They are burying Joe Paterno today.

Many many people will stand up and talk about all the good things he did, while others will stand outside and try to remind people that it is the responsibility of good men and women everywhere to fight evil where they see it.

Throughout the past century there have been many countless cases of people who were not necessarily evil, but who stood by while evil happened.

There was the murder of Catherine Susan “Kitty” Genovese.
The actions of everyday people to German concentration and extermination camps.
The rounding up and internment of American citizens during WWII.

Such evil occurs every day because people who are not bad–who are not evil–ignore it. Because people think “someone else will do something about that.” Because people believe that if someone in power has allowed it, it cannot be wrong.

But it IS wrong.

A story appeared on Daily KOS about child molestation. I warn you, it is upsetting and distressing, not just the descriptions, but the realization that what is described happened to a ten year old child.

It should be read by all those who think that Joe Paterno is a hero to be worshiped.

He isn’t.

I am not saying he was a bad man.

I am not saying he did not attempt and achieve good things when given the opportunity that came his way.

But when push came to shove, when he was confronted with true evil, he did what most people do: He passed the buck and hoped that someone else would take care of the problem.

He had the power to stop evil, but he didn’t use it.

He did not make a stand when his legendary prowess and strength were most needed.

He allowed evil to occur, thinking–hoping most likely–that someone else was dealing with it. Hoping someone else would take care of it.

That failure? It doesn’t make him evil, it just makes him a coward.

To be honest, most of us are cowards. Few people in the world are willing to stand up against wrongdoing. To speak out against injustice.

Because it’s hard.

Standing up means that you will face ridicule. Disdain. Threats. Maybe even death.

Most people don’t have the heart or the balls to see what is right in front of them and take action. After all, it’s not their loved one in harm’s way. They have to look out for themselves, to protect those they love, first. Right?

Standing up against evil, against what is wrong is so very hard. It’s something that most people can’t do.

Does that make those people evil? I don’t know, but I don’t think so.

But it does mean they most certainly are not heroes. They are not deserving of worship and adulation by strangers.

So on this day when tributes are being made to Joe Paterno, I believe we are better served considering individuals and organizations that are in truth heroic. That have stood up and said: NO. This will not happen. I will not allow such evil to pass unnoticed and unremarked.

Erika Heymann
Paul Rusesabagina
Gyöngyi Mago

Simon Wiesenthal Center
National Sexual Assault Online Hotline
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

And maybe–just maybe–next time you see a wrong, you’ll stand up and say something. You’ll do what is right instead of what is expedient. You’ll take the hard road, strewn with ridicule and danger, and think not of yourself, but of the weak and the powerless who cannot stand up for themselves.

Yeah, I know I’ve been slacking. But the weather has made me want to do nothing more than curl up with a book (or–to be brutally honest–a mindless computer game).

So here’s hoping for nicer weather for the next couple days, so make me (and perhaps you) feel like actually playing a game that doesn’t involve one’s butt firmly planted in a chair.

This week’s items to find:

green plant(s)
red
yellow
ice
resolution

Of course it’s all gone now, but there was some very pretty snow along the river while we were at Pittsburgh.

OK. I know. Not snow. But still fascinating.

That’s right, we’ve finally gotten SOME winter weather.

Of course, it’s been interspersed with temperatures in the 60s, but we have to take what we can get.

Today’s word is: ice

One of the other things we did in Pittsburgh was take the Duquesne Incline.

What, you may ask is the Incline?

Well, it’s the Incline. It’s goes up. And it goes down.

It was built in 1877.

And from the station at the top, is a gorgeous view.

(this view was taken going back down the incline–the skies were a little prettier.)

That’s right, we were in Pittsburgh, home of Mister Rogers.

I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. But it was an apt descriptor.

Yesterday, we awoke to an ice covered world, which meant we did not go visit see my niece. But I did get a couple interesting shots of the icy world in which we were ensconced.

Yeah, I’ve been really lousy about this, but in my defense, not only have I been busy, but the weather has been consistently grey and lousy. It’s worked to encourage me to curl up with books rather than take pictures.

I have lots of toys on my desk. Things that give my hands and fingers something to do while my brain processes whatever information I’m currently working on. But–like cats and toddlers–one of my favorite “toys” are these twist-ties.

They’re smooth, and wrap nicely around my fingers, so I frequently end up with one wrapped around each fingertip on my left hand.

