Thursday, October 29, 2020
Friday, October 16, 2020
The Chronicles of Nani - Silly Poetry
Join me on YouTube for the premiere at 8 AM and we can chat and have coffee together while we watch the video. But visit and watch it anytime! This weeks vlog is lots of silly laughs!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
October 30, 2003
Halloween - that magical time of make believe. Where you can let out a peek of the wild side you really don’t have or the naughty side that is actually against your nature. What was once a pagan celebration has now become a mainstream event replacing any more self destructive rituals with community and candy. I see nothing wrong with that. In fact, I think it’s great! Society with the help of the local churches long ago, took a less than holy event and made it a celebration of people, of our children. But for some, that’s not enough.
I was listening to a talk show on the Christian Radio station just a week before Halloween. They were discussing how to turn the Halloween holiday into an opportunity to minister the word of God. Now, I have nothing against spreading God’s word. That’s what Mass on Sunday or Church Meetings on Wednesday are all about. It’s why there are Bible study groups and open reading rooms. What I have trouble reconciling in my heart is why does everything have to be an event to force one’s views on another?
Being a good Christian is much like being a good Jew or a good Muslim or a good Buddhist. Raising good Christian children is pretty much the same as raising good Jewish children or good Muslim children or good Buddhist children. It starts with having your faith as the foundation of your life. Around that foundation you add the building blocks of self and community. Then you incorporate that character into the many roles you have in life. It is in the strength of that character that your faith ministers. Likewise it is in building that same strength of character in children that will give them their faith as part of their lives and not just another rule that they will break as soon as their parents backs are turned.
In that radio show, they talked about giving out Bibles in place of treats or taking “advantage” of the one night a year that people have their doors open to you. I wonder how many people they turn away from God with those tactics? People are barraged with advertising and pushy sales people all day. If you present God in the same way they tell you that Satellite TV is better than Cable or the newer and more expensive model has fewer miles and will last longer, chances are they will walk away from you too. I recall a Catholic hymn form my own childhood. The line in the chorus goes like this; “They’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love.” Not by our ability to preach in a coffee shop or give a treat that kids will love almost as much as a toothbrush on Halloween.
A former manager of mine is an elder in her church and still a successful professional. I recall when I worked for her we would sometimes have discussions about spirituality and our views after the work day was over. She wasn’t wishy washy in her beliefs, she is a strong woman of conviction and always was. But she wasn’t pushy. Having a staff at work was not having a pool of people to thump a Bible at. She is a good person and leads by example, both professionally and as a Christian. For that strength, she taught me many things in both areas of my life too. That’s effective ministry. Be a person people want to emulate and then tell them that your faith is the center of your being - they’ll come to you. No one is going to that “crazy guy” at the coffee house and asking him to preach to them - no one wants to be him. It’s the strong person who isn’t putting God down people’s throats that saves more people, one thought, one decision, one life influenced at a time.
So let’s leave Halloween the way it is. Let it be the one night that a kid can wear a devil costume because she’d never even think of doing “the devil’s work” in reality. Let it be the one time he can dress like Robin Hood, even though Mom and Dad have told him that it doesn’t matter from whom, stealing is wrong. Make sure the kids understand that Halloween and the costumes are for one night to be something they are absolutely not, and have fun.
Oh, and if you really feel you need to do something to get your religious views out there, have some really good candy and say “God bless you,” as they leave. It’ll be much more effective.
Davonna Lividini
November 7, 2003
I watched him. He struggled and fought and I watched him. I was unable to move, frozen there as he gasped. I watched him. He was no match for the assailant as he tried to draw a breath, feeling the icy cold grip at his throat, the weight on his chest. And I watched him. His eyes glassed and hazy, losing the battle. He gazed at me and others watching, unable to do anything but watch him. With a final attempt to inhale, he let out a final exhale and with a drool of fluid from his lips. It was done. He had lost. And we watched.
That’s not a description of a back alley brawl, or a gang fight. That scene was in a hospital and the strangling assailant was Death itself. The helpless onlookers were family. He was a father, a friend, a neighbor. He had been taken off life support and left to die on his own. That’s how it’s done in America.
Conversely, Timothy McVeigh was given a lethal injection and drifted off to a peaceful and dignified, eternal sleep. But McVeigh was a mass murderer, a domestic terrorist. The other man was just a World War 2 Veteran. It seems odd that we offer the mercy and dignity to the infamous and not to the heroes who have defended us. But that’s how it’s done in America.
Double standards abound in a country where people, in theory, are equal and free. There are different standards for men and women in the abortion issue (where a man is ultimately free from blame, no matter), different regulations for heterosexuals and homosexuals in the military, even different “rules” for adults over and under 21 for drinking. But the worst of the double standards is in the treatment of the innocent and the guilty when it comes to death.
Execution is fraught with pros and cons in it’s practice, but out of the many debates have come definitions of “cruel and unusual” and limitations on suffering. The government's role in the medical community has been to ensure that cruel, unusual and inordinate suffering goes on without interruption. The bottom line is simple and the same as it’s ever been - money.
In the case of capital punishment, a healthy person is sentenced to die. That person must be kept, fed and disposed of at the state’s expense. The appeals process is necessary to ensure a fair trail and the state foots the bill even so far as to supply an attorney to fight itself if the accused cannot afford one.
Hospitals make money off of sick or dying patients. Even after life support has been removed, they make money off the bed the patient is dying in and every shot of morphine to “relieve the pain.” The longer a patient lives, before or after the machines are removed, the more profit for the hospital. What incentive is there for any administrator not physically there to encourage compassion?
A better alternative that would repair the heartless and warped double standards between the innocent and the guilty in America, would be to shift the expense. If someone is found guilty of a capital crime, he or she must post the money to pay for their keep and execution. If they cannot pay, just as it is for deductibles from insurance or for the uninsured, their family will bear the financial burden. It will be up to the family just how long the guilty will linger on death row and in the costly appeals process. When the time comes for the death to occur, the family will choose according to what it can afford, between the dignified lethal injection and the more economical gallows.
With the privatization of death row, the government will assume costs for terminally ill and critically and hopelessly injured patients once they have entered the stage where the end is inevitable and there is no procedure that will bring them back. As the government deems it necessary to keep a hopelessly vegetated patient on life support, so the government will pay the bill for the costly machines. If the government deems that a terminally ill patient must stay alive under heavy sedation, the government will pay for that sedation. If it’s the government’s will that a patient be taken off support and left to die while the family watches for hours, days, even weeks, the government will finance the use of the hospital facilities, pain killers and the therapy costs for the family members forced to watch their loved one suffer with neither honor nor dignity.
The American government needs to reassess the definition of “cruel and unusual” and put it in place where people who committed no crimes are too. When life support is removed and death is inevitable, why can’t the end be administered in the painless and dignified manner that it is to felons convicted of heinous crimes? Why does a serial killer have more rights than a cancer patient? Why does one convicted of high treason garner more respect than a drunk driver’s victim? Why is a child murderer given more compassion than a crippled with pain senior citizen?
While the government caters to the “religious”special interest groups and fanatical cults, every hour more Americans will suffer as loved ones struggle to draw breath, to find any comfort in their waning moments. They too will will lament and a admit with pain, “I watched him.”
Being a Super Hero
Davonna Lividini
November 14, 2003
As a society, we are good at playing the “blame game.” No matter what happens to us, it’s always someone else’s fault or some unseen thing is to blame for what we call fate. I’ve done it too. Everyone has at one time or another. The trick to a successful life, to being truly happy, is to keep the weight balanced in favor of the things you take credit for. To make sure that we look for the good in any situation. To make sure we let that positive mentality make positive results.
You don’t become faster than a speeding migraine, more powerful than a rebellious teen, able to jump life’s obstacles in a single “I think I can,” “Super Optimismo” over night But with time and work, you can become your own super hero.
Start with assessing your mental inventory. What have you got to work with? I was a loud and rebellious teen, who was unpopular, overweight and had a serious inferiority complex. It wasn’t until a few years after high school that I inventoried the life I had so far and decided what i could do to improve it.
