Everyone else is busy in the garden too - birds, squirrels, bees and butterflies too...
Last week's FOTo FRIDAY was :A MOST WELCOMED SIGHT
Last week's FOTo FRIDAY was :A MOST WELCOMED SIGHT
Friday, September 12, 2025
FOTO FRIDAY: BUSY ...
MIDWEEK MUSINGS: HATE PERPETUATES HATE
MIDWEEK MUSNGS: HATE BEGETS HATE
Ironic that I have been re-editing my summation of Dowd's talk a couple of days now, and then yesterday this shooting occurred.
Below my words, I have also included an article from the Hungry Black Man, much more articulate than mine. Dowd's message and his are the same.
Matthew Dowd had an unorthodox beginning to his presentation as he asked us to take the hand of a person sitting next to us, close our eyes for a minute to visualize ourselves with family/friends living in a time of peace and what that would look like. You could have heard a pin drop. A tear rolled down my cheek. A calmness replaced the once frenetic chatter.
Dowd began stating we need the TRUTH and to understand, we search for Truth with our own prejudices.
History is cyclical, composed of economic, technological, multicultural, and institutional changes. We need to recognize we are in crisis and need a new united vision full of values. Truth is in our heads and our hearts. Hate perpetuates hate and our efforts need to start at home with love. Love thy neighbor, as change needs to start from the bottom up versus the top down.
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| L) Matthew Dowd (R) senior editor Ar Dem Gazette Rex Nelson |
93 year old Annie Abrams, long-time civil rights activist, was also in attendance with comments and her telephone booklet of legislator numbers, of which she has distributed 1000 copies from her front porch. May we use those numbers to be heard.
"The Hungry Black Man
America lost Charlie Kirk a couple hours ago, violently, tragically, and in a moment that was recorded, and is circulating socially. I will not post it because it’s absolutely horrific.
Charlie was not a figure of grace or empathy. History will not remember him as a voice of unity or a champion of justice. He will be remembered for the words he chose, words that often wounded and divided. As he lay bleeding out onstage, those words, once weapons, became dust.
When he was shot, he was speaking about one of America’s deepest wounds: mass shootings. When asked about school shootings, his response was not measured compassion but deflection. “Counting or not counting gang violence?” he said, as if the grief of families who send their children to school only to bury them could be minimized by a technicality. And then, almost instantly, a shot rang out. He fell, his voice instantly silenced.
This is not eulogy-flattery. This is memory.
We remember the things he said about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “MLK was awful. He’s not a good person.” We remember his calculation on gun violence: “I think it’s worth … some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights. That is a prudent deal. It is rational.” These are not the words of healing, not the words of unity. And yet they, too, are part of the ledger he leaves behind.
So what do we do with a legacy like this? First, we tell the truth. We acknowledge what he said, how he said it, and the hurt it caused. Second, we resist the temptation to let violence beget violence. For if this act tells us anything, it is that political violence has become a siren call to the unhinged, a spark they would gladly use to ignite the tinderbox of racial and class resentment. Today it was a conservative voice silenced. Tomorrow, it could just as easily be a progressive one. We must not let this become the currency of politics.
We should also understand the warning buried in this moment. What we say matters. How we live matters. The words we choose, the causes we defend, the way we treat one another, these become the bricks of our legacy. Kirk’s words were often sharp, sometimes cruel, but they are now etched into his memory as surely as his death. Let the rest of us take note: legacies should be rooted in love, in justice, in equality, not in division or deflection.
Rest, if you can, Mr. Kirk. May your final act teach us something lasting: that even in grief, we are called to choose better."
Thursday, September 11, 2025
TBT: NEVER FORGET
TBT: NEVER FORGET
Shared with PublicNEVER FORGET
"Yesterday... 24 years ago 246 people went to sleep in preparation for their morning flights. 2,606 people went to sleep in preparation for work in the morning tomorrow. 343 firefighters went to sleep in preparation for their morning shift. 60 police officers went to sleep in preparation for morning patrol. 8 paramedics went to sleep in preparation for the morning shift of saving lives. None of them saw past 10:00am Sept 11, 2001. In one single moment life may never be the same. As you live and enjoy the breaths you take today and tonight before you go to sleep in preparation for your life tomorrow, kiss the ones you love, snuggle a little tighter, and never take one second of your life for granted..."
Friday, September 5, 2025
FOTO FRIDAY:: A MOST WELCOMED SIGHT
Reblooming azaleas late summer
Friday, August 29, 2025
FOTO FRIDAY: ADVOCATING FOR OTHERS
FOTO FRIDAY: Today's FOTO FRIDAY is filled with images of last night's fundraiser meal for Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families at Allsopp & Chapple with a delicious 4-course dinner with wine pairings.
Starting off with Welcome Bubbles but a must was to try one of their well-renowned cocktails. Notice all that's left of the I'm Human cocktail is a lemon peel surrounded by other goblets, to be filled with 4 other wines.
Blackened Red Fish, rum glazed pineapple
and micro cilantro
Frei Brothers Chardonnay
Course 1
Motin Códax
Course 2
MacMurray Ranch Pinot Noir
INTERMEZZO
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| Mango Sorbet |
Course 3
Chicken (sub for pork chop)
mango jalapeño salsa
fried sweet potato
Mount Peak Rattlesnake Zinfandel
Course 4
J Vinyards Brut Rose
Satisfecha... indeed.
