Yikes

Yikes!

A year has gone by without posting here. Find me over on facebook. Tobey's turning one this month. Life is markedly slower and more peaceful as a single parent refraining from compulsive activity. James will be sixteen at the end of May. Yikes!

WGBY - PBS Intelligent Television

The Impact of Casino Gambling in Massachusetts from WGBY on Vimeo.

Sunset Year-End Florida 2010

Isn't he handsome? I am blessed.

Emergency Planning Building Capacity

Check out the Town of Monson Emergency Preparedness conversation with community members, Liz Manley-Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) Coordinator and me at the Monson Free Library (click November 16, 2010 Emergency Preparedness).

Thank you to our MRC volunteers, the Monson Board of Health, Council on Aging, School Department, Monson Free Library, the Local Emergency Planning Committee, American Red Cross-Pioneer Valley Chapter, Board of Selectmen, Mass211, M-PACT-TV and our First Responders - Police, Fire and EMTs.

For more information about family emergency preparedness go to www.wmmrc.org

Family Emergency Preparedness Training - no charge

On November 9th at the Monson Free Library we are offering a no-cost common sense family preparedness training to better prepare and respond to emergencies.

We will talk about pet/animal care in disasters, too. Open to all folks interested in region.

Monson Free Library, 2 High Street, Monson. 6-7:45pm....we have to be gone before 8pm!

My work is a special calling

Truly, I am blessed to be in the right field at the right time. Meaningful, pragmatic and tangible results are the norm. To be of service to humankind.....it is a special calling.

Smarten-UP America!

I am starting a new campaign to end the dumbing-down of our country, media and citizens. Working on a couple of logos let me know what you think.
"Smarten-UP America" ;
"Smarten-US-Up!";
Just say, "NO" to Dumbing-down;
US THINK;

Remembrance Day Ceremony

East Longmeadow hosted a lovely Remembrance Ceremony. Let us remember peace, unity and liberty are the tenets of a flourishing society. Revenge, bitterness and vitriol all need the healing of God's light and grace. This has been and will always be true on the personal, community and global level. All spiritual lessons are grounded in forgiveness....easier said than done.

2010 - Damn, what a year!

2010 - Damn, what a year!

It began with lots of hope, energy, enthusiasm....plans for a big August birthday party. Professional life good - lots of creativity and freedom. Civic activities totally over the top with time commitment, but meeting fabulous people and exercising skills in the public realm....like forums at the statehouse, media - print, radio and television.

A slowly evolving (10 year) decision became obvious and I initiated action.

I became caught in a cyclone of activity, emotion and an indescribable confluence of events.

My dearest, brave father passed the day before the House feigned deliberation on legalizing slot barns/casinos. I loved him so much and do so today. We had a special connection that few in the world ever experience. I said the Serenity Prayer with him at MGH the night before he left. He was sad, I had never seen him frown before and I knew he was lonely and would miss us. He died at 7:17am on Tuesday, April 13, 2010. His birthday was 7/17/1925.

I am lonely and miss him......just in the other room....in the blue sky where I see his gorgeous eyes.

My body had already been shutting down with emotional flooding and stress and I didn't even realize I had lost a lot of weight.

Grief and stress have a way with the human body of taking control and making choices to change or suffer really obvious. The years of excessive busyness came to a crashing end....hopefully I have learned a lesson - time will tell.

My path is changing....it feels revolutionary but it is actually evolutionary and has been in process for a long time. Seeking more clarity for the next steps.

Despite being depleted, hospitalized and having some fantasies ripped away, I am still seeking to do the, "next right thing" and enjoyed the brilliant summer sunshine.

2010 - Damn, what a year!

MRC Minute

youtube of my real job

-enjoy, I am so fortunate to have the work that I do and the great people I work with.

League discusses slots/casinos with USS Mass

Please share this video with your network. It is a brief, casual conversation between Amherst League of Women Voters host, Alice Swift and me on the issue of expanding predatory gambling.

The only thing that is inevitable about slots/casinos is corruption.

The Speaker's Special Interests Gambling Bill

We The People have a few questions:

How much did we the taxpayers pay for the second Spectrum Gaming benefit analysis?

UMass Dartmough has benefit analysis paid in part by taxpayers, kids tuition and gambling interests produced every time one is needed by the proponents.....how is that allowed?

Why do you refuse to have a cost analysis?

Why do you state that you met with opponents, when that does not appear to be the case, we ask again with whom did you meet?

Why was the bill, that did not receive a public hearing, and was rammed through Mr. Dempsey's committee immediately following the Easter holiday, not given more time for legislators to read it?

How many legislators did not have time to read it?

How many legislators have not had the time to fully analyze the gambling bill that has no cost analysis while being pressured by proponents?

How are the taxpayers supposed to know what is in the bill and to dialog with their legislators on a bill of this magnitude that is being "fast-tracked" through the House?

Why are no-bid sweetheart licenses that will yield billions for the owners/investors, not required to followed competitive bid processes as outlined in Mass General Laws?

Why are the casino licenses that will yield multi-billions to the often out-of-state owners and investors being given away at a fraction of their value?

Why are you not accounting for the businesses and jobs that will be lost when people spend their money on slots instead of services in the local economy?

Are those people expendable?