My first step was to change the way people saw me. But the key to that was changing the way I saw myself. So, I changed the way I dressed and started using makeup. I felt pretty and people, men and women, began to comment about my looks. They thought I was as pretty as I had come to see myself. I didn’t lose any weight at that time to do it, mind you. I just did some tweaking to change how I saw myself and the world followed.
A few years later I decided to attack what was becoming less and less popular and more and more regarded as “disgusting.” I looked in the mirror and asked myself a simple question. “Why do you smoke?” I demanded a good reason if I was going to convince myself that it was not a good idea to quit. My insufficient answer was, “I don’t know.” It wasn’t that simple - I used a self-hypnosis tape, but the day after I started the mental preparation, I quit. It’s been 13 and a half years now. If you can look in the mirror and convince yourself that there is a good reason to smoke, you aren’t ready to quit - but look at yourself giving that reason as if you were your own child. Would you accept your answer from your offspring?
Having never shed that inferiority complex from my teens, I went back to college. I had always thought of myself as not very intelligent. My mother was brilliant. My father emigrated to this country when he was a young teen and learned a second language, a second culture and a new trade. My brother was called “gifted” for his book learning ability. I worked hard for A’s and B’s in high school, but I had to work all the time. Now I have the degree that no one else in our branch of the family has. I don’t feel like the family dummy anymore.
In the past year, I’ve shed a quarter of my body weight. I’m still working on it. I’m also making plans for grad school in the not too distant future. I’m not battling depression or inferiority now. I am striving to be that super hero in my own life. You see, as I have made the choices to better balance my life, and I’ve only hit upon a few of the biggies, I’ve become just a little more positive every time. Now, I’ve come to realize that no one is a super hero, even those who seem like it are doing the exact same thing I am. We’re moving a little closer to it every day, realizing that everyone is just a “work in progress.” While no one may ever be a finished piece of art, sit back and look at how far from a blank canvas you are. If you can look at yourself and see that you’re a little better today that you were yesterday, call it a good day. If you're not, it’s up to you, not anyone else, not fate, not luck, to make tomorrow one day closer to becoming a super hero. But trust me, you can do it!
November 20, 2003
Merry Christmas to all! It’s not even Thanksgiving yet, but Merry Christmas. We have become a society that over prepares for the things we don’t need to and neglects to prepare for the things we do.
It starts with a Mother’s suitcase is packed and ready to go a week before the baby is even due but she is completely unprepared for the contractions to be minutes apart at rush hour on Friday afternoon and it goes on from there. We are born into this mess. The child will have everything she coud possibly need to go to her first day of school but shocked that Mommy is leaving her when it comes. Years choosing the right college are wasted when the temptations of “keggers” and the pressure of exams end the university career before freshman year is up. Obsessive months of wedding planing culminates in divorce after 5 years. Painstaking marketing is shattered by the surprise of a corrupt CEO. Over a year of promoting multiple ways to spend the same projected surplus over and over culminate in unpreparedness for the economical realities of war. Regardless of age, regardless of power, we dot our T’s and cross our eyes and pray that a miracle accidentally happens and we’re right.
And so it continues. The remaining Halloween decorations hadn’t even been completely moved to the clearance bins when the red and green shimmers made their 2003 debut. Don’t misinterpret the complaint - I love Christmas. It’s my favorite time of the year, all four months of it.
In all seriousness, I immerse myself in every aspect of the season. I celebrate the personal religious significance, as a Christian, with a Nativity scene at home and long periods of meditation. I celebrate the season of joy with family and friends with warm greetings and parties. I celebrate the festival of children with my “duties” as a managerial elf. But the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas day has always been sufficient for total immursion in that spirit, even for me.
Every year, after Thanksgiving Diner, I listen to Christmas music with my family. That’s the start of nothing but Christmas music for a month This year, we have a local radio station that beat me to that punch! They have been playing Christmas music 24/7 since the beginning of November. They went from the “Monster Mash” to the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” in the blink of an eye! Is there really a market for that this early?
And as I wondered, I considered the world we’re living in today. The stagnant and depressed economy has droves of shoppers starting early to stretch the gift dollars over a longer period of time. That Christmas music on the radio may be soothing to an out of work Dad buying gifts with an unemployment check after the electric bill and groceries are paid for. The single, middle manager who was recently another victim of job cuts trying to pay rent and buy gifts with her severance package, might not feel so out of place going shopping instead of to a planing meeting with the seasonal music giving the illusion of an appropriate time to be in the stores.
I don’t pretend that the store displays and radio content is for a higher good-will purpose than to sell a few more toys and make an extra buck. But I can’t help but wonder if it’s ultimately part of the power of the greater controlling force. Perhaps, on an unconscious level, we are reaching out to one another. Sure, you do make a few more dollars, but what better way to make them than to bring a little extra happiness to heavy hearts.
When I first heard abut the soft rock station switching this early to an “All Christmas” format, I thought I’d hate it. That it was exploiting the holiday, MY special time of the year, and doing it so early that it would irritate the community into rage rather than rapture. But, it’s not so bad. People comment about it being too early, but some listen just the same. Others turn it off making a mental note to tune back in when the holiday is closer. Many of those songs speak to wishing it could be Christmas every day of the year, and bottling up the feeing of joy. Maybe we have found a way. Maybe it’s a start to finding peace in our everyday lives. Maybe it’s the key to word peace!
Maybe it just means the Christmas chocolate will be avaiabe for three more weeks this year. It’s a good thing after all.
November 27, 2003
Happy Thanksgiving and a happy start to holiday shopping to everyone!
My Grandma and I were chatting over a very nonchalantly competitive game of dominoes, as is our Thanksgiving night tradition, while listening to an assortment of Christmas CD’s. The discussion centered around those CD’s and the lyrics therein.
Now, this wasn’t a discussion about the Christian meaning of Christmas, or the meaning of “family” in the real world as opposed to “Mom and Dad and sister Kate.” It wasn’t even the debate about which reindeer was the lead deer before Rudolph. It started with “Who gave Johnny Mathis the right to switch the pie?” and “Is Maryann McBride too old to ride in a one horse open sleigh?” I didn’t say the conversation over yet another piece of stuffed celery and the fifth cup of Starbucks Verona was deep!
Remember when the words to Sleigh Ride included “As we pass around the eggnog and the hot mince pie?” I think it was Johnny Mathis who first changed it to “coffee and pumpkin pie.” It must have been the time to update the lyrics because every contemporary song bird who has put voice to vinyl or digital sound since has used the Mathis rewrite. Personally, I’d go an eggnog latte and pumpkin pie with extra Cool Whip. What the heck is Mincemeat anyway? It doesn’t even sound palatable!
And by the way, that same song changed the Christmas party to a Birthday party. Maybe Johnny Mathis just went to a different party all together!
“I’ll Be Home For Christmas” is another updated one. It was from the start, “presents ON the tree!” It followed with older traditions. On “Christmas With Placido Domingo,” the renown tenor still sings it the old traditional way, but most of the current renditions put the presents “’round” or “’neath” the tree.
”The Little Drummer Boy” has an interesting lyric with variations. Exactly who is that baby the drummer boy is making smile? When I was growing up, it was always “Baby Jesus.” Most of the current versions, it’s “Little Baby.” It frightens me to think that a song about a gift given at a stable to a baby in a manger is being made politically correct. I mean, sure there were so many such happenings documented at that time and historically referenced that it could have been any one of a number of babies, right?
Back to the secular songs, where does it mention Christmas in “Jingle Bells” anyway? It is considered a Christmas song, and only played during the holiday season, but really, listen to the words - Why can’t we listen to it in February? It would be an optimistic way to shake the winter doldrums in those areas where the “ground is white?”
That song has been through some changes too. In American culture it is as old as the hills and has for generations been the first holiday song children learn to sing. It was the first carol I learned to play on both the guitar and piano, mostly due to it’s simplicity and second only to “Smoke On The Water,” when I learned to play music on a push botton phone. Perhaps it’s for that simplicity that we don’t let it go.
