Writing 3 - Sunday, November 10, 13 And so begins week three in our renewed attempt to find the writer within. It hasn’t been particularly enlightening or gratifying, but it is, nevertheless, a start. So we will take that as a positive. What I’ve written so far is dreck – pure and simple. I’m hoping that the muse will visit me like it did when I was teaching at St. Pat’s and put out a lovely, I thought, missive every week for the Monday Memo. I thoroughly enjoyed that and I think the people I worked with enjoyed it too. Alas, I no longer work full time anywhere and I therefore do not know the staff at the Faculty of Education at Lakehead University well enough to make a little fun with them. But I do need to find a niche I can feel comfortable in and produce some solid, useful work that will have a broad appeal. Then, and only then, I can watch the big money roll in. But, as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself. I have to produce something of exquisite beauty in order to build upon my early works and produce a body of work that is worthy of publishing and some sort of remuneration. Ah, remuneration, how will that happen: many blogs right now, at least the larger ones, are asking for their writers to write for nothing – can you imagine that? Working your butt off for no pay – hello Arianna Huffington. Is this what 40 years of ultra conservative policy has wrought? Apparently so, I’m afraid. It is a struggle for everyone just starting out especially in a world that is becoming progressively more hostile to the working person. The execrable 1% rules everyone’s world it would seem. Ah, the 1%, who are they in Canada? Are they as obnoxious and greedy as the greedheads in the U.S. of A.? My blog mates would suggest that the American billionaire is about as greedy and heartless as they come, whether it be to pay scientists to say that there is no such thing as global warming, or to do their damndest to insure that the Affordable Care Act under President Obama will not work. Some states, in fact, have refused to take money from the federal government thereby making sure their most vulnerable citizens will continue to go without health care and/or insurance – how awful is that? Ah, again, but I could go on forever talking about the absolute mess the American political scene is in at this moment in history. And, it can all be attributed to the absolutely crazy, unconscionable behaviour of the Republican Party of the United States. They are beyond the pale in every metric you might choose to use in trying to explain, to understand what makes these truly sick, demented people function. I could write an 800-word commentary every day of the year for decades that would show beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Republican Party is beyond redemption and yet it remains viable as a political party because of the immense amount of wealth that is behind them in their never ending quest to destroy everything in their path to ensure that only the wealthiest Americans will benefit from the largesse of the American people. What other political party sees the Democratic Party as the enemy of America. They are ably supported in this rush to disaster by Fox News and right wing hate radio that fills the minds and hearts of millions and millions of low-information Americans. And what has this wrought – right wing Supreme Court justices who are ensuring that all of the above will always be in play for many years to come. Well done, America. Today Obama walked back his Affordable Care Act by telling the American people that they can now have another year to keep their present insurance-backed health care. He even had the unmitigated stupidity to mention how he hoped to work with Republicans in making this move smoothly. Perhaps someone should remind the President that it has been the Republicans since day one of his presidency that have fought him every step of the way in every way imaginable to ensure that he is successful at nothing. The Republicans have no interest in the American people; they would rather see America go to hell in a hand basket as long as they are able to state it is entirely Obama’s fault. What part of any of this does Obama not understand? He should call out the insane party for every time they make it impossible for him to get anything done to help the American people. The nut jobs that are now the Republican Party would rather see America sink into the sea than allow Obama do accomplish anything, anything at all.