Several news worthy items warrant attention today, first, the mid-night passing of Pelosi's $1 Trillion health care bill, The U.S. House voted 220-215 to approve the measure, narrowly ramming the 2000 page bill down the American people's throat in the cover of darkness.... so much for "We the People"
A recent poll showed the Health care issue was divided nearly down the middle, 41% for, and 41% against, leaving 18% either undecided, or didn't know? Since nearly half of the nations citizens weren't in favor of passage, shouldn't Speaker Pelosi have allowed ample time for full disclosure of the contents of the bill? Ahh, here in lies the reason, the truth.. those liberal idiots don't want the people to know what's in this bill.
Pelosi's bill, the Wall Street Journal has called “the worst piece of post-New Deal legislation ever introduced”?
However, the process is far from becoming law. The Senate will begin work on their version of the bill, probable titled Reidcare....and as Obama hopes for completion by the end of the year, which doesn't seem likely....
........................................................................................
Second, and perhaps should have been the first topic this morning, the "20 Year Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall"
Our family was host to a young student nearly 10 years ago, who had chosen, against parental judgment to join a Foreign Exchange program for travel to America.
We were once again introduced to the idea of an exchange student from folks Janie knew while teaching at Wilder High School, having hosted a young man from Belgium a few years earlier, the thought wasn't as agreeable to me now because we no longer had children at home. Who would entertain, and bond with this young person? We'd became "Empty Nester's" a few years prior, and again having a teenager in the house felt as foreign to us as to the student.
A group of Boys and Girls arrive to a sponsor living in Wilder, from various different locations around the world, with little or no knowledge of who they would be staying with. Unusual I thought, but discovered the occurrence is quit common. Exchange programs often send sponsors a group of 4 to 6 students hoping host parents can be arranged once they arrive. These sponsors have, as a general rule been participating in exchange programs for years, and have had good success placing students.
We were given the choice of boy or girl... having raised two Sons, we felt compelled to stay with the male gender. Janie brought a number of files home for review, and we decided on a young man from Germany!
Magnus Mersher, 17 years old, dress in all black, walked through our front door in the fall of 2000 with a chip on his shoulder and his hat on backwards!!! The chip took sometime to remove, the hat only a few seconds.
Magnus, arriving from a split family, his parents having divorce quit a few year earlier, live with his Mother and one older Brother in Hanover, Germany. He had a rebellious attitude, the reason for the black shoes, pants, socks, shirt, and the short lived hat. Dark haired, tall and skinny, the black didn't realy produce a threat but it did allow him to convey a statement!
Janie was working at the High School in Wilder, which at the time we felt having Magnus attend there was the best education decision we could make. We were wrong!
The black attire, the attitude, and young Wilder Hispanics didn't co-exist well. Even though he wasn't large, he was tall, and rather pale in comparison, to say the least, which made him stick out like the proverbial "Sore Thumb". It wasn't long until we realize education at Wilder wasn't working out. Having traveled thousands of miles to be enrolled in a small town school didn't do him justice, even though I believe Wilder High School at the time was good place for kids to get an education.... times change! Janie enrolled him at Vallivue.
Magnus, the same troubled young man who had arrive on our door step nearly a year previous attended Graduation Ceremonies for the class of 2001 attaining a diploma of educational excellence from Vallivue High School. Encompassed in those months after his arrival nearly a year previous, his cap was never worn backwards again, nor for that matter was it worn to much extent at all, while the black also disappeared so did the rebellious attitude, he was wearing colors, blue jeans and t-shirts, and he had became the wonderful young man we knew he was. We had become his American parents.
The friendships cultivated that year remain. The bond between us has grown. Magnus returned several year later to visit for a few months. He had grown in age and education, attending a University to further his life choices.
Magnus visited once again, just recently last September, but this time he was accompanied by a girlfriend, Susi!
Susi Funch, a petite young lady with a vibrant smile, and a yearning for better English, who was shy at first and deathly afraid of dogs... Susi is a O.R. nurse, employed with a Berlin hospital. She enjoys the late afternoon shift, and dreams to perhaps, someday marry Magnus.
Susi is the reason you've endured reading the previous, for she spent her early childhood on the Eastern side of the Berlin Wall, She, who I've chosen to include in this writing because it's almost certain I would have never had the pleasure of knowing her had it not been for the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Now you know why We personally Celebrate the fall of that wall, and We should all celebrate a re-united German, its been 20 years in the making, and a few good things have come from it.
One last thing, Magnus did ask Susi to marry him while they were in America, she said YES!
Click this link for the NY Times story:
With Wall Just a Memory, German Divisions Fade - NYTimes.com
No comments:
Post a Comment