The second verse, that starts “A day or two ago, I thought I’d take a ride...” has been through everything in recorded music, including a sex change! I grew up knowing, if that is you actually ever go past the first verse, that the next line was “and Maryann McBride was seated by my side.” An Older version goes “And soon miss Fanny Bright was seated by my side.” I guess I can see where the names needed updating to keep the song sung at all! I heard, just a couple of days ago, a contemporary female vocalist, sorry, I don’t recall who it was, but she “fixed that Fanny-Maryann debate up good!” She sings “A day or two ago, I thought I’d take a ride, and my Mr. Right, was seated by my side!” When the Dogs do “Jingle Bells,” they sing, “Fifi, the well groomed, toenails painted, poodle next door, was chasing the sleigh with me,” but the phrase in dog language fits fine in the song.
I guess in the great debate about song lyrics, if the song is old enough and loved enough, it doesn’t really matter if every word you sing is right, as long as you enjoy the singing of it. It is fun though, to see how what we know as “tradition” has changed as witnessed by the words of our time honored seasonal songs.
December 5, 2003
D is for draft...and danger and dodgers and DUH! There is talk about possibly reinstating “the draft,” and so there is naturally talk about whether or not it’s a good idea.
We need a draft because there aren’t enough young people willing to fight and die in war. We need war to support this booming econ... Oh wait - that’s old reasoning. recent wars have drained our economy rather than boosting it. We need war to build up independent nations...who will build armies and attack us. Maybe we need war for population control, because we’re as maxed out as China? Perhaps war is just a competition for world leaders to claim the “biggest penis” in the testosterone contest. Maybe we need world leaders without penises! (shameless “vote for me” plug!)
I was debating with a friend about the draft the other night. We are on opposing sides of the issue, but it really doesn’t matter - we’re both over 35 and wouldn’t be drafted anyway. We don’t really have a right to an opinion. It’s like men with big mouths in the abortion debate - it doesn’t concern them. Neither does it concern the men and women in Washington deciding whether to take another choice away from Americans. This time, it’s the young people the government will tell in what kind of jeopardy to put their bodies.
Don’t get me wrong - I’m not antimilitary as a viable pre-career or career choice. I’m not anti-war if there is a just reason for it. With an eerie need for closure, I celebrated news that the US was attacking Taliban infested Afghanistan to find their “guest” Osama Bin Laden. There were many people who enlisted after 9-11 to avenge our country after the terrorist attacks. In fact, word was at that time, that they were unable to handle the processing of so many people. The cause was right and people were willing to perhaps make that ultimate sacrifice.
They were brave, courageous patriots proudly defending, and yes, avenging their country. There was no need to bully anyone into joining the military, because the military was serving a noble purpose. Now, the military seems to not be as popular a place to “be all that you can be.” So, the men and women that are too old to be drafted start to talk about drafting young people to fight the wars that they start. If enlisting is down, it’s Americans sending Washington a message about the line between bully and justice. As Americans we have the right to make those statements whether they are speeches, the written word, or by what we choose to do or not do. It’s just not American to take that freedom of voice and choice away.
Does a draft really make our military any stronger? Instead of the synergy of bands of people working together for a cause they all believe in, it will incorporate flies in the ointment of success. When “I want to win,” is replaced with “I just want to escape with my hide,” is anyone really fighting to win? Isn’t everyone in more danger with that kind of self centered apathy in the ranks?
The worst part, is what we’re saying to the men and women who enlisted. When we instate a draft, we are telling those people that what they’re giving is not enough. We force people who did not choose to join into military servitude and put them right beside the enlistees in line. There is no extra respect or glory for the men and women who fight for our country with their hearts, not just a jail threat. They aren’t recognized as a noble cut above,. And, they should be. They’ve earned that.
Forcing Americans to serve in the military serves no good purpose. If there aren’t enough soldiers to march, maybe Washington should figure out why, not just endanger those who are there by choice with a quick fix, adding people who will not give to the best of their ability. Tell me, in Viet Nam, how could you tell a drafted man from an enlisted man on the front lines or in a body bag? How do you differentiate the victims of the draft from the fallen heroes of the war?
December 11, 2003
I am parting from my usual editorial or conversational points of view to wax the moment poetic! My poetic verse is usually limited to the comedy or greeting card style, but on occasion it has all the elements that make me crazy trying to read the art-form! When I do put pen to paper to write poetry, it’s only when I am truly inspired!
The first selection is from my own personal Journal during the Thanksgiving break. This is the first time for me to celebrate the holidays without my Mom. I have 37 years of wonderful memories to comfort me, and many changes to frighten me! The first Thanksgiving turkey without Mom there was okay. Dad says it was a little underdone. Mom made the outside crispier! This will be the first Christmas that I will have to be a grown up. Mom always did Christmas in abundance, including spoiling me like a precious child. It was always the one day as an adult, that I could let go of every vice in the adult world that owned a piece of me and remember the bountiful and loving Christmases of my childhood. I was her precious child again for one day every year. This year, the gifts for me won’t be there. Instead, I am taking her place in providing the selfless and abundant display of love and cheer. I’m learning how to give, expecting nothing in return. It’s not as bad as I was afraid it would be. I didn’t think I could make it without feeling a little jealousy, a little selfish. So far, it’s been wonderful! I hope this feeling lasts! Mom was a great poet. I’m sure she’s looked down and read it by now, I hope she liked it!
The second was inspired by a friend with whom I collaborated on some poetry. Eek! He woke up my inner-poet! I won’t get into what that one is about. I never get it when I read it and no one ever explains poetry to me!
The second was inspired by a friend with whom I collaborated on some poetry. Eek! He woke up my inner-poet! I won’t get into what that one is about. I never get it when I read it and no one ever explains poetry to me!
Questions For My Mother
Hello God, can I talk to my mother?
There are so many things she forgot to tell me.
What temperature is right for a Thanksgiving turkey?
How much flour do I add to the gravy?
How do I make a car payment, buy groceries and pay the phone bill
from one paycheck and still have some left for Christmas?
How do I give up the things that I need,
to create the abundance that brings joy without acknowledgment?
How do I give love that I don’t receive back,
with faith that someday the feeling will return?
How do I endure the pain of old scars sliced open,
when others insist my blood is not real?
Who do I talk to when no one will hear me?
Where do I go when I feel all alone?
When it seems that everyone has lost all faith in me,
Where will I go for an ego boost?
Where do I find that travel companion
who shares planning and payment without expectations?
Who will be my greatest critic
And always remain my greatest fan?
Who will guide me for the rest of my journey?
Who will teach me what’s ahead?
Who will answer all of my questions?
Who will love me without condition?
God, please tell my mother I love her.
I’ll find the answers and I’ll be okay.
Eyes
Eyes peer into the darkness,
looking for a friend,
A lonely heart cries from emptiness,
will my search ever end?
Lips thirst for another's to quench them,
eyes sparkling bright,
a body hungers for passion inside it,
fireworks explode in the night,
Eyes peer into the darkness,
looking for a friend,
A lonely heart cries from emptiness,
will my search ever end?
Lips thirst for another's to quench them,
eyes sparkling bright,
a body hungers for passion inside it,
fireworks explode in the night,
A soul warmed by the company beside it,
things are just as they seem,
fantasies fulfilled fade to quieting moments,
eyes drift off to dream.
things are just as they seem,
fantasies fulfilled fade to quieting moments,
eyes drift off to dream.
By Davonna Lividini
January 29, 2004
One hot issue for candidates for any office in this day and age is prescription drug coverage and insurance for the elderly. It’s a noble cause and will get a few votes. Everyone will eventually get old, right? Maybe. If they are lucky enough to stave off any disaster or disease in the interim, they will live to see the age where multiple prescriptions are necessary to sustain some form of health in life. It’s only the elderly that need excessive prescription medications and constant health care anyway, right?
In the Pollyanna world where everyone is invincible that teens enjoy, perhaps it is ture, but the reality is the need for medical care starts pre-birth and ends at death, no matter how untimely that end may be. In this world there is juvenile diabetes, breast cancer in women in their 20’s, men in their 30’s who suffer heart attacks. There are many cases of high cholesterol in 40 somethings and people in their 50’s with rheumatoid arthritis. Will health insurance cover these ailments and the subsequent drugs and treatments necessary to manage or cure them? If only insurance were so willing to pay out benefits and if only every person who suffered from a medical condition was covered. But it’s not that way.
