Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category
In Praise of Dogs and Cats (Friends, all)
As we’re in the winter doldrums now — caught between two holidays, where everything seems both surreal and pointless — it’s grown harder for me to come up with blog subjects that have some meaning. And thus, might strike a chord with someone else.
But there’s one thing I am always grateful for, and that’s the companionship of my Mom’s three dogs. They’re my friends; they have personalities all their own. Even though they have the typical dog faults — they love food to distraction and will gladly eat themselves sick over and over again, for just one — and they’re not “shining beacons of light,” it’s still a joy to be around them. They enjoy life for what it is: they get fed, they’re warm and out of the cold, they get affection and told they’re loved quite frequently. And they are content.
Lest you think I only feel like this about dogs, think again. Cats, too, are very special creatures. They definitely have personalities, in some ways stronger ones than many dogs. Their reasoning can be easier to follow by human beings — or at least, by me — and while cats can be aloof, if they like you, they let you know it. And they, too, are a joy to be around because they know what’s important: companionship and caring. Anything else just doesn’t register for cats, being profoundly irrelevant to their lives.
I keep thinking what are the most important qualities in a friend, and I think “companionship and caring” about sums it up. This is why pets are so important to many human beings, because it gets harder every day to reach out and keep trying to make a connection with another living soul.
I know that in the strongest human friendships, these same two things — companionship, and caring — are what count the most. Then comes communication — something you don’t need to worry about as much with a cat or dog, as they read nonverbal clues far better than most humans — and shared experiences, among many other things that go into making up a strong friendship with a human being.
Friends are vitally important. In the end, it doesn’t matter so much what kind of friends we have, though it’s much easier for human beings to have a human friend or two as that’s really the best way we have to be fully understood, as a companion animal, no matter how wonderful it might be, cannot reason on a human level. (Nor should it be asked to do so.)
So at this time of year, where it’s cold and dark and dreary over the Northern Hemisphere, do your best to celebrate your friends, near and far. If they’re still alive, tell ’em you appreciate them; if they’re dead, celebrate their lives as best you’re able. And please do remember to pet your cat or dog a few extra times, too. They’ll appreciate it, and it might actually help you out, too.
Thoughts Regarding Editing (and Editors)
While continuing to recover from the latest sinus infection (nastier than most), I thought I’d blog about something I know a great deal about: editing, and editors.
See, some writers tend to think that editors “have it in” for them. That couldn’t be further from the truth, but you wouldn’t know it by what little tends to get said about editors — most of it being unflattering in the extreme.
Editors work hard to make sure manuscripts make as much sense as they possibly can before they get turned in. This can mean anything from fixing minor errors to asking questions about important plot points — though some places split the editing job up into three parts (proofreading, copy editing, and “straight editing,” the latter being more about the “macro-edit” of any given piece, while the first two deal with the more mundane particulars), other places don’t. I tend to call all three things “editing” even though if I’m asked merely to proofread, I don’t tend to bring my skills of “macro-editing” (looking at the piece of writing overall as a gestalt, then trying to improve it to the best piece of writing of which I can conceive), while if I’m being asked to copy-edit, it’s more likely that the “macro-edit” has been done by someone else.
But because all three of these things can be called for on one job (this happens quite often with one of the places I regularly edit for), it helps to get the particulars of any given job narrowed down. Do not feel silly if you ask questions, because without being willing to look silly at times, you cannot learn.
All that being said, editors often have last-minute changes from a writer (or, in the case of an anthology, writers) to incorporate. Sometimes, these changes come in after the layout process has started; that can be a particular challenge, one that makes you want to tear your hair out as an editor, but seems to be par for the course in our new, hyped-up digital age. Writers expect editors to just “go with the flow” and mostly, we do — but when we perform heroic actions to get a book to market despite delays on the writing end, it can get old.
So the next time you think about your editor (or editors), try to remember that editing skills are every bit as important as those a writer employs — and that many editors (if not most) are (or were) writers first. Editors have a really good understanding of what makes a writer tick, and we’re completely uninterested in stopping the creative process cold — what questions we ask are meant to spur something from you, the writer, that may not be in your manuscript as it stands but that you, the writer, may have thought was there. In short, editors are there to help you, and most if not all will work with you to improve your manuscript because any editor being employed has the best interests of the manuscript (story, novel, you name it) at heart. Period.
