| Cathy 的个人资料Mom in America 2照片日志列表 |  工具  帮助 |
|
|
3月14日 Blogwalk...Tuesday's Blog topic:
Do you think the death penality should be legal?
why or why not.
Oh this is fun, Ben... Mom's official stance on the death penalty....
Once upon a time, I was anti-death penalty. I was about 14 at the time. I felt that way primarily because I felt that what was happening in Denmark was a better way of handeling crime. Criminals had to make restitution to the victims there at that time. Since then I've come to know of things like Charles Manson, pregnant women being hacked to death and thrown in the ocean and worse. I've also been made accutely aware that we really don't rehabilitate criminals in this country's penal system.
At this stage of my life, I think that there are certain minds that can't be fixed. Manson should never have been allowed to live, and there are some crimes that there is no compensation for. In thoses instances, yes, I think that the death penalty is appropriate and called for and I think it is the responsibility of society to handle it in a swift manner. I don't think it's a deterent, I think it's closure.
That being said, could I serve on a jury where that would be the ultimate sentence? I don't know. There are only a couple of people on this planet that I could really look in the eye and say "You really need to die." I know who they are. I pray they are brought to justice and that justice is served. Could I be the one to do that? I really don't know and that is where the controversy in this issue is for me. Is it fair and right to put another person into the position of injecting that criminal, or flipping the switch or whatever because that person then become's the killer for the sake of society. Is it right for society to demand that of anyone? In a perfect world where everyone plays nice, no. Unfortunately, this world is not perfect. Everyone doesn't play nice and rather than let the Manson's of the world rule, we have to deal with it as swiftly and humanely as possible.
That being said....
God bless!
A Mom in America 3月9日 Gotta Do It!Sorry about this, gang, but I have to write this one because I'm not going to be able to write anything until I get this out. It's kind of like... well having writing constipation. This one entry that I haven't written has been blocking me up for a week now and it's time to get it out there and roll with it.
In this life, I'm many things, but one of the biggest things I am is a Mom. I am. I admit it. I love my kids incredibly and I can't help it. I think they are the greatest thing that ever happened to this planet and humanity. I do. I have the three most wonderful, brilliant kids that have ever graced this universe and I know for a fact that the world is a better place because they are here. I do. It's a fact... just ask the Vet.
In any event, something happened last week that I have waited their entire lives for and I haven't wanted to write about it because of the possiblity of it being taken the wrong way. You see, along with being a Mom, I am also the Vet's wife. Since ... well forever, because of who he is and what he does, people have always assumed certain things about me. For example, after 9/11, and the Vet being deployed for OEF, everyone on the planet assumed that I really cared what their political take on the war was...that because my husband was serving, it automatically became my job by default to listen to whether or not they liked Bush and what he was doing...whether or not they approved of the war... what their innermost thoughts were about the whole global situation. Everywhere I went, that's all that I got and, quite frankly, as a suddenly single Mom who was desperately trying to hold a family together through a war and the adolescence of three kids, I really couldn't have cared less what anybody thought about anything! That was just the first deployment...
During the second deployment, while my husband was in Iraq, my two sons started WWIII in a power struggle to become "the Man of the house." As "the Man of the house" while dealing with my husband's unit and the military, I tried very hard to ensure that the boys did not kill each other in this testosterone explosion that was occurring in my home. I believe there were only one or two actual knock down drag out fights during that time frame and gratefully they both survived them. Boys will be boys and thank God for military dental! To this day, Pixie will not give it up about what actually transpired on those days when I left to go do something and came home to some rather intense bruising and brooding adolescent males....
Anyway, I write about this not to embarass or obtain pity. It's to make a point. You see, one of the things that has been said to me over and over again since the boys enlisted is "That's what you raised them for!" Now, not for nothing, but of all of the things you should never say to a mother of a soldier, that is probably the worst one because no mother raises her kids to go to war and it's not what I raised mine for. The biggest thing I raised my kids for is just starting to come into fruition and I got a taste of it last week in a phone call from Son #1. You see, Son #2 was waiting to depart. They were on the same base. Daughter-in-law #1 is now down with Son #1 and they have a place and... they hooked up with Son #2. Hearing what was happening in that new apartment of Son #1's with his wife and his brother, THAT is what I raised my kids for.