The health insurance industry is gambling with just as many dealers as players. Money is paid in betting the policy holder will get sick and the coverage is offered betting they won’t. But it’s a suspicious dealer demanding the cards be laid on the table for scrutiny before the wager is paid off. That same industry reserves the right to not play with the high rollers. A Preexisting condition, a propensity towards a particular ailment, ”he smokes,” “she’s too fat,” a child born addicted to drugs, any woman who can bear a child, the “reasons” to refuse coverage or demand a higher premium are endless. So, in America, there are thousands upon thousands who have no health coverage. The unemployed or underemployed, the homeless, students juggling a full class schedule with part time jobs, children with parents earning hourly wages, all with little or no benefits, no health coverage.
Seeking a solution to making senior prescription medication more readily available is only a small piece of the health care dilemma in the Untied States. Will an extra bottle of pills be a reward for making it to old age? What is the solution? A socialized medical system is not a viable answer. The problems of such a system are well documented in living breathing case studies. Long waits to see doctors and get treatment, with the truly talented physicians going elsewhere to practice in a more lucrative climate. Even the idea of free clinics for those without medical coverage welcomes the same waits and inexperienced doctors and other health care professionals. But there must be a solution. Healthcare should be a right in the richest country in the world. Isn’t good health essential in the pursuit of happiness? Isn’t liberty being able to make the choices that will sustain life?
Semi-social healthcare provides for the elderly population of America, prenatal care and everything in between. Every American will see a physician when they want to. They won’t have to wait until it’s an emergency, even a need. Preventative health care will be available for any American that chooses to take advantage of it and “the system” will offer the same mix of new and established doctors as the private sector offers with he same levels of expertise.
The rough plan goes something like this:
As a patient, getting a physical or seeing a doctor is as easy as calling or walking into a federal medical clinic and setting an appointment. The appointment is made to see the next available doctor qualified to see to your needs. For those who prefer a personal physician or a more intimate office setting, there will, of course, still be private practice available, but the same services will be available through he federal clinics to everyone at no charge.
While no charge medial care is a definite benefit to the federal health care system, there are restrictions as well. The only guarantee as to choice of physicians is that the physician the patient sees will be qualified to treat them. There is no one personal physician. Weighing the lack of a personal physician against lack of any health care at all is an easy assessment. As stated before, if a person can afford it and if he or she so chooses, there is private practice, but it is a choice; the clinics will not discriminate based on one’s ability or inability to pay - all Americans are equal.
From the physician point of view, what incentive is there to become involved in the federal program when there is still private practice? If all of the experienced doctors remain in private practice, it will remain the choice for those who can afford it and still be lucrative.
Here’s how that works:
Federal clinic physicians will earn $50,000 a year based on a 40-hour work week. True that the average doctor in private practice exceeds $50K annually, but there is where the incentive lies. For whatever percentage of a forty hour week any doctor dedicates to the federal clinic, that portion of his or her gross income shall be tax-free.
A doctor can dedicate 10 hours a week to the federal clinic and the rest of her work time can be in private practice, and 25% of the total income of her $12,500.00 form the federal clinic and whatever else she earns form private practice is tax exempt.
A heart specialist who earns $25,000.00 from 20 weekly hours in the federal system and earns an additional $200,000.00 in private practice, will be taxed on $112,500.00 of his income.
Any doctor who dedicates a 40 hour week to the semi social system can earn more in private practice in addition and their entire income is tax free.
It’s an incentive based system that encourages the best doctors to be involved in the heath care system for everyone. Doctor salaries and operating costs will need to be be recouped from a tax to businesses and copaid by individuals no greater, perhaps even smaller than the insurance premiums paid to the no longer necessary health insurance bureaucracies.
That’s a rough sketch of Semi-Social Medicine. A thought I’d pursue, If I was president
What kind of salary is a president worth?
June 4, 2004
Presidents and CEO’s of companies are sometimes considered worth seven figure salaries while the president of a student body is paid nothing for the extra work done. So the range is wide. What about the president of a large and powerful country? What should she see in the way of a regular paycheck?
If I am elected, I and for that matter anyone who is elected, will have all of the prestige that goes with the “elected official” on a college campus and the responsibility that goes with a company’s executive officer. So, what is fair?
First, we consider the benefits package offered, which for the president is extensive. It not only covers all medical procedures and visits, but we get reports to see our tax dollars at work after every check up. After consideration of the benefits we employ a basic checklist to decide if a salary is acceptable. Can we live on one or two jobs, one or two incomes in the family? That checklist includes, rent or house payment, food on the table, clothes, transportation and maybe a weekend away or a vacation.
Well, okay. Point one is not a valid consideration for the Presidential salary since the rent/house payment is funded by the American public at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Half or more of the food costs are assumed in lunches and dinners paid for by the state or hosting officials in other countries, not to mention the parties we throw for the president when he/she is hosting dignitaries. It cuts the need for food in thae personal expenses way down. Clothes will have to be included as one of the President’s needs as will other personal products, but transportation is included in the whole awards package for winning the presidential contest too. (No wonder people want such an awful job!) Weekenders and vacations are also included. The current president has taken enough of them. As long as you’re “on call,” vacation time isn’t even something for which we dock your pay. So there isn’t much left that the President has to come up with his or her own money for anyway.
In discussions with the Vice Presidential hopeful and prospective members of my cabinet, we’ve determined that there is no reason that position warrants a six figure salary. Consider how effective the position has been.
Currently, we have a war going on that’s at best controversial as to whether or not we should have started it. (No, I haven’t forgotten the terrorist attacks of 2001. I also haven't forgotten that all Sadam Hussein had to do with them was a desire to pat Osama Bin Laden on the back.) In administrations past, wars have been periods of hardship followed by great prosperity in hs country. That’s effective management. But in the more recent past, the aftermath of war has not fared so well for the American economy. As the practicalities of war have moved more into technology and less in industry, fewer people have been necessary to work to keep the war effort going. War creates fewer skilled jobs than it used to, thus making it harder to show a tangible result for the American population to feel like it profited. Unemployment from a general lack of jobs does not warrant a good performance review.
Many different ideas for stimulating the economy abound. Some have worked, some have not. Welfare is a great concept if it actually encourages people to become educated and eventually find work. ADC needs to afford the basic needs and child care so young parents stay in school and get the education to support their children, not have more. “Trickle Down Economics” created bigger salaries for corporate management and squeezed out the middle of the corporate structure. Not watching the administration of NAFTA closely has caused out sourcing to the point of “customer service” that doesn't speak or understand our country’s most common language. Six figures, huh?
General care is not available equally to all Americans, but the emergency roms are. Of course without insurance, those emergency bills accumulate to thousands in a mere couple hours and when they don’t get paid costs are absorbed, insurance rate go up, it’s a viscous circle! An illegal alien can sneak into the country, get an organ transplant and sue for malpractice, while both parents must work to afford insulin for an American-born diabetic child. While many Americans have no health care, a president deserves how much?
The homeless population, the mere existence of which speaks volumes about the riches our country does NOT have, is disenfranchised because they lack addresses. Elected officials speak about “doing something” for them, but they have no voice in even who the officials talking are. A “B” high school student is still above average. But a “B” student from a middle income family has a much rougher ride trying to get into college. He lacks the grades for a lot of scholarships and his parents’ income is too high for many grants and even loans. A “C” student of low income parents hs a much more optimistic look for higher education. We still have beaches we can’t swim in and neighborhoods we can’t walk in. Now, we even have things we can’t say in fear of our government. The men we have elected into power have not earned a raise to so much over the American average.
I believe this is a great country, and I am a bit of a “homer.” I can’t imagine that there’s any place better to live than the land I was born in. But in all of our greatness and richness, we are still sorely lacking in some of the essential areas that make people free and equal. I believe in earning what you have and having what you earn. If you’re indigent, as an American, you deserve a hand to help you get on your own two feet, but not to be supported forever. If you’re wealthy, you do not deserve a tax break just because you have a lot of money. If you’re elected to live in the White House and serve as our leader, you do not automatically deserve to get rich. We house you, feed you, provide a medical insurance plan, get you where you need to go. For a a salary, all you need is some spending money.