So if you were one of those I referenced above who thought that editors were “out to get you,” please do yourself a favor and think again. Because refusing to work with editors is not only counterproductive, it’s unprofessional, and will mark you out as a neophyte sooner than just about anything else. So do yourself a favor, and work with your editor rather than insisting your manuscript is so wonderful it needs no oversight whatsoever. (Please?)
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Edited to add: My late husband Michael was one of the best editors I’ve ever been around. I learned a great deal from him — what to do, what not to do — and it improved my writing immensely because I listened to him and didn’t automatically throw his suggestions out. I knew Michael was more accomplished than I was when I first started showing him my work — this was before we started dating, much less got married, mind — and from the beginning I was impressed by the depth and breadth of his knowledge and expertise.
You see, editing does not need to be a “zero sum game.” You don’t need “scorched earth tactics” to get the point across; you can instead use wit and humor, which is what Michael did with anyone he ever edited for — and it worked amazingly well.
Me, I am much more blunt than Michael ever was. But I try to use some humor as well as pointing out the good points of a manuscript when I edit; this is my ideal. But when time is short, sometimes the good points don’t get discussed — and that’s when writers get frustrated.
I can see any individual writer’s point, for the most part; he or she has worked very hard on a manuscript (whether it’s a story, novelette, novel, etc.) and here comes Ms. Editor to mark it all up in red. Then there are the balloons to the side if you’re using MS Word, and if you don’t see any words of encouragement from Ms. Editor, it can seem extremely disheartening and make writers go, “Now, why did I take up this profession again?”
But you must persevere and listen to your editor. If you have questions regarding an edit, ask your editor — I can’t say this often enough. Most if not all of us are glad to explain what we’re asking for — we may do it in a blunt way if we’re pressed for time, but we will explain it, and we will not be rude. (There’s a big difference between “rude” and “blunt.”)
Remember what my late husband Michael did, if you’re editing and can employ this strategy. It’s not only good manners, but it makes the maximum amount of sense — approaching someone’s manuscript gently, if you have enough time that you can do so, is almost assuredly the best way to go. (But even Michael, if he were pressed for time, would not explain as much or crack as many jokes during the explanation of his edit. Because that’s the nature of the job; you need to first get everything taken care of, then you can frame it a little bit so the writer can understand. But without first taking care of all of the problems, framing is impossible . . . does this make sense?)
Part 22 of “Changing Faces” in progress
Folks, I take my victories where I see ’em. And writing CHANGING FACES is definitely one of those, because I’ve persisted writing this novel over the past ten years. It’s gone through revisions, the death of my husband Michael, and now the death of my best friend, Jeff . . . and yet I persevere.
I hope that once I am finally done with this MSS, it will find its audience; I may have to self-publish it but I will try it, first, at a few places as it’s, in essence, a Christian-derived fantasy romance. Not my usual thing, and of course it has some New Age sentiment in it — but there’s nothing in it that is inaccessible, either.
I can also only hope that both Michael and Jeff, who were big fans of my writing in general and CHANGING FACES in particular (both wanted to see this finished and published in their lifetimes), will be happy with the final result. I know they’d be happy with me continuing onward, though I can’t do anything but that and be me . . . at any rate, getting a thousand words of writing in tonight into the next chapter (part 22) of this work is something to celebrate.
So let the happy dance commence.
Post-holiday illness
Right now I’m more sick than well. I seem to have the flu, or something close to it . . . all I was able to do last night, writing-wise, is open up my current work-in-progress, CHANGING FACES, and look at it. (Sometimes that will prompt something; sometimes, not.) Which is better than nothing, of course, but not what I wanted.
I did practice my saxophone today for about forty-five or fifty minutes, so that’s something positive.
Otherwise, I finished up the book I’ll be reviewing for Shiny Book Review tomorrow, Mercedes Lackey’s BEAUTY AND THE WEREWOLF, re-read one of my all-time favorite books, Rosemary Edghill’s TWO OF A KIND (more people should write like Rosemary does; she can write any genre, any style, anything at all and does it with flair), and am now working my way through Rosemary’s ILL-BRED BRIDE (another fine book).
Now, you might be wondering how I can read anything while I feel so lousy, or practice my saxophone, either. This is partly because I have to do something that makes me feel better; right now, I am grieving the loss of my very good friend, Jeff Wilson, and yet I know he’d not want me to cry all day long. (Sometimes I do cry for a while, but it passes.) That’s not what he was about; he was about doing whatever it took to feel better, and books often helped him feel better when he was down. So reading, in a strange way, is honoring his memory — and as it also honors my late husband Michael’s memory (who was the same way Jeff was in this regard), it’s a doubled blessing.
