January 14, 2018

PROM

She waited three years now

for her prom. Three years….

She glowed. Her gown was a wow

- the best on the floor. She flowed.

Woo. Could she dance? Then it was

over. For the next few years she felt

like the best Christmas ornament in

the box - but she ended up in the dark -

stuck in the attic - till next Christmas.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

ANSWERS

Answers…. Sorry, I only have a few ….

But I do have questions? Many …

I guess you’d expect by now that

someone would know something.

Okay. I do know some things….

I know there is gravity and dawn

and death and we get hungry

and sometimes we get hurt ….

And we need to listen - yes to

shut up and to really listen to

the other - the one we’re with -

when it’s a one to one situation ….

Not to cut them off now - with

some story they trigger in us.
Okay ask for clarification - but

about something they said….

And okay, if we actually do that

- it’s not easy to put our ego

outside on the windowsill - but if we

do - we’ll get some inside answers.

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

January 13, 2018

Thought for today:

“Regrets  are  as  personal as fingerprints.”  

Margaret Culkin Banning, “Living With Regrets,”  Readers Digest, October 1958

In case you missed it, this was Philip Mudd's response to the President's Comments as of yesterday.

CNN Analyst Philip Mudd: "I'm A Proud Shitholer"; Says Don Lemon Seen As "N*gger"

Posted By Ian Schwartz
On Date January 11, 2018

CNN counterterrorism expert Philip Mudd said Thursday night he is proud to be a "shitholer," a term he coined on the spot as someone who is a descendant of a person who has come from a historically 'shithole country.' Earlier on Thursday, Trump, in reaction to an immigration deal that would provide for and protect immigrants from Haiti and Africa, called them "shithole countries."

In an appearance on Don Lemon's show, the CNN commentator applied what he assumed was Trump's rationale for "shithole" countries to nations he believes would be considered 'shitholes' historically. For instance, Mudd declared himself a "shitholer" because he is Italian and a descendent of people who left the country when it was a "shithole."

After his several minute long rant where he used the word shithole a dozen-plus times and the n-word, Mudd proclaimed he wants a t-shirt that reads "I'm a shitholer."

"So let's be clear: a white honky from Norway can come here but a black dude from Haiti can't. What does that tell you in an America that in one generation called you a nigger? What does that tell you, Don?" Mudd would ask Lemon after his rant.

"I'm not surprised by this," Mudd said of Trump's comments. "In one way I am proud. I am a proud 'shitholer.' My family was called wops and mackerel eaters. I'm proud of that. We came when people from Ireland and Italy were seen as dirty people. Dirty Catholics who didn't belong in a Protestant country."

Mudd's rant on people from various 'shitholers' that "built this country":

Shitholers built this country 110 years ago. They were called slopers and slanteyes -- Chinese people who built this country.

Shitholers from Japanese internment camps stayed in those internment camps as American citizens. And that's a legacy we bare shame for today.

Shitholers who escaped Guatemala and El Salvador -- civil wars that we participated in -- built this country.

I've worked for shitholers who've protected this country after 9/11. [Former CIA Director] George Tenet is a first-generation Greek. I guess he is a shitholer.

Jose Rodriguez was the head of counterterrorism at CIA, he's a Puerto Rican. I guess he's not welcome.

I'm proud today. I'm proud to be a shitholer and I want a t-shirt. #IAmThem #ItsUs. I am proud, yeah. Let's stand against this and say it's not about black people, and it's not about white people from Norway. It's about the people who built America and who we denigrated until we became ashamed and we realize that's inappropriate. And we're learning the lesson again today.

"What you said brought tears to my eyes," Don Lemon reacted. "I can't see how anyone can make excuses for that. This is about pure racism. That's all it is and to say otherwise is either being in deep denial or you're being cunningly, cunningly deceiving."

At this point Mudd took the liberty to drop the n-word.

"I have seen these conversations that this is economic. So let's be clear: a white honky from Norway can come here but a black dude from Haiti can't. What does that tell you in an America that in one generation called you a nigger? What does that tell you, Don?" Mudd asked.

"I can tell you what it tells a honky like me," Mudd said. "We're no different than we were a generation ago and we're learning the same lessons that we learned when we called a Chinese man a slanteye, when we called a man from Guatemala a spic and a wetback, and we called a black man a nigger. That's what it tells me. We've got a ways to learn. But we can step back and say we're proud because I spoke this on CNN, 30-to-1 the emails I got were saying, 'You speak for us and we are not from Africa and we are not from Norway. We're from Italy. We're from Ireland. We're from Greece.' Every single one of them was from a place they would say, 'Hey, hashtag, I'm one of them.'"

January 12, 2018 

Thought for today:

“Hindsight is an exact science.” 

Guy Bellamy, The Sinner’s Congregation, Secker and Warburg, 1984

January 12, 2018

BLUE BRICKS

If streets and sidewalks could talk....
Fruit and vegetable sellers moving their
stands early Monday morning across the bricks to be set up for the day ahead ....
Grandparents picking up kids after school on Tuesday and Wednesday and then bringing them home till their parents
get home - oh the joy and the pride of
walking with one's grand kids....
Street cleaners sweeping and washing
down the bricks on Friday afternoon ....
Saturday conversations of lovers
walking arm and arm in the late night ....
Families on Sunday morning heading for
Church - with their kids - and mom and
dad - the only day they walk arm in arm ....
Wait a minute! What city, what country,
and what century are we talking about here ...?

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2018

January 11, 2018

Thought for today: 

“Work  is a powerful medicine.” 

St. John Chrysostom [c. 347-407] in a Homily.