 2012 21:44:27 -0600 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Cujo359 http://firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438962 Cujo359 Mon, 01 Jan 2007 23:29:30 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438962 <p>Family and friends.</p> <p>Living in a wonderful part of the world.</p> <p>Being alive.</p> Family and friends.

Living in a wonderful part of the world.

Being alive.

]]> By: Sarah http://firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438913 Sarah Mon, 01 Jan 2007 22:11:45 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438913 <p>Hang in there Mandrake, you are not alone. There are plenty of us who feel the same passion. I changed my citizenship in 2004 to vote for Kerry. I know where you’re at, and I bet all the FirePups do too. </p> <p>Things are moving in our direction. Finally.</p> Hang in there Mandrake, you are not alone. There are plenty of us who feel the same passion. I changed my citizenship in 2004 to vote for Kerry. I know where you’re at, and I bet all the FirePups do too.

Things are moving in our direction. Finally.

]]> By: mandrake http://firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438858 mandrake Mon, 01 Jan 2007 20:37:51 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438858 <p><a href="#comment-438677"><em>Adie @ 105 </em></a></p> <blockquote><p><a href="#comment-438658"><em>mandrake @ 92</em></a></p> <blockquote><p><a href="#comment-438655"><em>Adie @ 89</em></a></p> <blockquote><p><a href="#comment-438630"><em>ragz @ 65</em></a></p> <blockquote><p>I’m grateful that I haven’t spotted a Bush bumper sticker in over three weeks. A hopeful sign of the times.</p> <p>Of course, I’m grateful I have a roof over my head, food on my table and the love of family and friends.</p> <p>Happy New Year to a great group of people - FDLers!</p></blockquote> <p>heh- occasionally I see a bushiebumper, & my main impulse is to laugh at the poor slob, maybe even tack a note on the windshield on how to remove same. nah! let ‘em suffer for their sins….</p></blockquote> <p>How is it that they are not ashamed?</p></blockquote> <p>maybe they’re just too stoopid to know how to unglue the stikker. I dunno! Dopey local pol in our neighborhood decided in ‘04 it’d be in hiz best intrsts to switch to Repug. Whole ‘hood’s been chuckling ever since - real idiot, & kinda mean, so folk just snicker & move on. He din’ do hisstoopidself any favours!</p></blockquote> <p>Perhaps we should start leaving a bottles of Goof-off with detailed instructions on the car hoods. They need all the help they can get.</p> Adie @ 105

mandrake @ 92

Adie @ 89

ragz @ 65

I’m grateful that I haven’t spotted a Bush bumper sticker in over three weeks. A hopeful sign of the times.

Of course, I’m grateful I have a roof over my head, food on my table and the love of family and friends.

Happy New Year to a great group of people – FDLers!

heh- occasionally I see a bushiebumper, & my main impulse is to laugh at the poor slob, maybe even tack a note on the windshield on how to remove same. nah! let ‘em suffer for their sins….

How is it that they are not ashamed?

maybe they’re just too stoopid to know how to unglue the stikker. I dunno! Dopey local pol in our neighborhood decided in ‘04 it’d be in hiz best intrsts to switch to Repug. Whole ‘hood’s been chuckling ever since – real idiot, & kinda mean, so folk just snicker & move on. He din’ do hisstoopidself any favours!

Perhaps we should start leaving a bottles of Goof-off with detailed instructions on the car hoods. They need all the help they can get.