They make a lovely tapping sound when I drum my fingers.

(Taken with Samsung Epic 4G phone)

December 11, 1964

…A second evil which plagues the modern world is that of poverty. Like a monstrous octopus, it projects its nagging, prehensile tentacles in lands and villages all over the world. Almost two-thirds of the peoples of the world go to bed hungry at night. They are undernourished, ill-housed, and shabbily clad. Many of them have no houses or beds to sleep in. Their only beds are the sidewalks of the cities and the dusty roads of the villages. Most of these poverty-stricken children of God have never seen a physician or a dentist. This problem of poverty is not only seen in the class division between the highly developed industrial nations and the so-called underdeveloped nations; it is seen in the great economic gaps within the rich nations themselves. Take my own country for example. We have developed the greatest system of production that history has ever known. We have become the richest nation in the world. Our national gross product this year will reach the astounding figure of almost 650 billion dollars. Yet, at least one-fifth of our fellow citizens – some ten million families, comprising about forty million individuals – are bound to a miserable culture of poverty. In a sense the poverty of the poor in America is more frustrating than the poverty of Africa and Asia. The misery of the poor in Africa and Asia is shared misery, a fact of life for the vast majority; they are all poor together as a result of years of exploitation and underdevelopment. In sad contrast, the poor in America know that they live in the richest nation in the world, and that even though they are perishing on a lonely island of poverty they are surrounded by a vast ocean of material prosperity. Glistening towers of glass and steel easily seen from their slum dwellings spring up almost overnight. Jet liners speed over their ghettoes at 600 miles an hour; satellites streak through outer space and reveal details of the moon. President Johnson, in his State of the Union Message12, emphasized this contradiction when he heralded the United States’ “highest standard of living in the world”, and deplored that it was accompanied by “dislocation; loss of jobs, and the specter of poverty in the midst of plenty”.

So it is obvious that if man is to redeem his spiritual and moral “lag”, he must go all out to bridge the social and economic gulf between the “haves” and the “have nots” of the world. Poverty is one of the most urgent items on the agenda of modern life…

…The time has come for an all-out world war against poverty. The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for “the least of these”. Deeply etched in the fiber of our religious tradition is the conviction that men are made in the image of God and that they are souls of infinite metaphysical value, the heirs of a legacy of dignity and worth. If we feel this as a profound moral fact, we cannot be content to see men hungry, to see men victimized with starvation and ill health when we have the means to help them. The wealthy nations must go all out to bridge the gulf between the rich minority and the poor majority.

In the final analysis, the rich must not ignore the poor because both rich and poor are tied in a single garment of destiny. All life is interrelated, and all men are interdependent. The agony of the poor diminishes the rich, and the salvation of the poor enlarges the rich. We are inevitably our brothers’ keeper because of the interrelated structure of reality…/blockquote>

Today needs something upbeat in tone.

And for something completely different:

Today’s Deal off the Day on Amazon was “”Ed McBain’s “87th Precinct Series,” $0.99 Each”

Conveniently, Amazon decided to send me individual emails for each one, so I could feel like a complete book glutton, and ridiculously guilty.

At the beginning of November I received one of those phone calls you dread–a friend was dead. She hadn’t shown up for work, and a co-worker went to her apartment where they discovered she had died over the weekend.

As we called other friends to tell them of the loss, we heard the same question again and again, “what happened?”

We didn’t know.

Over the course of the day we learned various details. She’d not been feeling well that week, and her coworkers and family had been worried about her. The thought was maybe she had pneumonia or an asthma attack, but those were all guesses. We wouldn’t know anything until the medical examiner’s report.

We talked a lot about her in the following weeks. She’d been unemployed and underemployed for the past several years, and at one point thought she was going to lose her apartment. But in the nick of time, as she was boxing up her belongings, unsure where she was going to go, she got a job offer. It wasn’t full time with benefits, but it was enough to allow her to catch up on her rent and not have to move.

She liked her job, and was delighted after so much struggle to be working again. We’d been so happy for her. Happy because it finally looked like things were turning around for her.

Then suddenly, she’s dead, without warning.

Any death is hard, but somehow it seems so much harder when it’s unexpected.

It reminds you that life is short, and you should embrace what you have while you have it, for you never know what tomorrow will bring.