That’s the consensus of your hopeful vice president , me and our advisors. We think $35.000 annual salary is a more than sufficient salary for Washington officials. State expenses are, of course, reimbursable, as with any other job in this country, so it’s $35,000 personal income after we take care of all the necessities.
Is the job worth more? Not as long as there are still people without access to health care. Not as long as there are people able and wanting to work who can’t find a suitable placement. Not as long as there are homeless. Not as long as there is a qualified student who can’t go to college or a child who can’t get into kindergarten. Remember, what we found so appalling in Iraq was the opulence Saddam Hussein lived in while so many Iraqi lived in poverty. That’s not an example to follow, it’s one to avoid. It’s time for the President to lead by example and be the first one to take a pay cut for the good of the nation. In January 2005, if you elect me, I will.
Davonna Lividini
June 12, 2004
We said goodbye and laid to rest a former president Friday. It was a State Funeral and much pomp and circumstance was involved. I was bothered by the political tone taken by so many. This was not politics, nor should it have been political. Ronald Reagan was no longer a politician. He was a former president and a man who had been ill for over a decade. It was a time to pay respect to this man who was the head of our country. It doesn't matter if you voted for him or not. It doesn't matter if you agreed with him or not. What you think of the job he did as our president is inconsequential at this time. Any former president deserves a State Funeral if the family desires it. And any person, upon his or her passing, deserves time to be immortal for just a few days. There should be a time when you respectfully hold your tongue if your words will be ill of the dead. There should also be a time when it is reflection not action that takes place in honor of the deceased.
In the days that followed President Reagan's passing, I heard ideas and complaints from members and supporters of both the political parties that made me ill. I got the disgustng feeling that both sides were jumping at the opportunity to use Reagan's death to their party's advantage. What a great stroke of luck for the politicians for him to have died in a presidential election year. It's just a question of which party will be able to use the death of a former president to win more votes. There friends, is a shining example of what the morality of America's leadership has become.
When Ronald Reagan was the man who put the executive signature on the bill prohibiting memorials less than 25 years after a person's passing, it dishonors him to contemplate circumventing that law in his "honor." Likewise it is premature to talk about changing landmarks, city names and currency, The timing in a presidential election year reeks of disrespect and exploitation. It's also not the time to bring up old controversies that have nothing to do with immediate concerns. It's not the time to play class warfare games. This is the time to unite, if we still can, as Americans and pay respect to a man that was our leader. He was nothing less than a man and nothing more than a democratically elected official who served us as best he could for 8 years. He was a symbol of our freedom, and he deserves a few days of simple nonpartisan respect.
August 13, 2004
I was pondering the magnitude of my current political undertaking recently. I’ve repeatedly said that I’m well aware that I’m not qualified to be the President of the United States, but who really is? I’ve come to a couple realizations in this campaign.
The first realization is that just campaigning for the office is HARD WORK! I don’t have any problems at all with hard work. I am unemployed and searching for work right now, which is probably the only reason I have the time to run for the Presidency in the first place. I see a need for keeping jobs in our country and possibly including American citizens in Affirmative Action! There are countries, and I’m not really searching for another comparison with our neighbors to the north, but there are countries where a company has to prove that they have searched and cannot find a citizen to take a position in order to hire and employee form out of the country. That’s perhaps one solution to the job market woes. My personal solution is to run for office.
My day is divided between the research, networking and putting myself out there in front of people necessary to find a a placement that matches my skills and ability and the research, networking and putting myself out there in front of people necessary for the constant interview process of a political campaign. It’s like having two jobs and not getting a paycheck for either. Can you imagine if my opponents had to work while they campaigned? They essentially stop doing much of their jobs to concentrate on their campaigns with a team of media savvy sharp shooters and advisors. All the while, they’re still collecting paychecks on those six-figure incomes. No wonder no one has ever heard of an average American getting into office on a write-in campaign!
But I can definitely see where there really is a need for campaign finance reform. We need a new system, a cap on what any candidate can spend period. Give the little but better qualified guys a chance. We elect a president like it's the World Series. The Yankees will win because they have more money, but once in a while a miracle happens and then you realize the Marlins are all millionaires too.
There needs to be a point where you cannot put anymore money into your campaign and only one source may buy advertising or ad time for you. None of this “As a candidate I can’t earn anymore money for my campaign, but if you give to my party, they can keep begging in the streets for money and smearing my competition.”
Make my voice as amplified as George Bush and someone who is actually qualified, but not a member of anything except the American citizenry as loud as John Kerry. See who can stand up to the scrutiny of you, the voting public, the personnel managers for the position for which we are interviewing.
The other campaign reform I’d suggest is scrutinizing negative ads BEFORE they can be released. Any comment made in a political ad about anyone other than the candidate for whom the ad is produced, must supply irrefutable evidence before a panel that the statements are true. A negative ad will take a lot longer to get released, if it is released at all. Negative ads become a huge gamble and advertising money would be better spent telling the American public why to vote for a candidate rather than just telling us why not to vote for the competition. I’m always uncomfortable with negative ads. I wonder what the candidate is hiding that they don’t want us looking at what they stand for.
I said that there were two things I’ve discovered as a candidate. I got an email in the guest book at Simply Davine. It was sent anonymously and has about a dozen “How do you feel about...” questions. To be honest, some of the things I simply don’t know enough about to address at this time. I have some homework to do first!
You see, I don’t have a staff, like my opponents do, to do all that for me! It’s pretty much John and me, one body guard who will have a security cabinet position in 2005, and the encouraging words and thoughts from our supporters. Our platform is pretty much “Find out what’s broken and fix it, leave the stuff that works alone.” Of course that’s actually a pretty big platform. It leaves me open to long emails asking about things I hadn’t considered yet. But I figured that was part of the headache that goes with the job, so I should get used to it.
But I realize that my opponents don’t actually do that. That’s what a platform is all about. It’s the handful of things you actually plan to spend any time on and a few good words about the things that will get you elected, phrased so you won’t actually have to address them again until the next election.
And that does happen. How many politicians call it “heckling” when someone asks a question that is not addressed in the party’s agenda? How many times have you had a concern that was never discussed in the campaign and then never touched by the elected administration? The campaign platform, what’s important to the party, is how candidates save themselves from actually having to deal with their constituents. Questions about things that are not part of the platform are not allowed. All answers are from the carefully rehearsed rhetoric that goes with that platform.
Candidates, the parties, will not allow themselves to be accountable for the whole country. They choose the issues they want to address and accept the couple of major things they must and everything else stalls until a new administration comes in and the issue vies for attention again. Party Agendas leave Americans campaigning for the politicians to vote for our concerns. They are supposed to be proving themselves worthy to us, not the other way around.
As for my campaign, hard as the work may be, I’m going to continue to try to understand all the concerns that may arise in my administration. I believe understanding the questions that America has better qualifies me to appoint the people to whom I will delegate the responsibility for finding solutions. My platform is simple. Find out what America needs, what America wants and what’s important to America. Keep the emails coming through Simply Davine! I won’t accuse you of heckling me if I don’t know the answer or don't have “an” answer prepared. And, when I say “I’ll get back to you on that,” I mean before November, not in 2008.
August 20, 2004
Tonight is the eve of a fantastic new day! I’ll realize a dream tomorrow as I sleep under the stars, IN THE OUTFIELD! My friend Rich and I will be at the Family Camp Out, in Akron Ohio right after the Aeros game at Canal Park. We’ll be pitching our tent in the outfield, catching a few Z’s and striking camp after breakfast with the team. I’ve been jumpy and excited for a few weeks and the day is finally here!
Everyone has passions, they are a good healthy thing to indulge in once in a while. One of mine, the biggie, is baseball.
My love for the game started 36 years ago. I was only two years old that summer, but I knew what baseball was because it was always on TV! Mom was a big baseball fan since a very young age. I’m told I watched a little and played a little when the games were on, as most toddler types do. But in the fall, the fall was when the magic of baseball struck me at the core and hooked me.
The last game of the 1968 World Series was a day game, and as any good mother would do, Mom had put my baby brother down for his nap and I was safely playing in my playpen. As any good baseball fan would do with the home team so close to the title, Mom also had the game on. When the game ended in a Tigers victory and the neighborhood erupted in horns and hollers, Mom picked up the only other person who was in the house and awake and dance and cheered with me. Baseball had become a symbol of all that is loving and happy. Mom and I shared many games in the years we had together, including the annual “Take Mommy Out To The ball Game” on Mother’s Day.