So, I read a bit, I practiced a bit, and now Mom and I are watching a movie, LEAP YEAR, a comedy starring Amy Adams as a control freak wanting to get married. (I have yet to see or hear any man who could put up with someone drawn the way Adams has been in real life, but I suppose it could happen. We all have our quirks.) And later, I’ll read a bit more, try to write some music, and maybe some words will come to me also . . . hey, it could happen.
More tomorrow, one way or another . . . though right now, saying that reminds me of the Shakespearean quote (from “Macbeth”), “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in its petty pace from day to day . . . . “
Author Anne McCaffrey, 85, has died
Just a quick note to express my condolences to the family of author Anne McCaffrey, who passed away today at the age of 85. Ms. McCaffrey was world-renowned for her Dragonriders of Pern series and published in the fields of science fiction, fantasy, romance, science fiction/romance and the “blended” field of speculative fiction that mostly contained her best-known and best-loved series, the aforementioned Dragonriders of Pern.
I never met Ms. McCaffrey, save through her books, but I always felt like reading one of her books was like greeting a long-lost friend. Some of my favorites included the novella NERILKA’S STORY, the first three books in the Dragonriders of Pern Series (those being DRAGONFLIGHT, DRAGONQUEST, and THE WHITE DRAGON), and the Harper Hall trilogy DRAGONSONG, DRAGONSINGER, and DRAGONDRUMS.
She will be greatly missed.
Migraine today . . . and Story Ideas
Folks, I suffer from migraines, as my late husband Michael also did . . . and what I’ve found over time is that out of my migraine-induced haze, I often get some really interesting story ideas out of it.
Take ELFY, for example. I had been reading an anthology the night before and someone had been describing the worst of the urban fantasy genre — the mincing Faeries that seemed like human courtiers rather than anything alien or Other, that humans always outwitted these lesser-minded sorts, and so on and so forth — and all of that mixed up in my mind while under the influence of my migraine.
The next day (or maybe evening), I realized I had a character in my head: Bruno the Elfy. He liked to wear black, unlike his compatriots who wore all sorts of wild colors; he didn’t like to rhyme, unlike the rest of the Elfys. And he was stuck in the Human Realm — our Earth — because he’d been told one thing but the truth was something else again. Unraveling what the truth was took me a good year’s worth of work and a whole lot of conversations and editing done by my late husband and co-conspirator, Michael, before we had a completed book.
So even though I really don’t enjoy migraines, I do sometimes receive ideas of worth and value . . . and I look at it like this: make lemonade from whatever lemons you might be handed, if at all possible. (Sometimes it’s not.)
At any rate, am I all alone in this phenomenon? Or has anyone else come up with a good story idea or two on the way back out of a migraine headache?
Jeff Wilson: An Elegiac Portrait
I’ve been asked to describe my good friend, Jeff Wilson, to those who never got a chance to meet him. Here’s my best take, which I know will be inadequate.
Jeff was a very kind, compassionate person. He deplored the evils of this world, most particularly selfishness, greed and stupidity, but refrained from passing judgment on anyone. (More people should be like this.)
Jeff loved animals, and kept several cats (or maybe they kept him; I’m not sure). His cats were extremely important to him, and he treated them with respect and dignity — but don’t take that to mean he didn’t enjoy them, because he did. They often made him laugh, and he viewed this as an unalloyed blessing (which indeed, it was).
Jeff was an excellent friend. He was always there whenever he was needed, and he’d do whatever he could to help. He was an excellent listener; more to the point, he understood what he heard, which was a rare and special quality.
Jeff had very strong principles and an intrinsic sense of balance. Perhaps this was due to his appreciation of Eastern religious thought, most particularly the words of Confucius and Gautama Buddha; maybe it was just something about him that would’ve been there even without that, though studying those tenets certainly helped refine these excellent qualities.
Jeff searched for excellence in all things. He rarely found it, but when he did, he was as delighted as a child unwrapping just the toy he or she had wanted at Christmas.
Jeff appreciated classical music because it brought him closer to the Divine. His favorite composer was probably Ludwig van Beethoven; his favorite piece was Gustav Holst’s The Planets.
