Category Archives: Rants and Raves

History in the making

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We have all been witness to history. No matter what your political leanings, it is a moment to stop and reflect on where we have been and where we are now. Every so often we get moments like this where it makes you realize that this is a special time, an instance, a turning point in history, like the flash of a camera.


We are just floating along out there in a big, black sky making Human Earth History

Unfortunately, usually these types of events occur after huge tragedies. In my lifetime the world news events that have stood out in my mind have been: 1)The Challenger Explosion when I was about 6 years old. 2) >Berlin Wall coming down when I was about 9 years old. 3) Witnessing the US declare war in the Middle East the first time when I was about 11. 4) 9/11 when I was 21 and another war in the Middle East. (Others include the news of AIDS, South Africa Apartheid, the Asian Tsunami and various hurricanes, tornados and other natural disasters.) Of those, only the Berlin Wall and Nelson Mandela represented progress. I am happy to say that I have witnessed another great moment in time in both senses of the word on Tuesday and that Colorado was a part of it.
For a breakdown of how the country voted, I found this link really useful:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27339545
It even breaks it down by county data.

Also, I heard that Puerto Rico had a pretty historic gubernatorial race as well, electing Fortuno to office. I really don’t know what that means to us, but we’ll have to call Awilda and see what she thinks of it.

In the end, we are all just floating around out there on this lonely little planet trying to make sense of it all for the short while that we are here on it. Let’s enjoy it while we can and try to make it a better place for those who come after us. That’s what we’re trying to do anyway: In peace, a Life TransPlanet.

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Fighting Politics -As Usual

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This is a sort of convoluted story that without the background is difficult to explain, but I’ll try my best.

As you probably know, Colorado has been in the limelight as far as national politics go. We had the Democratic National Convention here and Barack Obama made his acceptance speech. In the past couple of years we have had “W” himself visit Greeley, twice. And just this week we had Palin in Loveland (Monday) and Biden in Greeley (Tuesday). We are a hotbed for politics because we are a fairly “purple” state, especially Northern Colorado. (All this talk about red, white, black and blue makes me certain that politics is just one big brawl with a huge bruise in the end!)


This picture has not been edited in any way- It’s hilarious!

Anyway, while Greeley is generally pretty conservative, it has (surprisingly?) been one of the more progressive cities when it comes to tobacco policies (which is part of my job). Greeley passed the strongest smokefree policy of the state, led the way for Tobacco Free Schools and prohibited cigarette vending machines. Last year, around this same time of year, we took on US Smokeless Tobacco and along with huge community support and Tobacco Free Weld County Coalition, the City Council passed the ‘No Free Tobacco Giveaway Ordinance’ which prohibits giving away free tobacco to anyone in Greeley. One city councilwoman, Debbie Pilch, led the charge to help move this ordinance to the point where it would be voted on. In the end, this was a huge victory for the health of the public, and while this explanation gives it no justice, suffice it to say that it was not without controversy (and very stressful).

http://www.9news.com/rss/article.aspx?storyid=79148
This is a link to the article when I was on the news, I’ll put the video up once I can find it

Fast forward to this year. We decided to support Debbie Pilch in her run for County Commissioner and placed one of her signs saying as much in our yard. This weekend we went to get our mail and noticed a ticket from our Home Owner’s Association’s management company that basically said, “Please remove your political sign from public view”. This is incredible! Whatever happened to freedom of speech? Well, it turns out that this ticket is completely illegal and the Colorado state congress even passed Senate Bill 100 (SB 100) for just this reason; that is, to protect homeowner’s rights that HOA’s were systematically ignoring. Now we have to contact our Management Company and explain this to them. And THIS is after we had to kick out the last management company (a neighborhood coup d’etat) for essentially stealing from our neighborhood (collecting unauthorized fees, fines, and much more).


The Sign in Question, Can you Even See it?


The Ticket

The moral of the story: I don’t think you can ever get away from Politics -especially without a fight!

Update: Still swinging away, Britton’s conversation with the management company went a little something like this:

So I called.

Me: “I live in clover creek and got a notice to take down my political sign”
her: “yep”

Me: “well….I don’t think you can do that. Its part of SB 100 that protects me”
her: “well its in your covenants”

Me: “well that’s not how it works (aka SB 100 trumps our covenants and bylaws) ”
her: “its in there”

Me: “that isn’t what I meant….tell ya what. Why don’t you send me the part in the covenants, we’ll start there

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Bribery is the name of the game

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Awilda called while we were watching the Veep debates last night which was fine with me because it turned out to be much more boring than I was hoping. She sounded just kind of lonely and talked with me in Spanish for about a half an hour. She is such a nice lady and it’s always good practice to speak Spanish. Puerto Rican Spanish is sometimes much different than Mexican Spanish which is what I know best.

Sounds like she is optimistic about this new friend she has there at the Dept of Natural Resources. She did say, however, that we need a “padrinaje” and that that would make it go much easier. I am not exactly sure what a “padrinaje” is but I think it is related to a “bribe” which I understand.  Padrino is like a sponsor, or someone who helps smooth the way with a little money…aka grease for the palms. Sounds like without this “padrinaje” things move slowly and it goes to the bottom of the pile of things to do whereas with a “padrinaje” they magically move to the top….

I know that bribery is at play everywhere, and not just Puerto Rico, but it’s interesting to think of it being so blatant and just the way of the land, the way things get done. Here, I think it is usually the top officials getting some type of perk or the connections that lead to something, but not with random people because that would make it obvious. I don’t know, what do you think?  Have you had to give out bribes just to get basic services? Britton and I were talking about it and if that is just the way it is, well, maybe we need to play their system, but we don’t even know how much this would be, or if there is any guarantee it would work. Also, doesn’t that just perpetuate the activity more? Or does the phrase “when in Rome, do as the Romans” fit better. Or how about the Spanish version, “A donde fueras, haz lo que vieras” which means literally, Wherever you go, do as you see. I think we will wait a while longer. If Awilda wants to be/do the padrinaje, she would know how to do it much better than we would!

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Crashing to the Floor

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Strange but True Parable

Last night after watching the Bush Bailout Plan on TV, we went up to make our dinner of nachos (with beans, cheese, buffalo meat, sour  cream, tomatoes, and jalapenos) -YUM!-  Britton was walking with the plate in his hand, and just as I turned out the light to go downstairs with the food, we heard a crash. I thought he had run into the wall when I turned out the light, but when I turned it back on, he was still left holding part of the plate. The rest of it was all over the kitchen floor. The plate had broken on its own.

This seemed completely appropriate for the moment; a crashing plate with a crashing financial system and economy. But yet we did not get any intervention or bailout (should Taco Bell or other nacho institutions give us free nachos?, or maybe they would like to buy our broken plate full??) and neither did all the families who were foreclosed and/or preyed upon. We cleaned it up, salvaged what we could, learned a lesson and will use a better plate that is hopefully better “regulated” for the oven in the future so it doesn’t just shatter in our hands again. And there is always a silver lining: Schnoodle happily licked the floor clean for us so that all we had to do was mop it afterward. I am sure that the big corporations can find a way other than through our money to clean up their mess.

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