My heroes were Al Kaline and Pete Rose. There were a select few players beyond the Tigers and the Big Red Machine that were spared the toy status in my baseball cards. Baseball cards. I remember those. 10 cents bought a regular pack, I think it was 15 cards, maybe 20 and a stick of gum that only a true baseball fan with all their teeth could chew. They had glossy fronts, and plain cardboard backs and they were all Topps. If you got them wet the backs would stick to your legs and you could make baseball cards pants out of them, and if you weren’t a Red or a Tiger, you’d better be the likes of Nolan Ryan or Hank Aaron, or you were subject to being used as party clothes. Hey, I was a kid! The Reds, Tigers and my other heroes had a shoe box in the closet. I had my priorities and I had to make my change for the store cover my heroes box AND my play time!
As I got a little older, it was Mark “the Bird” Fidrych making his summer residence a few blocks away and being told not to cross the busy road to visit. You know that we kids in the neighborhood could not be expected to heed that! The Bird was an awesome ambassador! He’d step outside on the days he was home and say hello to us and thanked us for our well wishes. It’s all we wanted, his recognition as the kids form his neighborhood.
John Hiller is the man who ensured I’d be a baseball fan for life. My folks had taken my brother and I and a friend to a Tiger game. We managed front row right in front of the bull pen. To a child’s mind, Hiller spent the whole game teasing and having fun with us. We didn’t want that game to end! We’d spent 9 innings asking anyone who walked back into the pen “Hey, can I have a ball?” as kids will do, hoping to get one lobbed their way to fight over. At the end of the game, John came out of the pen with three balls that he handed to us personally. Time stood still, as if that moment there were four people in all of Tiger Stadium. You can’t ever walk away from that kind of magic!
Dave Rozema was one of my first preteen crushes and years into my adulthood, I realized why I always loved men in white jeans in the summer. They’re on the home team!
Through the many other priorities in life itself as a teenager, I still loved to watch a good game and after graduating in January of 1984, baseball was again the buzz and talk of the town. The season started with the Tigers in First place and I became an adult with them STILL in First. In fact, they stayed in first all year from Opening Day to the last game of the World Series! Mom and I had gotten tickets to one of the Series games in Detroit. I was sitting in the upper deck, yelling “Hit it here, Gibby!” Kirk Gibson was almost as accommodating as John Hiller had been, hitting the home run just one section over from us.
The wonder that is Cable TV brought the Braves and Cubs into my baseball heart. It was the late 80’s and I started watching casually and then hanging on every game just hoping today would be a Braves victory. More often than not, it wasn’t. But I refused to give up on my new found “home away from home team.” As my old heroes had retired, new names entered my realm of fandom. Ryne Sandberg, Ron Gant, Jeff Blauser and Mark Lemke became the names to look for as I resumed the card collecting. Boy that had changed since I was ten! Hot glossy cards with slick graphics and most of them had NO GUM! We had local Michigan boys, Steve Avery and John Smoltz on the pitching staff in Atlanta and the Cubs had that rookie, Mark Grace. He looked like he’d produce some numbers in time!
The mid nineties came and Mike Piazza had become tops in my book. He’s a second generation American on his Dad’s side, I’m a first on mine. Piazza’s lesson was that you don’t ever turn down help no matter where it comes from. You take it, and prove that it was a good thing to help you. Exactly what he did. They told us in broadcast school that if you are offered a job just because you’re a woman, or a minority or for whatever reason, the only thing you have to do is prove the decision a good one to erase any “helping hand” tag anyone would try to give you. Mike is proof of that.
In June of 1994, Mom and I began to “collect” ballparks, often arranging travel plans around the baseball schedules so we could see an out of town game. In that first year of collecting we had seen a Padres game against the Reds in Cincinnati and were making plans for another trip in September. That wasn’t to be for that year. The season ended abruptly and too early.
I was sure the Braves would finally make it all the way that year too, but the strike messed up that prediction! My favorite Brave pitcher, Tom Glavine was the Player’s Union Rep and he’d made some comments that were very discouraging to me. Something to the effect of “The fans don’t understand that much money.” I spent a good number of years afterwards using the phrase “Just put it on Tom Glavine’s credit card.” There was a subset of baseball cards made that looked like credit cards and you better bet I got the Tom Glavine one! When the Braves won the Series in 1995, I was ready to bury the Tomahawk with Glavine, but I still carried his “Credit card” in my purse for a good few years afterwards!
In the mid 90’s Turk Wendell gave me goose bumps. He was a good relief pitcher with all the flair I’d seen in the Bird as a kid. I watched him messing with a couple of kids near the bullpen at a Cubs game. I knew what he was really doing. He was keeping the game alive. He was building fans for life. I knew those kids felt like time was standing still and they were the only ones at Wrigley Field that day. Just them and Turk Wendell, just like we were with John Hiller so many years ago. Maybe that’s the unspoken other job of a relief pitcher. It is the bull pen’s responsibility to ensure baseball’s future by creating those fans for life.
In 1996 and 1997, I worked game day in scoreboard operations for the Tigers. I got paid to go to baseball games! My fingers were almost sheared off my a Cecil Fielder foul ball, I watched Bobby Higginson finish his first season over .300 and I got to see Brian Hunter steal bases, and just be the picture of people loving cool in the halls before the park was open. I saw A-Rod hit for the cycle and Joe Carter hit one over the roof. And I got paychecks with a MLB logo on them!
In 1999, I was reintroduced to an acquaintance form Detroit Rockers, indoor soccer games and he introduced me to the baseball minors! The play wasn’t as horrifically different as I might have initially feared. After all, these are the best of the college/high school ranks who have picked the best of little leagues. They are also the tomorrow for the Major League! The play was in fact, very good. There wasn’t the “can’t touch me” polish of the majors, but the passion on the field was stronger. These guys play for the chance to go all the way, and some just for the unabated love of the game. They’re not the palaces with big ticket prices putting on a show to amaze you. They are the intimate homes of teams and owners who humbly love the game itself as much as the fans. They are organizations that reach out to say hello and welcome. From the free programs with a cheery hello at White Caps games in the Midwest League, to a personal handshake and “thank you,” from the staff as you leave a Frontier League’s Kalamazoo Kings game, it’s not baseball for the money or baseball for a new Lambourghini. It’s baseball for the fans and for the game.
I’ll always love the game that has meant so many different things to me since it just meant a mother's love and joy when I was 2. I take my youngest nieces to games and I wonder if they’ll ever get “the bug” like I have it, like Mom did. The world is different now. It’s quicker and more commercial. But then I see everything drop when they pass the TV because “Pudge is batting!” or they insist “I’ll turn it off for dinner as soon as Sammy finishes.” I realize they still have their heroes, just like I had mine. Right now, baseball is fun they have with their Aunt and Grandfather and a fond and cherished memory of their Grandmother. And perhaps as they grow and the game changes for them, it will be a part of their history too, and the game will live on.
August 28, 2004
This week I’d like to address good character and how often it backfires in the face of those members of the “big two.” I am somewhat immune from it being a “party free” candidate, but I’m no more or less guilty of the terrible offenses both of my major opponents are. That is not a statement disregarding any of my peer nonpartisan candidates or the numerous third party candidates. (Although the latter finally explains where the concept of “fifth-third” comes from!) But they are also immune from that microscope. Not being George W. Bush or John Kerry gives us a little breathing room and lets us be of strong character without fear of being called weak because we are strong .
Where I am different from the major two other candidates is that I am truly in the middle, like much of America. It’s not just that my political opinions lean a little then a lot to the left and snap back to leaning a little or a lot to the right, although that is true. But I, like many Americans, have characteristics in common with both of the major candidates.