Jeff read everything, but he had a particular love for two different and disparate styles of writing: science fiction and fantasy on the one hand, and the highly structured and mannered novels of Jane Austen and her imitators on the other. He loved the former because they opened up new worlds and ways of thought to him; he loved the latter because they proved that even in a highly mannered world (now lost), people often acted rashly, badly, and without forethought — but how they got out of trouble in the end and found worthy pursuits was very similar to our own time. (In other words, Jeff found the commonality of human experience to be worthy, regardless of genre.)
Jeff was a nonmaterialist, a nonconformist, was an autodidact (meaning he taught himself many things he’d never learned in school and could absorb almost anything), a writer, an artist, dabbled with poetry but was rarely satisfied with his efforts (which to my mind, would make him a poet; not to his, though). He loved life, talking with people about anything and everything, and wanted to know all that was knowable.
I will miss him profoundly.
Odds and Ends
I’ve been too busy to update my blog the last few days . . . so here’s what’s been going on.
First, my car died — well, the engine blew out (all four cylinders went at the same time, along with the head gasket) on a rainy, blustery evening. I sat by the side of the road for close to an hour, without the heater going because I was more worried about keeping battery power for the hazard lights . . . I didn’t know what had gone wrong, just that something really bad happened when I tried rounding a turn and rather than accelerating, the car went down to 10 mph, then zero — I had inertia and nothing else left to get off the road. As I was in a bad spot (no lights), the hazards were the priority . . . fortunately I didn’t get hit, the car was towed into the garage I use (Wild Rides in Racine; good and honest mechanics), and I was able to find out what was wrong.
However, my car was fourteen years old and I knew this wasn’t the only problem with it. Even if I had repaired the engine, I didn’t have any idea what would go next (and as I’ve replaced a number of things in recent years, I knew my car had reached the end of its natural lifespan — if cars can be said to have lifespans); the best solution was to get another car, which I did.
But car shopping, even when it goes well, is exhausting; perhaps that’s why I still feel so drained today (as I found out the engine was blown Thursday, and went car shopping on Friday). I did find a car I liked, though; another small one (I like those the best).
Second, I did manage about 1000 more words, up to maybe 3000 total, in chapter 21 of CHANGING FACES (the work-in-progress for NaNo). So that’s good.
I practiced four times this week and my hands are handling it, which is also good . . . most of my technique is there, but the carpal tunnel syndrome makes itself felt every now and again despite my best efforts. Still, I’m glad to be able to play, as for many years, I couldn’t.
Next, I await the recalls of Governor Scott Walker, Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, and my own Republican Senator, Van Wanggaard. All of those papers should be filed on November 15, 2011; we’ll have sixty days to get enough signatures (I know it’s over 540,000 needed, statewide, for both Walker and Kleefish, and it’s 1/4 of whatever the total vote was in district 21, which includes most of Racine County and the city of Racine, for Van Wanggaard) to force a recall election. I believe all three of them will be voted out once a recall election is called; still, all the procedures must be taken care of to get to the end result.
And finally, while I know I’m quite low energy today, I will do whatever I can to give emotional and psychological support to my friends and family, most especially to my good friend Jeff. (But that’s not really news.)
Life, the Universe, and the Unexpected
Sometimes, life throws you something you really didn’t expect.
Take my good friend Jeff, for example. About a month ago, he felt ill but had no idea what was going on; he was taken to the hospital, where he was found to have a massive infection. He nearly died, as he had to have open-heart surgery due to the infection being too well-rooted in his heart (the antibiotics started to kill it everywhere else, but not in his heart); at the age of only forty-seven, he came way too close to death.
Fortunately, he has survived that. And he sounds like he’s on the mend, though the road back from this is likely to be a long and difficult one. But I have hope that he will fully recover, as his mind, voice, and most of his memories are intact. (More about this below.)
A health crisis like this was completely unexpected — who would ever think something like this would happen? And having gone through something like this, except worse, with my late husband’s Michael’s sudden passing seven years ago didn’t make this any easier from my perspective; I really wanted to be there for Jeff as I care very much about him, I wasn’t able to get there (he lives several states away), and he nearly died.
I’m very glad he survived. (This is an extremely basic way to put it, of course, and I wish I had a better one. But sometimes, the plainest words speak best.) I will do whatever I can to help him in the difficult journey that lies ahead . . . wishing I had better words than this to explain what’s going on, but that’s the best I can do.
