There are more than a few serious subjects weighing heavily on our minds today, including the news that the GOP House is still planning on their pyrrhic vote attacking health care insurance reform next week; the Governor of Nebraska's next budget has everything for everybody except common sense, and the Governors of Virginia and Maryland have swapped brains; and we're still frustrated because Apple isn't releasing the iPhone on Sprint yet.
(OK, that last topic is basically our web guru's personal issue, but we'll let him roll with it today.)
Something that's been on all of our minds this week is the concept of home.
Home isn't just the place where four walls come together around and where you lay your head at night. It's a place where your friends are, where your family is, where you feel comfortable, safe, and secure.
In our modern, highly-connected world, home isn't just a physical location. Think about it - how often do you see your friends these days? Maybe you see them in person once a month or every couple weeks - but you don't see them every day, as you likely once did. We're willing to bet you do as we do, and talk with your friends by phone, e-mail, Facebook or Twitter on a daily basis.
Most of us are so connected these days - or can be, at a moment's notice - that we talk with some of our friends more now than when we lived in the same general part of town.
We each carry our own versions of home around with us these days, connected both locally, and over long distances, to those we care about most. Technology has made that possible, just as it has the those huge TVs that are as thin as our thesaurus.
That ability to mix the virtual and digital, with the visceral and tangible, to create a concept of "home" where those we care about, no matter where they are, feel like they're just next door, has been a blessing we've counted many times, lately.
When the weather gets bad - or just bitterly cold, like it has been in Nebraska lately - that vision of home has allowed us to not even leave the house, and still make all of our deadlines and appointments just fine.
There's an old axiom that home is what you make it. We highly doubt that those who coined that phrase ever thought it would have something to do with Skype and phone calls, email and texting.
Even if that wasn't the original meaning of the phrase, we think that those who originally came up with that idea would look favorably upon our modern, highly-connected view of hearth and home.
For one thing, it means that each of us can keep those we care about with us, wherever we go.
For another?
When it's this cold, our new definition of 'home' means we don't have to get out of our robes and slippers to brave the elements.
And we're just fine with that, too. So... where's Spring?
Friday, January 14, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
America: A Family Affair
We hope that you saw and heard the President's speech at the memorial service in Tucson last night.
Like most people, we each took our own meanings from the speech as a whole, and its separate parts. Together, though, we think there was a message that too many Americans seem to be missing, one that we've already hit on this week.
The President reminded us that we are all Americans, who all want many of the same things. Whether we are old or young, rich or poor, whatever our backgrounds, faith, or family history, we all want to find happiness, meaning, and peace in life. We are all part of that extended family that is America.
Like a family, there will be times we don't like each other, that we want to strike out at each other in anger. But - as the President noted last night, and as we said earlier in the week - we are better than that. We can be better, and we SHOULD be better.
"Being better" does not mean that we simply allow those who are wrong, or choose to do wrong, to get away with doing and saying what they should not. Hypocrites, the hubristic, the reckless, the greedy; all of these and more are people who choose to do wrong, and speak incorrectly, who choose to benefit themselves at the expense of others, in ways that are often cruel and needless... their behavior should not be ignored.
Like family, we are bound to one another as Americans - even those of us who make bad choices. Striking out at our family members in anger to attempt to get them to change their behavior is in itself, a poor choice. Hitting back is also unacceptable. As the President also said Wednesday night, "How we treat one another is entirely up to us."
So what do we do, when we fundamentally disagree about topics and challenges that are important to us as a nation? When we disagree, at our core, about the choices our fellow Americans are making - in how they speak, how they act, and how they choose to interact with us and others?
The President had the answer last night: "Only a more civil and honest discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation."
We believe - all of us - what the President has said many times and repeated last night: that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us. We unanimously agreed with him when he said, "I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us - we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations."
Americans have faced many unique challenges over the last few years that we have never faced before. We have a feeling the next decade or two - or three or four - will present us with even more challenges of a similarly difficult nature.
Now is not the time to attack and bury our countrymen in rhetoric and hate - or attempt to one-up each other with poorly chosen words. When we've done wrong, we need to suck it up, and admit it - and then stop that behavior. When we've been right, we need to move on and leave gloating and smugness behind.
As President Obama noted last night, in times like these, "We can not turn on each other."
No matter how looney we may seem to one another, the truth is we are all part of the one and only American family.
Like most people, we each took our own meanings from the speech as a whole, and its separate parts. Together, though, we think there was a message that too many Americans seem to be missing, one that we've already hit on this week.
