I made a difference!

I confessed my love of fast food and why I was no longer enjoying a lovely Whopper last November. I did, however, thoroughly enjoy the Whopper I had last night!

What? Give up the protest? Spend my money at Burger King even though they refuse to increase the pay for those who pick their tomatoes'? No. I ate at Burger King to show my support because they have agreed to raise wages.

Congratulations – we did it! The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)
announced Friday that, after a prolonged and often heated campaign, the
second-largest burger chain has agreed to pay farm workers an extra 1.5 cents
per pound of tomatoes picked, the equivalent of a 71 percent increase in wages. Watch the press conference on Capitol Hill.
This
agreement was reached after a large coalition of faith and labor groups,
including Sojourners, started targeting the company with letters and
boycotts. In fact, since last June more than 25,000 Sojourners activists
like you sent more than 125,000 letters to Burger King executives.
Burger
King is the last of the three largest fast-food companies to agree to the pay
increase, following McDonald’s and Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell. The
agreement also includes a pledge that Burger King will have zero tolerance for
growers in its supply chain that act unlawfully – a good precaution, given that
some in south Florida have been indicted for holding tomato pickers in literal
slavery.
Burger King’s agreement is a
long-awaited victory that comes after a year in which they unconscionably stalled and obstructed other companies from coming on
board. Burger King made $2.23 billion in profits in 2007 – and, in the end, the
company estimated that its tomato justice agreement will cost just $300,000
annually.
This agreement is a step toward fair labor practices for farm
workers across our country, and an example to all companies that have
exploitative policies in need of change.
Thank you for your action! Citizen
advocacy makes a difference.
The team at Sojourners

The fight is not over, not for fairness and equality for everyone, no matter their race, sex, religion, country of birth or sexual persuasion. But it is nice to know that the letters I wrote were read and that Burger King didn't have any of my dollars during that time.

Here we go!

Hurricane season does not officially start until tomorrow, but the stupid storms apparently can't read a calendar.

This one is not supposed to head this way, but the forecasters can never be sure. I guess it is time to stock up on bottled water!

And Spam. :-)

The Loss of a Friend

We haven't really talked in years. After high school our lives just went in different directions when I dropped out of college to get married and her dad took a huge promotion and moved the family to the NE. She graduated college in 5 years with a Master's Degree in some kind of Engineering, I had a beautiful baby boy.

We kept in touch on and off. She was in town the week I found out that I was pregnant. She had moved back to the area when she was pregnant with her first one. We kept trying to get together for lunch or dinner or something, but circumstances prevented it. I saw her right after her son was born, but she moved away then. She found my email address and we emailed for a bit, but life gets busy doesn't it? I was in the process of changing jobs, buying a house, starting over after the divorce. She was pregnant with #3.

Three years ago (when our 20 year high school reunion was cancelled due to lack of participation) 10 of us got together and had dinner at a nice restaurant, but no one had a chance to really visit and catch up. We all passed around our email addresses and telephone numbers and promised to stay in touch. It was a lie.

This morning there was a note on the counter from my son. Apparently her husband was trying to track me down and remembered BabyBoy's name and found him on MySpace. "I am trying to contact (using maiden name), if she is your mother, please let her know that her good friend (using both married and maiden name) passed away this morning."

She has battled cancer for some time. I didn't know. I didn't really know her at all anymore. But, at one time, I knew her better than I knew myself. At one time I knew her phone number better than I knew my own name. She was there for my first kiss (it was a game of "spin the bottle" so she was probably watching), my first date, my first broken heart. There were many nights of staying up late to watch videos on TBS. (MTv existed, but we didn't get it). We were in band together, Student Council, National Honor Society. We went to dances together when we were both boyfriendless. We dated some of the same people. My first memory of her is from kindergarten. It never bothered her that she wore bright colored socks that in no way matched her outfit. She was only 40.

There should be more time. She should be there when her oldest starts to drive next year, when they all graduate from high school, from college. When her only daughter goes shopping, first for a prom dress, then a wedding one. She should be there when the grand babies start to arrive.

She should be there just in case one of us finds the time and has the inclination to pick up the phone.

Rest in Peace, CJ.

Quote of the Day

"Always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."

George Orwell, 1984

Reading this completely creeped me out. Are we living in 1984?

What about MY vote?

This article starts by stating that counting the delegates in Florida and Michigan will not allow Ms. Clinton to attain the Democratic nomination for President.

I'm sad about that, but I can and will get over it, move on and support Mr. Obama.