]]> By: mandrake http://firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438856 mandrake Mon, 01 Jan 2007 20:28:35 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438856 <p><a href="#comment-438680"><em>Adie @ 106 </em></a></p> <blockquote><p><a href="#comment-438666"><em>jeffreyw @ 99</em></a></p> <blockquote><p>Tuned in the kitchen tv to the Free Speech channel while I fixed some eggs.</p> <p>They were showing a Paul Wellstone retrospective.</p> <p>I’m grateful for the memory of his fire.</p> <p>I’m grateful that there is some of that fire here.</p> <p>I cry easily, these days.</p></blockquote> <p>I share your problem, & strongly suspect many others do also. Jus’ let ‘em flow, I guess. DO keep coming to the Lake, and keep putting one foot in front of the other. We’ll all get where we’re headin’ together, more likely than alone.</p></blockquote> <p>I am moved by all these comments which reflect what I have been experiencing, with increasing intensity, since the beginning of the war. For me, the anger, frustration and grief became too much to bear, as I saw my country slip into some wretched thing I could barely countenance. </p> <p>I still stay connected, but I had to let go of the anger for my sanity’s sake. I have no one to lean on. My passion for the truth and justice which I once believed was the bedrock of America, eroding before my eyes was met with disinterest if not downright annoyance even amongst my Dem friends. There is no outlet for this energy where I am and a great deal of pressure to stay silent, even now. </p> <p>Women are supposed to have babies and devote our lives to being non-controversial, preferably cute, pedicured soccer moms. This is the environment I live in which is a desert for intellectually critical people. Suffering from chronic depression, my thirst for sympathetic discussion remained unquenched, my attempts to make a difference ultimately futile, I finally just gave up out of emotional exhaustion. </p> <p>So I appreciate this site and thoughtful comments so much. It helps to know others feel what I have felt because so often, you do feel so utterly alone when you look around you and see people going about their business every day, every day a new tragedy unfolding in the Middle East (not to mention our numerous urgently pressing issues at home), and still, most people behave as if everything is business as usual simply because they have not been personally affected . . . yet. </p> <p>I know, second-hand, of one person in particular who has done a 180 from her support of the President and the War because her nephew is now in Iraq and she and the rest of his family are TERRIFIED for him. Of course, I’m sure there are more, but NO ONE TALKS. I have given up asking myself what they are so afraid of but whatever it is, it is an oppressive force that is stopping progress, stopping change for the better, dead in its tracks.</p> <p>Sorry for the ramble. I hope in 2007 I will regain my emotional strength to continue to push for change as I did in 2004 through some time a few months ago when I succumbed to the enormous, suffocating societal pressure to stay silent. </p> <p>Considering the election results, I know this sounds very odd, but it is because I am in the South that this is so. If I had to pick one thing to work on that I believe would make a huge difference, it would be to somehow, some way, enlighten the South of my birth, which I love so much, like an unrequited love for someone you do not understand, but nonetheless, cannot let go of.</p> Adie @ 106

jeffreyw @ 99

Tuned in the kitchen tv to the Free Speech channel while I fixed some eggs.

They were showing a Paul Wellstone retrospective.

I’m grateful for the memory of his fire.

I’m grateful that there is some of that fire here.

I cry easily, these days.

I share your problem, & strongly suspect many others do also. Jus’ let ‘em flow, I guess. DO keep coming to the Lake, and keep putting one foot in front of the other. We’ll all get where we’re headin’ together, more likely than alone.

I am moved by all these comments which reflect what I have been experiencing, with increasing intensity, since the beginning of the war. For me, the anger, frustration and grief became too much to bear, as I saw my country slip into some wretched thing I could barely countenance.

I still stay connected, but I had to let go of the anger for my sanity’s sake. I have no one to lean on. My passion for the truth and justice which I once believed was the bedrock of America, eroding before my eyes was met with disinterest if not downright annoyance even amongst my Dem friends. There is no outlet for this energy where I am and a great deal of pressure to stay silent, even now.

Women are supposed to have babies and devote our lives to being non-controversial, preferably cute, pedicured soccer moms. This is the environment I live in which is a desert for intellectually critical people. Suffering from chronic depression, my thirst for sympathetic discussion remained unquenched, my attempts to make a difference ultimately futile, I finally just gave up out of emotional exhaustion.

So I appreciate this site and thoughtful comments so much. It helps to know others feel what I have felt because so often, you do feel so utterly alone when you look around you and see people going about their business every day, every day a new tragedy unfolding in the Middle East (not to mention our numerous urgently pressing issues at home), and still, most people behave as if everything is business as usual simply because they have not been personally affected . . . yet.