You see, while we did raise all of our kids with a very solid work ethic and with a desire to serve, the biggest thing that I tried all of their lives to impress on them was that they need to be friends...that there is going to come a time when the Vet and I are gone and all they will have is each other. More than anything else in life, I wanted my kids to have real and healthy relationships with each other and last week, in that phone call, hearing them horsing back and forth and debating and this and that...I saw and heard the fruit of everything I've ever wanted for them and it was really really cool! It made me really proud to be a Mom and really glad that all of that mediating and negotiating I did between them is finally, now, paying off. I heard them laughing, but even more, I heard them together and having a relationship without me and it was really really good! As a parent, more than anything else, I raised my kids for each other... and it's worked...and that one phone call gave me the knowledge that as a Mom, I've won. It's a really good feeling to have and one that I will always cherish!
God bless!
A Mom in America 3月7日 The Blog Walk....Why did you start a blog? And for extra credit reprint your very first blog.
Tricky question, Ben! Okay.... Basically, I started a blog because I have Graves' Disease and after looking on the internet for an experiencial account of what the effects of the radiation treatment for it are, I didn't find anything. As this was the treatment option I chose, I decided to start an account on a blog. This blog is not where that account began. It began a few weeks earlier on a blog called "Mom in America". I deleted that account pretty early because a troll got on there almost immediately and started attacking me because of my profile information. The Vet got on with her and within a matter of hours I found WWIII breaking out on my site. So... rather than perpetuate a situation that was really ticking me off...I deleted the site. Some of the entrys I still had so I posted them here. My first one was lost, so for extra credit I will post my first entry from this site.
As I got further into the process of blogging, I met the soldiers on my site. The earliest ones were Jerry and Martin from the Featured Spaces on msn. They led me to Michael and Nathan who led me to others and the blog roll began to grow. As my own two sons were in basic at the time, and because of our military background with the Vet's career, I found it very rewarding to coorespond with these kids and eventually the families that I have. A lot of what they are doing and going through we have as well and it's been great for me to be able to see that we aren't alone out here in what we have experienced.
I still post about the Graves' Disease as situations arrise. I still check in from time to time with the soldiers, the heroes and the families and friends. Some I'm really close with. Some I'm not, especially once they got home and picked up their lives. Some I still wait to hear from...and life goes on.
So, here, for extra credit, straight from the archives is Mom in America's first post from this site.
God bless!
A Mom in America 2月7日 For a very good friend... Yes America, unabashedly I put up this advertisement for a non-American related blogger who happens to be a dear friend....I seldom agree with him, however, as we have found, it's those little disagreements that keep life interesting!
My friend and co-blogger Mr. Michael MacDara has been nominated for two categories in the Irish Blog Awards! I am very proud of him for achieving this distinguished honor of nomination, but as most of my readers know... there are only two things that "close" counts in and nominations aren't one of them. Therefore... if you can take a click on over and stack the box for Mac, I'm sure he will toast all of us at the ongoing celebrations at the Pub. The categories he is nominated in are.....
(drum roll please.....)
Best Blog Post - Sponsored by Nooked.com for his post Macdara - Mistaken identity or accurate stereotype
Best Personal Blog - Sponsored by Hosting365 for MacDara - Lebanon an Irish Experience through the bottom of a glass
As Mac would say, anybody can vote so vote now and vote often!
God bless!
A Mom in America 7月31日 HumbledI just finished reading Michael's last post and I sit here devastatingly humbled. This Michael has such an incredible gift. To watch the development of his writing like this under conditions so horrid, unable to assist or releive in any way makes me feel so pathetically helpless. To love a favorite author is one thing. To see one developing with each new post is something completely different. I rejoice in his growing ability but am haunted by the reality that this post may not be followed by another. Above all, I know that Ramadi is not a place that a mind like Michael's should dwell.
As a mother, I wish I could fix this. I wish I could fix this for all of them. I wish I could protect my own son's from the realities of this war. They do grow up though, and each follows the calling they hear in their heart. Michael volunteered for this, just as my own sons have. I see him growing through this, I see them all growing through this, and while it tears my soul as a mother and a teacher, I know I cannot hold them back. They have to go where they are called, to grow into who they are meant to be.
I watch the growth in Michael and see the growth in my own sons and realize that the hardest thing is to let go, to let them do what they have to do, to stand back and watch from the distance and know that there is nothing more I can do. They have to do for themselves now. And I pray that each letter, each post will be followed by one from a safe place. It isn't always like that though.
-A Mom in America |
|
|