Jeff’s near-brush with death has shaken my own faith rather badly. I realize that in no valid religion or spiritual practice will it ever say that good people should survive such terrible things; Michael didn’t survive, though he fought harder than anyone I’ve ever seen to do so, and he was by far the best person I have ever known. (I’m sure he went to the Good Place (TM), too, or wherever it is wonderful people go after this life ends.) But for Jeff to first suffer the vagaries of this horrible economy, then have this happen to him and me having no way to get to him to even try to help, seems to add insult to injury. (Not to me. To my friend.) And that he’s going to have to work like the dickens just to get back to where he was . . . well, that he has the chance to do so is what I’d prayed for, so I’m glad of that. But it seems . . . unjust, at best.
Of course, no one ever promised that life would be fair, even to good people like my friend. But does life have to be this unfair?
I know, I know. We don’t have all the answers. Sometimes we can’t even ask the right questions. Being able to persevere is what makes the difference, to my mind, between a successful person and an unsuccessful one. And I know Jeff will persevere, because I view him as a successful person (I always have), no matter what’s going on all around him externally.
Jeff’s mind has returned to him, thankfully, but not all of his memories have. I’m happy he remembered I am a saxophonist; when I told him that I’ve been playing, and am now in a symphonic band, he was very congratulatory and he meant it. But he’s forgotten all about his favorite of my unfinished novels, CHANGING FACES — the one I’m working on for NaNo right now — though he remembers the Elfyverse (the completed and looking for a home novel ELFY, the in-progress AN ELFY ABROAD and the prequel, KEISHA’S VOW), which I found out when I mentioned the latter novel.
When I told him that he’s been asking me for the past two-plus years to please finish CHANGING FACES and be done with it, I got no reaction from him; then I explained how long I’ve been working on it, and that I’d written 6000-plus words into chapter 20 and have 600-plus in chapter 21 after it being stalled out for nearly one and a half years. He recognized that as an achievement, and congratulated me on it, but it didn’t really mean much to him because he can’t remember the plotline, at all.
That the main reason I started working on CHANGING FACES as my NaNo project is because I wanted to do something, no matter how tangential, that I felt Jeff would appreciate as my way to honor him and what he was going through. Maybe it sounds silly that this was my motivation for re-opening this MSS, but there it is.
I wanted to write something that I felt Jeff would like to read down the road, when he’s again capable of reading well (right now, he isn’t, and this is a skill he’ll have to work hard to regain). So writing this newest chapter of CHANGING FACES was my way to express to my friend Jeff, without words, “I believe you have a future, and I want you to read this in that future.” But I wasn’t able to explain this well to him tonight. At all. (Though of course I’ll try again tomorrow, providing I’m able to reach him.)
Jeff is a very spiritual person, with a strong grasp of what’s going on in this world; to my mind, he nearly personifies the phrase “down to Earth.” He’s an intelligent, funny, interesting person with a great many gifts and talents, who’s been hampered by a pitiful economy and a less than stellar personal situation that was all of a sudden made much worse due to his health crisis. Jeff is a writer, a Webmaster, and is very hard-working in his own idiosyncratic way; I’m very grateful that he’s doing so much better, and I believe his strong will and deep faith will sustain him over time.
All that being said, I wish this hadn’t happened to him. Because he truly doesn’t deserve it.
Occupy Writers: Articulate Speakers for the Bottom 99%
Tonight, via MSNBC’s “Rachel Maddow Show,” I found out about the Website Occupy Writers because Maddow had author Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) on to discuss his recent post at that site. A few of Lemony Snicket’s salient points from his post at Occupy Writers follow:
6. Nobody wants to fall into a safety net, because it means the structure in which they’ve been living is in a state of collapse and they have no choice but to tumble downwards. However, it beats the alternative.
and
11. Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.
(Good words. I can’t top them.)
Note that OccupyWriters.com is where many of my favorite authors have signed up in support of the Occupy Wall Street/Occupy Everything Else movement that’s going on right now. A few of my favorite science fiction and fantasy authors who’ve signed their names in support at that site include Rosemary Edghill, Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, Melinda Snodgrass, Laura Resnick, Laura Anne Gilman, Ursula K. LeGuin, and Neil Gaiman — I’m sure there were more, but those were the ones I noted right away. There are many, many writers on that list, some who are extremely well-known (like Salman Rushdie), some who are well-known to SF/F readers like myself (see above) and some who aren’t known — including some editors of various magazines, including Esquire and Harper’s Bazaar. (I’d gladly sign my name to the list, too, but I don’t have a novel published yet. Otherwise, I’d have done this as soon as I knew the site was available.)