I know, second-hand, of one person in particular who has done a 180 from her support of the President and the War because her nephew is now in Iraq and she and the rest of his family are TERRIFIED for him. Of course, I’m sure there are more, but NO ONE TALKS. I have given up asking myself what they are so afraid of but whatever it is, it is an oppressive force that is stopping progress, stopping change for the better, dead in its tracks.

Sorry for the ramble. I hope in 2007 I will regain my emotional strength to continue to push for change as I did in 2004 through some time a few months ago when I succumbed to the enormous, suffocating societal pressure to stay silent.

Considering the election results, I know this sounds very odd, but it is because I am in the South that this is so. If I had to pick one thing to work on that I believe would make a huge difference, it would be to somehow, some way, enlighten the South of my birth, which I love so much, like an unrequited love for someone you do not understand, but nonetheless, cannot let go of.

]]> By: PA_Lady http://firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438751 PA_Lady Mon, 01 Jan 2007 18:20:27 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438751 <p>1) My kids - healthy, intelligent, beautiful<br /> 2) My family - we may have our ups and downs, but we’re always here for each other.<br /> 3) Our relative good life - we might scrape to make ends meet, but we always have the basics.<br /> 4) FDL - The posts and the commenters at this wonderful place keep me sane, and motivated to speak out and to act for change. (Even if I am always late to the thread!)</p> 1) My kids – healthy, intelligent, beautiful
2) My family – we may have our ups and downs, but we’re always here for each other.
3) Our relative good life – we might scrape to make ends meet, but we always have the basics.
4) FDL – The posts and the commenters at this wonderful place keep me sane, and motivated to speak out and to act for change. (Even if I am always late to the thread!)

]]> By: Sarah http://firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438741 Sarah Mon, 01 Jan 2007 18:10:35 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438741 <p>1) My family including my Dad, 2 brothers, sis-in-law, and 3 nephews who are stunningly handsome, talented, intelligent and sensitive.<br /> 2) My cat - a half-Siamese named Bugsy.<br /> 3) My relative good health.</p> 1) My family including my Dad, 2 brothers, sis-in-law, and 3 nephews who are stunningly handsome, talented, intelligent and sensitive.
2) My cat – a half-Siamese named Bugsy.
3) My relative good health.

]]> By: Boudica http://firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438725 Boudica Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:53:51 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438725 <p>We are many, we are determined, we are not fooled. They are powerful, but they are not many and they cannot silence us. They cannot overcome all of the anger and injustice they have set loose upon the world. They overplayed their hand. We count the bodies and we ask why. They refuse to count the bodies and offer no reason. They cannot sustain the empire. It is drowning in blood and inequality. Keep your voices up, keep your spirits up - we will get our country back. Of the three monkeys, hear no evil, see no evil and do no evil, only the last will survive. The scales will fall from the eyes of those who pretend blindness, they will finally hear what we have been saying. Those who can will save themselves by understanding it is over, the rest, well they are trapped in the tiny corner that is their mind. They left no place for retreat. They are small and hard and inflexible and unimaginative. They did not imagine failing, they could not imagine a public that valued decency. They never owned recognition of their myopic, greedy, grasping ambitions. Time was not their friend, the culture is not their friend. We actually are a decent and fair people. Happy New Year, start ringing those bells, ring em in rememberance of those who have lost their lives this year, and ring em in celebration of the better times to come. Ring the bells in recognition of the great American spirit that exists here at FDL. Ring the bells to welcome the boldness and braveness and optimism that is part of the fabric of our nation, now and in the future.</p> We are many, we are determined, we are not fooled. They are powerful, but they are not many and they cannot silence us. They cannot overcome all of the anger and injustice they have set loose upon the world. They overplayed their hand. We count the bodies and we ask why. They refuse to count the bodies and offer no reason. They cannot sustain the empire. It is drowning in blood and inequality. Keep your voices up, keep your spirits up – we will get our country back. Of the three monkeys, hear no evil, see no evil and do no evil, only the last will survive. The scales will fall from the eyes of those who pretend blindness, they will finally hear what we have been saying. Those who can will save themselves by understanding it is over, the rest, well they are trapped in the tiny corner that is their mind. They left no place for retreat. They are small and hard and inflexible and unimaginative. They did not imagine failing, they could not imagine a public that valued decency. They never owned recognition of their myopic, greedy, grasping ambitions. Time was not their friend, the culture is not their friend. We actually are a decent and fair people. Happy New Year, start ringing those bells, ring em in rememberance of those who have lost their lives this year, and ring em in celebration of the better times to come. Ring the bells in recognition of the great American spirit that exists here at FDL. Ring the bells to welcome the boldness and braveness and optimism that is part of the fabric of our nation, now and in the future.