I am guilty of taking a lot of advice from my mother. After all, she raised me and thus, I have many of her values and morals. It’s no surprise that we often agreed when we talked politics. She hasn’t been gone so long that many of those political issues are still very current. George W. Bush has common political views and priorities with his father. The Democrats would have you believe that he is not thinking for himself and it’s like having his father back in the White House. Just as my core values do not make a vote for me the same as voting for my late mother, (okay, a little levity here, John Ashcroft would shudder at that idea, huh?) the President’s core values do not make a vote for him a vote for his father. It’s natural for one’s core values to be very similar to the parents who raised that person with their values. As an adult, one naturally gravitates to people with similar values, but it doesn’t require giving up independent thought. If you are comparing the two major candidates in this election, please judge the current president on his own record and don’t listen to the Democrats’ rhetoric about his family and associates being a sign he doesn't think independently. If you’re thinking of writing me in on your ballot, please know that I do have the values with which my parents raised me and I have respected associates with whom I consult. I still think independently.
I reserve the right to change my mind as new information comes to me. Most people will have an immediate opinion when a scenario is descried to them about anything. The strong will be able to admit that upon further consideration of facts, they disagree with their original stance. A true leader is able to admit that and change course to a more prudent direction. A leader who’s ego won’t allow them to have been wrong can potentially set up others to fail, in the case of the position for which we are all vying, that ego can put many others in danger. So why is it when John Kerry changes his mind, the Republicans label it indecisive or pandering. He, upon further perusal of information, changed his mind. Perhaps he thought they were good ideas to start, but didn’t approve of the direction in which they moved afterwards. The point is, he is strong enough to admit that. It’s a good leadership quality, one that I like to view as a strong point in my own leadership ability.
As a member of the independent moderate majority in America, I try to see the party rhetoric for what it is and not listen to either side when they start spinning. This is one of the major drawbacks to smear campaigns. It’s not just that they keep any real facts about the candidates out of America’s grasp. It’s that they lie about the opposition. They tell us that the candidates strengths are weaknesses. I have a lot in common with both major candidates, including in some of the areas their parties will tell you is most vile about the opposition.
As it stands now, The Democrats have never said anything about the relationship I had with my mother or my respect I have for my friends. The Republicans haven’t chastised me for not fearing to adjust my strategies or even reverse them when proven wrong. So I guess that makes me “not as bad” as either George W. Bush or John Kerry. More in the middle, like most of you. It seems even the Republicans and Democrats want you to vote independently. If that vote is for me, I humbly thank you!
I’ve been promised votes from 7 states so far, only 43 more to reach my goal! If I have your support, drop me a line at SimplyDavine@twmi.rr.com and let me know your state is represented!
Davonna Lividini
September 7, 2004
I am a fan of antique paper items. I have old books, and a collection of antique postcards from my great grandmother’s attic. As a fan of advertising anyway, I never pass up the chance to go to museums where I can feast my eyes on vintage advertising and packaging. Recently, in an on-line discussion group, I was attracted to a link with some vintage “pinup girls,” and found some other links to World War 2 era pinup sites. This would be the sort of posters my grandfather and his shipmates would have had in their lockers during the war. So, it was a fun piece of history but also an interesting survey of the American psyche and how it has evolved. What was considered “sexy” then as opposed to now?
The 40’s era pinup girls on the pinup site are not often photos, as are the centerfolds of today, but they are artists’ conceptions of women in suggestive poses. They also are predominantly not naked, or at least not showing anything that is not by today’s standards “PG.” One might think from that observation that it was “cleaner,” perhaps more wholesome, than the erotica of today where women are photographed baring and showing all in erotic poses. In this day we hear advertisements for “gentleman’s” clubs on the radio and billboards on the freeway. Has society gone a long way down or come a long way up?
Notably and the focus of the link around which the online discussion was started, was the work of Art Frahm, who’s illustrations were done in the mid 40’s and throughout the 50’s. Staple features of a greater portion of his work were a shocked and surprised look by the subject, fallen panties around her ankles and, as another reviewer of his work pointed out, often celery sticking out of a grocery bag. Mr. Frahm’s work is illustration, not photography, these are not actual women someone would have bumped into on the street after seeing them in a magazine or on a poster. They also weren’t “bare-all” exposes, or for that matter even intentionally suggestive on the part of the subject. She was an “innocent victim” of various situations where somehow the elastic on her panties gave out. Obviously, the falling panties syndrome in most of his work suggests that the subject is “ready to go,” and with bound ankles, not likely to get away. Women in Mr. Frahm’s work are depicted as being easily victimized to get into such situations, and not bright enough to do anything but stand there and look surprised.
Frahm’s work, often including men smiling eagerly in the background, is perhaps, the worst of the era, welcoming the victimizing of women. Postcards by the likes of Earl Moran and Zoe Mozart, also depicted women unwittingly finding themselves in predicaments in which they hadn’t planned to find themselves, but many other of these and other artists’ drawings and paintings also included a host of simpler, subtly suggestive poses where women were not depicted as any more intelligent, but more sensually in control.
Today’s erotica for men utilizes photography of real women more often than an artist’s conception of them. The poses are more overtly sexual and the women, not the situations, are sexy. Women are not portrayed as naive or easy targets for victimization, but as completely aware and cognizant of what they are doing. They are represented as competent and in control. Are women exploited by today’s erotica? Some say yes. Some say easily more so than when it wasn’t actual women being displayed. I disagree.
The women posing today are paid, and some very well, for their sessions before the camera as are the dancers and “adult” movie actresses. As long as there are those who will buy the erotica, there is a demand and therefore the opportunity for decent income from the business side. Encouraging women to avoid being “exploited” by refusing to participate is welcoming going back to the days where men characterized women as less intelligent and welcomed making them victims. It is a return to male artists conceptualizing the demeaning poses and making the money from the other men who want to experience the presentation. The industry of erotica and pornography of today, empowers women. It gives them the power to exploit the men who will pay their money for it. It’s getting even, telling them that if they lack the intelligence to imagine, if they lack the ability to find themselves in a better social situation, if they get caught with their pants down and no idea of how to pull them up, there are women who will take their money and make it all better.
This isn’t meant to praise the industry of erotica and pornography. But in a capitalist society, as long as there is a demand, it is an intelligent business decision to meet it. The existence of the erotica of yesterday was not harmful, neither is the existence of it today. It’s not the producers of erotica and pornography that perpetuate its existence or growth, it’s the consumers of it. Stopping the providers, will only send the consumers looking for something else. The answer to any “morality issues” lies not in persecuting the industry, but in counseling it’s patrons.
The stroll through the vintage erotic house of horrors was interesting, although it made me feel somewhat touched by something dirtier than anything in the present day. Has that representation of women gone “down hill?” No, I think it’s come a long way up. Women were more exploited where they weren’t ACTUALLY depicted. Though I don’t have a strong urge to personally participate, I’m glad to be living in today’s world, where women are using the same mediums and striking back.
“The Pinup Page”: http://freespace.virgin.net/b.mercer/Pinup1.html
“The Peculiar art of Art Frahm”: http://www.lileks.com/institute/frahm/indexmain.html
Special thanks to the GenX-M’s group on Yahoo Groups for the topic and discussion. ]]>
Davonna Lividini
September 11, 2004
I just rented and watched the Punisher. I’d seen it and was thoroughly impressed with it in the theater and I was anxious for it’s release on DVD. I plan to purchase it, but for the time being, I rented it the week it came out. I’m still impressed, even more so after viewing a few of the “extras” on the DVD.
When I’d originally seen the movie, I went with a friend who’d read the Punisher comic series and had seen the first attempt to make a movie of it a few years back. I had never read the comic, nor had I even heard of the first cinematic re-creation of it, as, so my friend told me, the first movie was poor and an incredible box office flop. The advantage of seeing it with a friend who was familiar with the comic was being able to truly judge the movie both as an individual entertainment entity itself, and as an extension of the comic trying to meet the fans' expectations. The Punisher meets rave reviews on both fronts.
The movie builds a strong foundation to put the viewer firmly on the side of it’s dark hero while not straying too far from the original plot. My friend and I discussed the necessary alterations to put years of comic books into a two-hour story for film and the Punisher only took the liberties that were absolutely necessary to sell it as a movie. The script was concise and left out no necessary detail for the unread moviegoer to completely understand the story. There were no “inside jokes” that only the comic book readers understood, and likewise, no gaping holes in the plot.