Thursday, August 28, 2025
TBT: BEAM ME UP
TBT: Thanks to my neighbor and friend Linda who is on the board of United Way, another wonderful community service project began where community volunteer possibilities are posted for each month listing the job description, date(s), times, frequency and place.
Linda made sure to tell me about a special possibility in particular since it is a new Easter Seals program called A.R.T. with summer volunteer training sessions. She had me pegged correctly.
This program sounded fascinating and would take place less than 10 minutes from home. Students come to this center for physical therapy, life skills, computer classes, music and art. Yet, one particular group of wheelchair students with limited use of hands/ feet couldn't participate in their art program until some brilliant person came up with a headband with a red laser beam to be used to aide verbal ability.
Completion is dependent on the artist and one hour is generally not enough time, not just due to paint drying, but also if our artist tires with so many decisions.
Below is one of our proud artists whose work behind us took 3 classes to complete. You can see how happy she is with her finished product which will be stretched onto a frame. (She wanted the headband off for the photo.)
In the fall, there will be a fundraiser for this Easter Seals Art program, and our artists' paintings will be auctioned off...
I may go home wearing some paint, but I also have a very full heart...
Wednesday, August 27, 2025
MIDWEEK MUSINGS:GOODNESS GRACIOUS, A HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Goodness Village is apartment living for patients/ their families so far serving as a wonderful stress reliever for over 400 guests from 25 different states requiring 6300 nights of housing while undergoing various medical treatments.
Initially, these leased rooms were filled with donated items, but today, brand-new furniture and necessities greet these residents, meeting every possible need. ( $22,000 per unit) They are also accompanied by a welcoming home-cooked meal in their freezers, ready for whenever they arrive, surrounded by a comforting and caring community during their stay.
A team of dedicated staff and volunteers await these guests in addition to offering them a clean, safe, and affordable temporary housing during their treatment. (Most city hotels are over $100/night, while Goodness Village offers a much lower cost ~ $57.00/ night ) *Additional assistance is available for those with financial hardships.
There are 2 locations: Park Avenue Lofts and Palisades at Chenal Valley, providing a place to rest and recover with the following: flexible reservations, 1/2 bedrooms, fully furnished including linens, kitchens with all the amenities, cleaning supplies, tv in living room and bedroom, included wi-fi and utilities, full sized washer and dryer in each unit, and a smoke and pet free environment.
The volunteers have provided over $226,000 value of service.
Goodness Village is definitely a place of goodness because as we all should remember, it takes a village...
Monday, August 25, 2025
MONDAY MUSINGS: THE BOY NEXT DOOR
MONDAY MUSINGS: One never knows what's going to happen to the kids who grew up next door but Carolyn Staley had a special new neighbor in high school who needed a piano accompanist for his saxophone solo.
In a small highschool in Hot Springs she had learned the new boy at school was going to be her neighbor. They shared a love for student government and clubs and also paying for gas riding together to school. Her share was $2/week.
Carolyn with her moderator for the evening Janice Kearney, shared quips from her book
The Boy Next Door, differentiating the two families: Staley with a Baptist preacher for a Dad and a stay-at-home Mom (very common at that time) while the Clintons household was not Baptist with a deceased father and a Mom who worked outside the home as a nurse. (He had lived with his grandparents while his Mom went to nursing school.) The Moms also dressed very differently, as Staley's Mom wore modest clothing unlike the tube top wearing Virginia Clinton. Scandalous. (LOL)The highschoolers also took part in Girls and Boys State, a summer camp for outstanding students to learn about government, and both ran for office at their respective sessions. Bill as Governor of Boys State was chosen to go on to Boys Nation, where he met his hero JFK. Nothing could stop Bill as he could be whatever he wanted to be...
The 60's their college days were a tumultuous time and the draft shook many souls who had to serve in a war with a great patriotic conflict. Nobody knew why they were in 'Nam...
Move forward past college days and Staley had moved with her husband to Chicago when she received a call from her old neighbor Bill asking her if she'd like to be neighbors again, and sure enough, the Staleys moved into Quapaw Quarter just down the street from the Governor's Mansion as she was named to head various Art initiatives. Dinners were shared between the two couples. And in '92 after the Preidential election declared Bill the next President, the Clintons ate breakfast the day after on the Staley's porch .
Bill never forgot his friends and to keep himself surrounded by dedicated folks. Once again Carolyn received a call to come to D.C. to become the head of Continuing Ed for adults to return to school to graduate.
There were a lot of stories. Their public school education taught them that children are children and their education needed to be equal. In '82 there was public kindergarten in Arkansas, whereas in the rest of the country public kindergarten didn't become mandatory until 2011. Whoa.
The last story was another testament to this special friendship when Bill and Hillary had a daughter, Chelsea. Carolyn decided to bring a sweet bud vase with a small pink rose bud and 2 red roses to represent the parents. She walks into Governor's Mansion's kitchen and it's full of long-stem roses. Oh dear, the small bud vase just wouldn't do. So what did Carolyn Staley do? She went home and composed a song.
Tomorrow for Tuesday Tunes, you'll be privy to that lovely, sincere gift.
Stay tuned...
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