brains like this blogging on the internet and the shrub is in the white house. reminds me of when ronald raygun was the governor of california and Dr. Angela Y. Davis was in jail. Lordy Lordy Lordy!

Dear Frankie-I have one son too, and his father, my first love and husband was killed when he was only 36….miss him everyday….so I really understand how grateful you are for a wonderful man and son for 53 years…and also the pain of them being gone and with a big chunk of your heart….I always try to switch my mind to the ‘we were lucky’ part and to my belief that we do meet in some form again….sometimes it is easier than others. My years of activism was spurred by the daylight mass murder of all those wonderful people. You have my deepest sympathy.-Suzanne

That would be a very helpful research resource! Suzanne de is awesome at providing facts and supporting links.

Dear Ole Crone/Suzanne C…don’t miss this short clip on Bush and the fence! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTDWSBn18V8

Maurine, since I didn’t get a chance to finish my blather on illegal immigration (went to see the sunrise, spotted an interesting comment on the string of moving blather at the top of my computer, and lost an hours worth of work dummy. Well, maybe I’m not to blather on so about illegal immigration. Seems de good Lord is agin me. Hmmmmmmm! Many of our TBI family caregiving members wonder what they did to deserve this huge big job this time around and we all vow we will NEVER do it again, whatever it was. However, my family and all the others hurt from all the services and perks we (nationally and in California) bestow on those here illegally — education, housing, social services, medical care (I could not get dental care for my son because of the huge number of immigrants waiting in line before him. I had to put myself in precarious debt by borrowing on my house the first time, and plopping the bill on my also precariuos credit card last month when there was another expensive problem. I hope there are no more of those as I am out of borrowing resources. A couple of things on that: the past couple of years the Central Valley in California — our farm belt (use to be called our green belt, but that doesn’t work anymore — has had trouble getting immigrants to harvest their crops. Dianne Feinstein thinks that’s because there aren’t enough immigrants coming here. Guess she doesn’t read the Bakersfield Californian and other Valley papers as my friends down there do. The immigrants who formerly came here to work in the fields found construction jobs that pay much better, so they, too, are refusing to work in the fields and definitely taking jobs citizens, especially our young citizens covet. Those are good paying jobs. But on to our personal story: My son, Mark, whom I have taken care of for almost 35 years because the car in which he was a passenger was hit by a drunk driver and Mark and the engine were tossed out on impact. The drunk 19 year old kid was running from the San Francisco police at 70 miles an hour down Fifth Street towards Clement Street — a popular night spot and shopping area in the Sunset District of San Francisco. The kid spent one month in jail and Mark’s coveted life as a famous musician, was knocked out of the ballpark. Mark is unable to even care for himself let alone pursue a heavy duty career in music. There are about 350,000-400,000 people living in California, alone, with traumatic brain injuries; few of them get services unless they have a very wealthy family, spectacular insurance and I do mean spectacular or were hurt before the age of 18 in California when a state program kicks in. My Mark was 19 1/2 years old so not eligible for the state program. We know of one young man who was hurt as seriously as Mark one day after his 18th year and is ineligible for services. Anyway, even after 35 years and much work by many TBI family members, most of whom had to give up their jobs, as I did, to care for their traumatically brain injured family members and have worked locally and statewide to provide much needed services have pretty much flunked the course so far. I really tried for over twenty years. But I’m worn out and very frustrated at the politics of the whole thing. I also have stuff I want to do for Mark and myself, so I’m not doing much now even though I was in the thick of it My complaint, over and over again, the illegal immigrant population has been favored by California foundations, non-profits and other grant resources over many disabled citizens, most especially TBI survivors, most of whom can’t speak for themselves and whose family members are just plain pooped to do much. Caring for a person with cognitive disabilities I cognitive problems in one of the mean disabiities left by a TBI. many have phsycial problems as well. It’s is a taxing job that requires patience and hard earned moxie about 24 hours/day. Mark, not surprizingly, is a high energy guy and wears me out — and I’m no sissy. Anyway, we simply have not been able to attract the attention and energy we need. It’s maddening and frustrating. I was involved with the immigration problems for awhile and did a little survey on my own a few years back. I asked immigrant people working here (no idea if they were legal (suspect they were not) why they didn’t go home and revolt against their own government and the lousy class system in Central and South America. One girl just entering our community college on our dime, said, “Oh I guess we just prefer to come here, it’s easier.” Oh dear, I was not pleased. Talked to a few others, some of whom shrugged their shoulders. One of them, however, said, when I asked why they didn’t do something at home to force their governments to include them in the system, that all the leadership was coming here; there was no one at home to lead such a movement. ??????? Clearly people coming here to better their lives is not the solution to the problem. Mexico and other places need a revolution. Did you know the Mexican government under Vincente Fox tried to sue us for the way we were treating his citizens. Excuse me, Mr. Fox. There have been several other types of incidents like that. We need to retrieve our common sense. Yes, ir’s good to help your neighbor — but is’nt my child your neighbor?????? — a citizen family neighbor. But I leave it all up to ya’ll cause I have to go to bed and get some sleep before Mark wakes up. Happily he sleeps late so I’ll have a few hours. Is it stupid to stay up so late under the circumstances. Well, yes! but my being is in serious rebellion at being so haltered by our circumstances. Mark is a victim of our careless society. His case was more complicated than just the police; the DMV had also been remiss. We sued through the California Supreme Court. They were not going to open up the can of worms Mark’s case represented. Were we going thru the courts today, Mark would get several million dollars for his care. But it wasn’t, and we didn’t and it’s up to me. WOW! What and education. Nite, hope I haven’t bored all of you to death. One of the things that probably will help the civilian TBI poulation across the country is the huge number of soldiers coming home with TBIs. Makes all us civilian Moms and some Dads sick. It’s a very tough problem to take care of all by yourself and a large percentage of family caregivers are mothers and wives alone. The breakup in families in TBI situations in higher than in any other catostrophic medical condition. Hope this is put so it makes sense. I’m to blurry eyed to do any more editing. Please edit as you go if you can. Thanx. Jenny I’m again the stupid, expensive fence. With the technology we have today seems to me we should be able to handle the border crossing problem. As well, I think a good Work Program like the one Caesar (senior moment here, can’t remember his last name, but you know who I mean) and Delores Fuerto (think that last name is right), who now serves on the UC Board of Trustees making sure all the people she didn’t want here before and worked her tuchy off to get rid of those demmed grape pickers stealing job from citizen grape pickers is making sure they all get a good college education. So I’m for a good, fair work program where you can come and go as you wish, get paid fairly, can’t bring your family, get medical care for work injuries, can’t earn citizenship unless you are crazy enough to join our military forces, but go home.