]]> By: AldeaMB http://firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438701 AldeaMB Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:19:15 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438701 <p>Happy new year all! I’m thankful for:<br /> 1. my wonderful husband<br /> 2. our warm cozy house, even though renovation is still not finished…<br /> 3. my 16 year old daughter has a clear head, priorities and a strong sense of self<br /> 4. our two funny dogs (they never stop playing/wrestling/roiling)<br /> 5. that our cat, who after standing watch while his older furry brother died, waited for us to come home and find him - has recovered<br /> 6. friends that are loving and compassionate<br /> 7. that I can decide what direction I want my life to proceed<br /> 8. that I can click on to this blog and feel welcome</p> Happy new year all! I’m thankful for:
1. my wonderful husband
2. our warm cozy house, even though renovation is still not finished…
3. my 16 year old daughter has a clear head, priorities and a strong sense of self
4. our two funny dogs (they never stop playing/wrestling/roiling)
5. that our cat, who after standing watch while his older furry brother died, waited for us to come home and find him – has recovered
6. friends that are loving and compassionate
7. that I can decide what direction I want my life to proceed
8. that I can click on to this blog and feel welcome

]]> By: ragz http://firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438699 ragz Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:10:03 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438699 <p><a href="#comment-438658"><em>mandrake @ 92 </em></a></p> <blockquote><p><a href="#comment-438655"><em>Adie @ 89</em></a></p> <blockquote><p><a href="#comment-438630"><em>ragz @ 65</em></a></p> <blockquote><p>I’m grateful that I haven’t spotted a Bush bumper sticker in over three weeks. A hopeful sign of the times.</p> <p>Of course, I’m grateful I have a roof over my head, food on my table and the love of family and friends.</p> <p>Happy New Year to a great group of people - FDLers!</p></blockquote> <p>heh- occasionally I see a bushiebumper, & my main impulse is to laugh at the poor slob, maybe even tack a note on the windshield on how to remove same. nah! let ‘em suffer for their sins….</p></blockquote> <p>How is it that they are not ashamed?</p></blockquote> <p>I have seen a few half scrapped off - they are by far my favorites. May their shame be forever attached to their possessions.</p> mandrake @ 92

Adie @ 89

ragz @ 65

I’m grateful that I haven’t spotted a Bush bumper sticker in over three weeks. A hopeful sign of the times.

Of course, I’m grateful I have a roof over my head, food on my table and the love of family and friends.

Happy New Year to a great group of people – FDLers!

heh- occasionally I see a bushiebumper, & my main impulse is to laugh at the poor slob, maybe even tack a note on the windshield on how to remove same. nah! let ‘em suffer for their sins….

How is it that they are not ashamed?

I have seen a few half scrapped off – they are by far my favorites. May their shame be forever attached to their possessions.

]]> By: Strategerie http://firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438696 Strategerie Mon, 01 Jan 2007 17:07:44 +0000 http://www.firedoglake.com/2007/01/01/gratitude/#comment-438696 <p>Good morning everyone,</p> <p>I’m thankful for my husband, our friends and family. We have a nice place to live, too much food to eat, and I laugh a lot more than I cry.</p> <p>I’m thankful for FDL. I’m thankful it’s January. I’ve been waiting for January.</p> <p>-S</p> Good morning everyone,

I’m thankful for my husband, our friends and family. We have a nice place to live, too much food to eat, and I laugh a lot more than I cry.

I’m thankful for FDL. I’m thankful it’s January. I’ve been waiting for January.

-S

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