What I think is great about OccupyWriters.com is that it shows that people who are creative understand what’s going on in this world. Our economy is not just bad; it’s truly terrible, and it’s something that all Americans — not just the “bottom 99%” — should care about. These writers get that, which is great.
Now, it’s time for the top 1%, like those who sit in the United States Congress, to realize that without the “bottom 99%,” nothing gets done in this country. Period.
Speaking of that, CNN’s Jack Cafferty has an excellent blog about why the Congress doesn’t seem to care at all about the “bottom 99%”. This is because they, themselves, benefitted from the horrible policies they instituted — greatly.
During the height of the recession, Congress actually became 25% richer. Meaning they were “feathering their own nests” while the rest of us got the shaft — as disgusting as this is, there’s more to the story.
From Cafferty’s blog post:
“Roll Call” reports that members of Congress had a collective net worth of more than $2 billion in 2010.
That was up about 25 percent from 2008, during the height of the recession.
And these wealth totals likely underestimate how rich Congress really is. That’s because they don’t include homes and other non-income generating property, which could come out to hundreds of millions in additional dollars.
This wealth is split fairly evenly between both Democrats and Republicans.
Overall, about 200 members of Congress are millionaires. Once again, this doesn’t include the value of their homes.
So did you catch all that? As bad as this is that the Congress is so much wealthier, overall, than the rest of the country — including the vast majority of their own constituents — this doesn’t even include the value of their homes or other property, which anyone else would have to claim as a matter of course as part of his or her overall wealth.
Cafferty continues a bit lower with:
Another expert suggests members of Congress do better with their investments than the average American because they are privy to inside information.
Really? Seriously? They would take advantage of that… something that is clearly illegal for the rest of us?
The bottom line is this body of lawmakers has next to nothing in common with the average American. Yet we keep sending most of the same rat pack back year after year.
Here’s my question to you: What does it say when members of Congress got 25% richer during the height of the recession?
I don’t know about anyone else, but what it says to me is that Congress is behaving in an unethical, immoral, blatantly dishonest manner. And it once again reminds me why we must be vigilant, watch what our representatives do (not just what they say), and perhaps most importantly of all, keep an eye on who — and what — is financing their campaigns.
This is why I, for one, intend to vote out as many wealthy incumbents who are in Congress as I possibly can. In this case, there’s one name who tops my list — my long-time Representative, Paul Ryan (R-Janesville), who clearly has forgotten that most of his constituents make far less money than he does. Ryan has done himself no favors, either, as he’s shown little to no understanding of the whole “Occupy” movement, nor any compassion as to how difficult it is nowadays to find work in America — even for our honored military veterans, some of whom have gone out in support at various “Occupy” protests and have been hurt badly by police, most especially in Oakland, California.
And I’m sorry; I cannot support anyone who doesn’t want to help promote job growth in this country. Rep. Ryan’s been in office for twelve whole years; he’s had twelve years to try to improve the economy, and he’s done very little about it. Ryan has obviously lost touch with the people of his district, and more importantly, the people of this country. If he can’t even figure out that the economy is in the tank, so the House of Representatives should have better things to do with their time than re-affirm “In God We Trust” as the official motto of the United States (as they did earlier this week) rather than take up any measure that could possibly help create employment in this country (see previous post for details), I know that just about anyone would do a better job as my US Rep. than Paul Ryan.
Worse yet, he’s said several times that he doesn’t understand the “Occupy” movement; he doesn’t believe it’s helpful. Yet military veterans, who Ryan claims to appreciate, are coming home to no jobs and a 12% unemployment rate, which is why some are going to “Occupy” protests across the US of A in order to ask, “Where are the jobs, and why doesn’t anybody in Washington, DC, or in the halls of power seem to care?”
I’m sorry; if you can’t be bothered to understand why people are upset because there’s a high unemployment rate overall, including a very high unemployment rate for returning military vets who’ve fought the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, it’s time for you to go.
So please, Mr. Ryan — don’t let the door hit you in the rear on the way out.
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I, indeed, am an “Occupy Writer” even if I never am able to sign that petition — and I hope that I’ve done my level best to speak for the bottom 99% this evening, even if I did originally say “top 99%” because I was thinking about our morals, manners, and ethics — where we are, indeed, the top 99%, and those who don’t get it have to be the bottom 1% in these areas.
Barb Caffrey's Blog 