When are you going to tell people that the local aid gambling fund is merely an offset for the losses to will occur when the lottery takes a hit?

When are you going to let the people know that there are not enough revenues to offset the costs?

What is the cost of the new state police department?

What is the cost of the new AG department?

What is the cost to implement the economic crime bill statutes?

Do you know that we know, that the responsibility of House Ways & Means is to review all bills and that they passed the Special Interests Gambling Bill in a nanosecond, without a Fiscal Note - on your watch?

This bill is tainted. Vote NO.

USS Mass on Braude Broadside

Had a quick chat with Jim Braude on Broadside last night. Lots of fun....interesting how the people who know how things work are against the Speaker's special interest gambling bill.

Thoughts on Senator Edward M. Kennedy

Thoughts on Senator Edward M. Kennedy by my parents Edward T. and Louise F. Conley, members of the Greatest Generation as recorded by Kathleen Conley Norbut, DSC member.

I learned about the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy from a retired gentleman at sunrise who was enjoying his daily coffee at the N. Kingstown, RI, Dunkin Donuts. “Did you hear that Senator Kennedy died?” he asked me without introduction. “It’s in the Globe; they’re the only paper to carry it.” I had not heard and we chatted about the end of an era.

I did the first thing that came to mind as I started to process the impact of the loss of Senator Kennedy to the Commonwealth and called my father from our family vacation spot at the Rhode Island beaches to talk to him about the passing of Senator Edward M. Kennedy. My father is a resident of the Chelsea Soldiers Home, he turned 84 years old in July and is a WW II Marine Veteran who served in the Pacific Theatre, including battle on Iwo Jima. When his home care became overwhelming last year due to his multiple health issues and his safety was at risk, I contacted state Senator Stephen M. Brewer (D-Barre) to guide our family with an application to the Soldier’s Home. My mother who is also frail and elderly, had finally surrendered her Irish pride and admitted that she could no longer care for him.

Senator Brewer met with me on a summer afternoon at a picnic table about a year ago in Wales, Mass in between his many engagements of the day. I told him about my father and mother and he listened with great attention and respect. He offered some direction for me to pursue and stated that he would contact some people on my father’s behalf, including my parent's state Senator Patricia Jehlen (D-Medford). Within a couple of days, Senator Jehlen’s office contacted me and offered further direction for our family. Then, to my great surprise Senator Kennedy’s office contacted me to assist in our application on behalf of my father. I was astounded. They knew about my father and wanted to help. Tears in my eyes, I recall being simultaneously grateful, honored and justified that these public servants and their staff would reach out to our family, an average working middle class family, to help us in our time of need. We were scared and vulnerable fearing the costs of long term care, wondering if my parents would have to sell the house they built, had raised six children and lived in for almost 60 years. Even with daily home health aides we had not being able to sustain adequate care for my father’s multiple health issues.

Senator Kennedy’s brain cancer had been announced prior to his extension of assistance to my family. How typical, and how amazing to have the Senator and his staff thinking and working for us when they were vulnerable too. With the assistance of these honorable public servants, my father has a place to live where he is cared for in a government health care system.

My father talked about Senator Kennedy and his slain brothers, President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. He stated that Senator Kennedy, had a, “rough and tragic start” (to his career) and my father was not shy about discussing the tragedy at Chappaquiddick. As a Senator, “Ted was always thinking about the people of Massachusetts and working for better conditions for us.” My father described what it has been like to be a lifelong Massachusetts resident of Irish descent and observe the Kennedy family dynasty. “I have lived to see the Kennedy era from start to finish,” he stated, “they had their struggles like the rest of us, yet they kept moving forward.” Civil rights, decent wages and safe conditions for blue collar workers, good public education for his children and health care are the products of the Senator’s work that my father has received.

My mother who is 81 years old and still works part-time at the Irish Cottage in Burlington, MA began with this when I called her, “I left you a message, I have no one to talk to about this!” Most of her close friends have passed away. We talk about politics continuously and we share a very strong commitment to the values, the long and proud tradition of the Democratic party of advocating for social justice, working for policies that promote the public health, and fighting to protect citizens from exploitation and oppression.

My mother talked about her memories of going to Wednesday night Novenas at Mission Church with “the girls” after work in the late 1940’s. “It’s just what we did on a Wednesday night”. As a Catholic of mixed Irish and English heritage, seeing the Kennedy family rise to prominence in national politics was as groundbreaking to her as seeing an African American rise to the office of the President. Her mother was welcomed to this country with, "No Irish Need Apply" signs in shop windows. She was struck by the fact that Senator Kennedy had visited the Basilica throughout his daughter Kara’s struggle with cancer.

One day when working at the Irish Cottage, a young mother walked in to buy a Cross for her daughter, to have and to hold during her father's absence. She talked about her husband having to return to a second tour of duty in Iraq and worried that the equipment was inadequate. Shortly after that encounter, my mother described learning about Senator Kennedy’s push to provide safe personal armor and vehicles for soldiers. His commitment to military members, their families and veterans was often over-shadowed by the magnitude of his work on education and health care.

His legacy is irrefutable regardless of where one stands on the political spectrum. We lost a lion in the Senate and there is no one of his caliber to fill the void. Indeed that could be said of the Kennedy brothers, including Joe who was killed in WWII, and the rest of the Greatest Generation.

Rest in Peace.