"Tips from Former Smokers" are NOT helping

Another pr abomination is permeating the airwaves. It is labeled "Tips from Former Smokers" and features "public service" notices by former smokers in the final stages of what are labeled as "smoking related" diseases.

These ads are GIVING ME NIGHTMARES. If anything, they make me want one more last drag on a cigarette before I expire from the hideous conditions they graphically describe!

I smoked cigarettes for 51 years before finally giving them up last September as the result of a major, severe, death-defying heart attack.

My heart disease is something I will live with for the rest of my life, whether it be measured in months, years or decades.

Cardio-vascular disease is scary. It can result in amputations, heart seizures, lots of very very bad stuff. It runs in one side of my family. Smoking probably makes it worse. But this sanctimonious ad campaign is hitting me personally at the ABSOLUTELY WRONG TIME!

I had a maternal great-aunt who never smoked a day in her life but who suffered from vascular disease and lost first her legs, then her arms, her mind and far later than she would have hoped her life! Every time I see the ads about vascular disease they remind me of her and make me wonder if this also is my future.

I had another great-aunt, another non-smoker, who lost control of her bowels and her bladder long before her mind faded. These insidious ads also remind me of her and her suffering.

I have no idea who the self-righteous, self-satisfied individual who made the final decision to use these ads was. But I wholeheartedly wish them to hell and back for the disgusting, painful and TOTALLY UNPRODUCTIVE suffering their precious sense of self-justification has caused innumerable persons who did not deserve this. You can take your "nanny" state and stick it up where the sun don't shine.

Table Talk - Thanksgiving

As I prepare to join loved ones for the Thanksgiving Holiday I try to remind myself:

1. The people I love best do not all hold similar political viewpoints.

2, Digestion and politics do not always mix well.

3. My family tends to be a tad diverse in its political philosophies (as in some voted for Obama and some really, really wanted Romney to win).

4. We all love turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, Mom's gravy and REAL mashed potatoes.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

As Time Runs Out

I recently learned something interesting about myself. If I think I have very little time left, I will spend what time I do have trying to tie up loose ends!

Does this make sense? I am really not in a position to judge. I can only say that trying to make things easier for my loved ones down the road and attempting to fulfill the earthly obligations I believe I am responsible for, is more important to me than almost anything else.

Life Happens

During the wee hours of the morning on September 25, life happened. I awoke with what I thought was indigestion. Drove myself to the local hospital. And the medical profession and my family began a fight to keep me on this earthly plane awhile longer. A transfer to Albany Med's Cardiac Care Unit; an emergency angioplasty cum stents; an encounter with defibrillators; an anxious watch in ICU as my scattered family gathered to my bedside and an easing of tension as my condition stabilized and my family began to breath easier.

When I emerged from the fog, my older daughter was sitting quietly by my bedside. I apologized to her for being unable to be "sociable"! She calmly announced she was quite happy to just sit there quietly and keep me company.

Later that night my younger daughter and her husband brought my 97 year old mother 200 miles to my bedside. (They wheeled her in - for once she agreed to a wheel chair - her tartan hat in place, favorite earrings and gold pin on, calm and undramatic (that was NOT typical).)

On September 26 my husband arrived after a frantic scramble to get an earlier flight from Austin, TX.

Three weeks later I am finally beginning to process my changed reality. A person who has always HATED drugs, now takes a slew of them. I hadn't been feeling well for some time, but it never occurred to me I had heart disease. Think again - I do. I thought it was time for me to check out. The medical profession and my family disagreed. I am still here. But everything else seems different. I am a nonbeliever. But many, many people prayed very, very hard for my recovery. I thought my cigarette addiction would send me to my grave unabated, but I haven't had one since September 24 (I try really, really hard not to think about them). It seems like I have been given a "second chance", but part of me thinks it is still way too soon to tell.

Today I spoke with a good friend who had a very similar experience in 2008. Vivian and I made a pact - if we live to our 90th year, we will both take up smoking again!

Does Voter IDs = Voter Suppression?

Passing and enforcing voter ID/voter suppression laws across this country appears to be the latest manifestation of the "White Man's Burden."

Should Blacks, Hispanics, Muslims and really poor people be allowed to vote? Evidently some think not.

Now you see them, now you don't... .

Why do I have this uneasy suspicion that the job of the elected Democrats and Republicans is to use their divisive issues to distract the populace from the activities of the real power brokers working behind the scenes to steal our birthright?

All Fathers are NOT Created Equal

I recently read that in 32 states rapists have "rights of parenthood" if the rapes they commit result in pregnancy and the women decide to bear the children. This adds an entirely new dimension to the crime against the woman.

Do I believe this happens? Absolutely. For years I watched one of my dearest friends struggle to maintain control of the parenthood of her child. The father was NOT  a rapist. He was a deserter who abandoned her to her fate when he learned she was pregnant. He WAS a substance abusing manic-depressive. But family court MANDATED he be given custodial weekend visits.

My friend spent days after these visits dealing with the ramifications of her son's visits with his father. The night terror, the anxiety, the temper tantrums. To this day I do not know how she managed to get through this torturous period of her life.

She never gave up her fight for full custody and after YEARS and repeated failures of her son's father to provide child support, she did achieve it.

Her son is a miracle. A beautiful person because of HER incredible strength and UNFAILING dedication to her own parenthood.

The law, on the other hand, did her no favors and put her and her baby through HELL.

Women's issues are about a lot more than access to abortion and birth control. They are about women's rights to PERSON HOOD.

Politicians like Todd Akin are the tip of the iceberg with his definition of "legitimate" and illegitimate" rape.

This should NOT be a Republican v Democratic issue. It IS NOT a conservative v liberal issue. It is ABOUT THE RIGHTS of 51 percent of this country's population.

We do not live under Sharia Law after all (or do we?).