The “making of” section on the DVD tells the tale of a very small budget by action movie standards, and less than two months to shoot the entire movie. Tom Jane's performance in the lead role was brilliantly done. Jane bulked up and trained in martial arts and with military units to prepare for the role, and that dedication shows in the complete believability of his character. Tireless efforts of the production crew and meticulously coordinated stunts under the guidance of director, Jonathan Hensleigh, only made the movie more impressive. Other action movies based on comics with bigger budgets have relied on more special effects and just couldn’t manage to deliver the quality or remain anywhere near as true to the original characters.
Was it chemistry of the cast and crew? Perhaps it was dedication or the lower budget and time constraints making necessity the mother of perfection. Perhaps it was just luck? The Punisher is proof that it’s not just what you’ve got, but what you can do with what you’ve got that is the line between good enough and greatness.
Davonna Lividini
September 19, 2004
A few weeks ago, I marked the first anniversary of my mother’s passing with my family. It wasn’t an eventful day. We went to the cemetery and placed a floral tribute at her grave site, reflected a little, visited some other relatives graves and left. It was not a momentous ceremony or anything, just a quiet memorial
My mind was full of reenactments of that day a year prior. The things that happened, the shock, the surprise as a scheduled doctor’s appointment turned into calling the family with sad news. I thought about a friend who wouldn’t let me make the three hour drive to Grandma’s alone and the one that drove all through the night to be with me from Missouri. I remember telling Grandma over and over while making arrangements, “I don’t want to do this.”
But, that day was a full year past. I pulled myself away from painful memories and began to reflect on the good times. Traveling and cooking together, baseball games and Shakespeare live and in movies, those were some of the wonderful memories of years past. I recalled her taking me to my first rock concert when I was 12 and her joking when I got my Driver’s License that I had suddenly become less scary on the road now that I had the confidence of that legal paper. I recalled how the “red pen of torture” she used on my high school papers had become a fun joke between us and the pride that shone all over her face when she looked at my college degree for the first time. But I realized as I fondly thought back, that each moment since that day in 2003, took me farther away from the pain and yet closer to the realization that the some aspects of the pain will never go away. There will be things to remind me of the joy an the love, but they will forever be like my mother’s favorite dark chocolate; sweet and rich with a little taste of bitter.
The first great loss in my life happened shortly after I turned six. There are two vivid memories I have about Nono. My paternal grandfather was dying of cancer, and was at home being cared for, as there was nothing else the doctors could do in the hospital to reverse the disease. His meals were processed in a blender and fed directly through a tube to his stomach. I had asked if a piece of my cake could be added to his meal at the gathering for my birthday. He insisted that it be done. He told me after, in his accented broken English, that it was, “best birthday cake I ever eat.” The other memory was the phrase, “mi bella,” “my beautiful.” Every time he hugged me, all of our lives together until the last time he did, he whispered, “mi bella,” in my ear. I cherish those memories and yet a small part of me still cries when I remember them because he hasn’t been there for the last 32 birthdays to share my cake and it’s been 32 years since anyone has whispered, “mi bella,” in my ear. So it is true with any of the people I’ve loved that are gone.
When I smell homemade minestrone cooking in my father’s kitchen, I think about my paternal grandmother. When I construct the pastry lattice for my own crostada I think of her too and the days of being “Noni’s little helper” in her kitchen. When I hear a veteran fondly reminiscing the fellowship of his days in the service or when I sing “the Ohio Song,” (It’s round on the ends and hi in the middle, it’s O-HI-O) when we cross the state line, I am reminded of my maternal grandfather and Papa’s gift for communication and his wonderful stories. Sitting down with a bowl of ice cream and a coffee brings me back to the Tuesday nights I spent with my great grandmother, and I still think of Mums’ display on the buffet in her dining room of all the places I’ve been and sent her greetings from whenever I send postcards when I travel. When I go to a ball game on Mother’s Day or some “appreciating women” promotion and I receive a carnation, I think of those games I went to with Mom. I remember her with a smile when I see a bird flying on the way up north and ponder if it is a “counting crow” or a hawk. All the memories are all filled with great emotion. It’s an emotion of both great joy that I have those thoughts to hold on to, but sorrow that they’ll never happen again.
The wounds from the separation heal with time but that time also makes me miss them a little more. That’s because they are treasures in my life. I am grateful for and miss the presence of the wealth they all gave me by spending part of their lives loving me.
How Do We Measure Wealth Davonna Lividini
October 12, 2004
It's a sad day as the world reacts to the loss of Christopher Reeve last weekend. The actor and activist leaves a void where once was the picture of courage and perseverance. Now we must look to the foundation he set for that inspiration. As was noted on one of the message boards in which I participate, Superman is flying again without the need of a chair.
On the same day we lost Reeve, the world also grieved for Ken Caminiti. That one was a harder blow to me personally because Caminiti was only 41, just a few years older than me. Three girls will finish growing up without a father. That hits home with me too. Out of my six immediate nieces and nephews, 2 are growing up without their mother and 2 without their father. Ken Caminiti’s girls have a rich tapestry of people their father touched by which to remember him.
Ken Caminiti was a baseball player. He started his career in Houston and ended it in Atlanta. He is most remembered in San Diego, where the third baseman was the National League MVP in 1996. And that was what I knew of Ken Caminiti. I admired his skills on the field. I had heard about his battles with substance demons off the field, and again admired him for his courage to talk openly about them and continue to try to overcome them. Then I found, read and signed the guest book with his death announcement online.
He was a rich man. Not in what a baseball contract will put in the bank, but in the riches that no one can take from you and the ones you CAN take with you when you go. He was rich with people and their love. He had his fans. I count myself as one of his casual fans, and certainly I know some of his avid fans. But looking at the guest book where those fans signed and gave condolences along side his personal and professional friends, his family, old schoolmates, neighbors and friends of his family, I realized what an important life outside of baseball he lead. He inspired people and was a person they looked up to, a person they loved. That electronic document is the attestation of the man’s true character. The essence of the very best he was. That is the legacy he leaves his daughters, the mark he leaves on this world.
Too many times we don’t think we make a difference. We don’t think what we contribute to the world is important enough. But we need to step back. We need to realize that we are more than what we seem to any one person. We are more than what we seem to ourselves. How truly great any one person is can be found in the culmination of all the good, no matter how small, that we bring to the world. Sadly many people never realize how important or special they are. It’s never known to what height of greatness they had soared until those guest books and cards are read by the family after they are gone.
A few years ago, I participated in an email survey with a bit of a different twist. The “about me” questions were sent out unanswered to friends close and casual. They were asked to fill in the answers about you. That’s a bit of an ego risk, with questions like, “What is my best feature?” “What did you think the first time you met me?” and “Have you ever been jealous of me?” But what I was most happy, or maybe amazed, to the point of goose bumps to read were he answers to, “What is the most important thing I’ve ever done for you?”
I’m a cheerleader type, potentially a negative to those who don't want to yell "yea life!" But it was then that I realized that it actually was more inspiring than annoying to many. I had several people tell me I had given them self confidence, I made them feel good about what they had, I gave them courage to take a chance. I really had not ever thought about having done things for the people who said I influenced a career choice, I helped them choose the school they attended, I saved a relationship. As it turned out, to my shock and at a time when I was feeling a bit down about my situation, my life had been pretty important so far and I hardly even had any idea. My biggest shock, was an old friend from high school who told me that I saved their* life. They had planned to commit suicide as a teenager and I had talked them out of it. I don’t remember doing this. I had no idea what was going on in their mind.
You don’t have to be Superman or a famous actor/activist to make an impact in this world. You don’t have to be a professional athlete to be rich and influential. And you don’t have to wait until you‘re gone to realize the wealth you already possess. Look around you today. It may be something big that you remember the rest of your days for the good feeling it gave you to do something important for someone else. It may be a smile in passing for thinking of making someone else smile. It might be something huge that you’ll never know you did that changed or saved a life. The world remembers Christopher Reeve and Ken Caminiti for the good things they did, for the lives the touched directly or indirectly. And life goes on, each and every one of us touching other lives every day and putting our mark on this world. And every one of us is wealthy beyond gold, for the difference we make, even if we have no idea we’re doing it.
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