It also reminded us that if we never know what will happen tomorrow, it’s a good idea to make sure your passwords and bank accounts are available for whomever comes after you and has to put away the pieces of your life.

Somehow, two months have passed, though it hardly seems like it has been that long. But it has, and the family finally received word from the medical examiner.

It wasn’t asthma.

It wasn’t pneumonia.

It was metastatic cancer.

See, when you’re unemployed and underemployed, you don’t have health insurance. And when you don’t have health insurance, you just suck it up when you get sick.

Unfortunately, there are some things that won’t go away with time. Things that only get worse if they remain undiscovered and untreated.

Metastatic cancer.

If you’re not clear on the term, that means the untreated cancer–wherever it may have started–spread throughout her body.

Spread until it finally killed her.

We cannot know whether a diagnosis and treatment would have prolonged her life. Chances are they would have given her at least a few months if not years.

But I do know one thing for certain: If she had been diagnosed, she almost certainly would not have died alone, without the chance say goodbye to those she loved.

So when politicians and talking heads claim that health care isn’t a right, when they claim that we have no moral and ethical responsibility to provide for the medical needs of every citizen, this is what happens.

People die alone.

And those who love them never get the chance to say goodbye.

Trying to get back into the whole “back to work” thing, but mostly am mourning the return of stupid traffic.

My, that’s glum, isn’t it?

Let’s try this: today’s word is adorable

Jules was visiting my parents this weekend, so I got to spend a couple hours with her.

I love being an auntie.

I love this picture of Jules and her Grandpop.

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Err… anyone still want some word association? How about: drudgery

That’s kinda how I feel about being back at work.

My 2012 Denali Wildlife calendar.

Addendum the First: I emailed them, and they’re going to send me stickers to fix the numbers. Too bad I already messed it up by writing in the correct dates. :(

Happy New Year!

May you have all that is good in the coming months.

In addition to new cookie varieties, this year I decided to try to make eggnog. I did a bit of research, and combined several recipes (one recipe called for three dozen eggs–and served eighty). Here is the end result–pretty good!

4 pasteurized eggs (nothing is cooked, so this is important to avoid food poisoning)
1/2 cup sugar
2 – 4 tsp vanilla extract
2 oz brandy
2 oz bourbon
1-3 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
4 cups milk (I used 2%)
1/2 pint heavy cream, whipped (if you’re using whole milk, you can probably skip this)

Separate the eggs. In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks until lighter yellow. Add the sugar, and beat until the sugar is dissolved.

Add in the vanilla, brandy, bourbon, and nutmeg, then add the milk.

Unless you have multiple mixing bowls, put the egg nog into a cold container and put in the fridge for now.

Whisk the egg whites until they are firm. (I totally forgot how long this takes, as I’ve only been whisking whipped cream recently. This takes a long time. Be patient.)

Slowly whisk the milk mixture into the egg whites. Put the egg nog back into the cold container, and put back in the fridge for now.

Whip the cream with a dash of sugar.

Once the cream is whipped, slowly add in the egg and milk mixture.

Put the completed mixture back unto the container (I’m using a glass milk jug, which is perfect) and refrigerate until chilled.

When you’re ready to serve, whisk or shake the mixture, pour into glasses, and if you’re feeling fancy, grate fresh nutmeg over each serving.

Very yummy!

My ankle has been bothering me for the past couple months, probably because of the amount of rain we’ve had.

So I did the obvious thing: bought myself two new pairs of boots!

Here’s the first–the second pair won’t arrive until next week.

This holiday also had a trip to VA, where my all of my cousins were in for Christmas. At the instigation of Ben, we made the Lithuanian cookie Krusties (pronounced, at least by my family, christies)

The recipe is fairly simple:

Krusties
1/2 tsp baking powder
6 whole eggs
6 egg yolks
2 sticks butter
6 cups flour
1 shot whiskey/rum
pinch cardamom

1 large can crisco, for frying

Mix together all the ingredients in a mixer. Wrap in waxed paper or place in a plastic bag, and refrigerate overnight.

When ready to make, heat solid fat (Crisco or lard) in large frying pan. You’ll need an inch or two of hot oil.

You’ll also want to line most of your work areas with newspaper, or used wrapping paper, or anything else that absorbs oil and sugar, and makes clean up easier.

Find aprons for everyone–this can get messy! We rolled out our batches of dough on floured waxed paper.

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