What I can not, will not get over is the fact that my vote is not going to count in this nominating process. What I can not, will not get over is the fact that I, an American citizen, a GOOD American, if you will, am being punished because those around me (meaning Tallahassee) can not read, understand, follow the rules. It feels like 3rd grade again when Susie Smith was chewing gum and the entire class had to write, "I will not chew gum in school.*" I didn't do anything wrong, why am I being punished?

The part of the article that really, to put it delicately, chaps my ass is this one:

The Associated Press interviewed a third of the panel members and several other
Democrats involved in the negotiations and found widespread agreement that the
states must be punished for stepping out of line. If not, many members say,
other states will do the same thing in four years.

"THE STATES MUST BE PUNISHED FOR STEPPING OUT OF LINE."

Who is the DNC punishing? Florida? Michigan? Are they slapping them on the wrist? No, they are punishing ME by not counting my vote.

I know I have blogged on this before. I may again before the general election. I never heard from Howard Dean; he doesn't answer his email apparently.

I think I have run out of steam.

*Ok, that never reallyl happened.

Then Take the McNuggets, the Electric Razors and the Mascara

And the children.

According to the article, "Hands Free Phones are Lifesavers"

Jed Kolko, a fellow at the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of
California, estimated that 300 fewer people will die each year in traffic
accidents as a result of a pending hand-held cell-phone ban for California
drivers.

This happens to be a pet peeve of mine. Everyone is so concerned about how cell phones affect the ability to drive that they are going to force people to spend money so that they can talk without using their hands. This is going to make the highways safer for humanity, right? Fine, but if I have to give up my cell phone while driving,* then I want every other possible distraction removed also.

First thing to go? Drive-thru windows at fast food places. There is no way that you can eat a burger and fries without it distracting you from your driving. And chicken? With the dipping sauce? Can you imagine how long it takes for a person to look AWAY from the road while trying to find the dipping sauce? No more eating in the car!

Second? Kids. All kids. Infants, toddlers, pre-schoolers. Kids are the MOST distracting thing ever in a moving vehicle. Ok, I will give you that some little ones ONLY sleep in the car, but what about all that yelling before they go to sleep? How distracting is that?

My son was a nightmare in the car. Even after he started actually sleeping at home, he would yell like he was being beaten in the car. I drove from NW Florida to Homestead, FL when that child was 13 months old. It was probably a 9-10 hour drive. It took us 13 hours. At the end of the trip (of which he slept for approximately 30 minutes), I had had to dig in the trash for my car keys and wallet, I had an enormous bruise on my lower jaw and he had a black eye (no, I didn't give it to him!). We were in too many close calls to count when I was trying to find something, anything to make him stop yelling. Get the kids out of the car!

I am really not even going to address those who get dressed, shave, do their hair or put on makeup in the car. It is embarrassing to me when the culprits are women and it is annoying when they are men. No one should be doing any of these things and driving. Period.

The funny part of the article to me is when Kolko stated:

“They (the laws) don’t seem to have an effect on fatalities in good driving
conditions.”

WHAT? How is that the fault of the cell phone user? Maybe it is the fault of the poor driving conditions. Maybe we should just outlaw driving in rain, snow, sleet, hail, wind and certain times of the day when the sun may be in your eyes.

At least it would cut down on the country's oil dependency.


*I bought a new car last October and a new cell phone last month. Both are BlueTooth enabled. I drive 98% hands free. But I never had a wreck when I was talking, driving, shifting, smoking and sipping soda, now did I?

My (Really BAD) Salute to Dr. Suess*

Oh, My! look at the Spot
Which Americans are in
All thanks to that twat.


First there was that ridiculous G.W.o.T.
Where we claimed moral high ground
Of which we have NOT.


Then there was the wireless spy
Which broke the Constitution
And made some of us cry.

And the torture of which we were told
The high ranking claimed ignorance
The low ranking did fold

Now prices have reached the sky
Of food and fuel
This will cause more to die

America the Beautiful
Home of the brave
Land of the free
As long as you are a rich, white, SUV driving, straight, Christian man
Or God won't shed His Grace on thee.

*Maybe I should keep my day job and not depend on my poetry to eat.

One More Birthday!

But this is the last one for a while. You can't say I didn't warn you though. We are fertile people in the summer!

Happy May Day

If we accomplished our mission in Iraq five years ago, why are we still losing soldiers?

“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended,” Bush said at the time. “The battle
of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on Sept. 11, 2001, and
still goes on.”

How can the White House admit that hanging that banner was wrong, but not that Dubya's words were?

“President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more
specific and said ‘mission accomplished’ for these sailors who are on this ship
on their mission,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. “And
we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I
recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do
every single year.”

Oops, the MEDIA is spending all their time working to embarrass this adminstration!

Maybe this administration shouldn't be working so hard to make it easy on them.