Sorcha's Scribblings

Looking for Don

I know that current readership is down to about three people at this point, but stranger things have happened and if one of you three can help Sars find Don, by all means, please do.

Taking responsibility

Tonight the president will address the nation about Hurricane Katrina. Supposedly, he is going to take responsibility for the errors in preparation and response to this unimaginable disaster.

The thing is, I doubt it. It is hard for me to imagine that someone who would use trained firefighters who came to help as props for a photo-opp understands the first thing about taking responsibility.

In case the president wanders by this blog, here's a recap of what my parents taught me about taking responsibility:

• It's not enough just to say you are sorry: you need to say specifically what it is you are sorry for
  
  
• It's not enough to say you are sorry: you need to make amends for what you did
  • If possible, undo the damage
  • If it's not possible to undo what you did, then find a way to make it up to the people who got hurt by what you did
  • If you can't do that, either, then find some other way to make the world better as a way of making amends for whatever it was that you did
  • Also, the "size" of your amend-making should roughly match the "size" of the damage you did
• It's not enough to say you are sorry: you need to take action to ensure that it does not happen again

My parents' rules have been very useful to me on occasions when I have made errors that hurt other people (or things). I commend them to the attention of the people in power in this country.

And, if tonight's speech meets these standards, then I will believe that the president is taking responsibility.

In fairness....

Not too long ago, I wrote a blog entry when I disagreed with part of a Molly Ivins column. This week, I agree with her position totally, so it seems only fair to say so.

(This will be my only post on the Schiavo case, I hope. It's mostly here because I want to be as public about my agreement with the writer as I was when I disagreed with her earlier.)

Two reasons I love Pinko Feminist Hellcat

Both reasons are in the same post.

Read it and discover why it matters that today is (was) World Water Day. And also to see what happens when an excellent sense of humor runs up against an immovable object; and her point is no less accurate for its amusement value.

Sometimes things are not entirely depressing

There are all kinds of things about state and local politics around here that aren't necessarily encouraging. However, our state legislature has done the right thing by voting with no dissenting votes that pregnant women have the right to divorce.

This is not as random as you might think on first glance, as it was provoked by the case of an actual woman in Spokane who was denied a divorce from her jailed, abusive husband on the grounds that she was pregnant, and the presiding judge apparently felt that the State of Washington had a vested interest in making sure that the baby was not born illegitimate.

(Via Trish Wilson's blog.)

Some things require no comment

So instead of commenting, I simply offer you this.

(Via Bitch Ph.D..)

Late but not too late

I read this when it first went up a couple days ago, and thought it was pretty good. Then I spent part of yesterday evening reading George Lakoff's Don't Think of an Elephant!, and suddenly I could not stop thinking about the Body and Soul post.

It was such a great example of reframing, in a place where I hadn't even realized reframing could be useful. Thanks to this example, I've set myself the goal of trying to reframe at least one situation every day. At first, it's just so I can get familiar with the process, but I hope it will eventually lead me to a place where I can do it in real time, in conversation with other people.

I've added the Lakoff book to the sidebar.

How do these people sleep at night?

When I started this blog this morning, I had no real intention of making very many political entries. There are lots of people who do that sort of thing better than I ever will, and I planned to leave them to it. After all, there is plenty of other grist for my mill.

Then I ran across this: What I Heard About Iraq. It was enormously difficult to read all the way to the end, but I did, and I hope you do, too.

I heard the president say: ‘For a while we were marching to war. Now we’re marching to peace.’ I heard that the US military had purchased 1,500,000,000 bullets for use in the coming year. That is 58 bullets for every Iraqi adult and child.

Some writing is so important that everyone should read it. And weep.

Thanks to Strangechord . . . reverberating for pointing me at this devastating but important piece.