The President reminded us that we are all Americans, who all want many of the same things. Whether we are old or young, rich or poor, whatever our backgrounds, faith, or family history, we all want to find happiness, meaning, and peace in life. We are all part of that extended family that is America.
Like a family, there will be times we don't like each other, that we want to strike out at each other in anger. But - as the President noted last night, and as we said earlier in the week - we are better than that. We can be better, and we SHOULD be better.
"Being better" does not mean that we simply allow those who are wrong, or choose to do wrong, to get away with doing and saying what they should not. Hypocrites, the hubristic, the reckless, the greedy; all of these and more are people who choose to do wrong, and speak incorrectly, who choose to benefit themselves at the expense of others, in ways that are often cruel and needless... their behavior should not be ignored.
Like family, we are bound to one another as Americans - even those of us who make bad choices. Striking out at our family members in anger to attempt to get them to change their behavior is in itself, a poor choice. Hitting back is also unacceptable. As the President also said Wednesday night, "How we treat one another is entirely up to us."
So what do we do, when we fundamentally disagree about topics and challenges that are important to us as a nation? When we disagree, at our core, about the choices our fellow Americans are making - in how they speak, how they act, and how they choose to interact with us and others?
The President had the answer last night: "Only a more civil and honest discourse can help us face up to the challenges of our nation."
We believe - all of us - what the President has said many times and repeated last night: that the forces that divide us are not as strong as those that unite us. We unanimously agreed with him when he said, "I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it. All of us - we should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations."
Americans have faced many unique challenges over the last few years that we have never faced before. We have a feeling the next decade or two - or three or four - will present us with even more challenges of a similarly difficult nature.
Now is not the time to attack and bury our countrymen in rhetoric and hate - or attempt to one-up each other with poorly chosen words. When we've done wrong, we need to suck it up, and admit it - and then stop that behavior. When we've been right, we need to move on and leave gloating and smugness behind.
As President Obama noted last night, in times like these, "We can not turn on each other."
No matter how looney we may seem to one another, the truth is we are all part of the one and only American family.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Snow Kidding: Experience vs. Intelligence
We'll agree that our commentaries the last two days have been a bit heavy, as we think befit the situation our country has been facing. But there's another major issue most of you, our readers, have been facing - regardless of where you live in America.
Snow.
Our staff at the Daily Felltoon has considerable experience facing midwest winters - some of us were even born and raised in Nebraska. Still, the Northern Plains isn't the only region of the country facing a snow-filled welcome month in 2011. From coast to coast, from North to South, and nearly everywhere in between, old man winter and young Jack Frost seem to be tag-teaming most of the country in snow and ice.
When winter slams areas of the country that are comparatively unprepared for it, Nebraskans and other midwesterners often laugh at the minor struggles of their fellow Americans. We admit, we've also been guilty in pointing at other areas of the country, and questioning their weather intelligence levels.
What we've discovered in all of our traveling this past year is that maybe we shouldn't be laughing.
For example, take something that Nebraskans and other midwesterners take for granted: Snow brigades.
Most of you know exactly what we're talking about; small groups of individuals, who have agreements to clear snow away from businesses or small residential or rural areas. When large amounts of snow fall, most people who belong to a snow brigade call their regular employers, and let the employer know that they have snow brigade duty.
Almost like National Guard duty, most employers simply agree, and let their employees go for a day. No argument, no charging them with a 'sick day' - and no loss of their job, either. Sure, most employers don't count it as a paid day off for those employees who call in to clear snow - but most people on snow brigades get paid for their efforts anyway, so there's no real loss for either employer or employee.
In most parts of the country outside of the midwest, when you say 'snow brigade', you may as well be speaking to others in alien tongues.
That's not a knock on those who aren't used to midwestern winters. It's just a gentle reminder that not all parts of the country are set up to handle the same kind of winter weather issues that Nebraskans and other midwesterners are used to.
For others to be as prepared for winter as midwesterners, would be like Nebraskans stockpiling hammers and plywood to board up their windows before a tropical storm.
That doesn't mean midwesterners shouldn't be able to do a little finger pointing and chuckling at their fellow Americans. Just don't believe it's a lack of weather smarts that leads others to shut down whole regions when they get levels of snow that Plains inhabitants simply scoff at.
Those non-midwesterners just don't get that much snow, usually. Then again, these are unusual times.
Snow.
Our staff at the Daily Felltoon has considerable experience facing midwest winters - some of us were even born and raised in Nebraska. Still, the Northern Plains isn't the only region of the country facing a snow-filled welcome month in 2011. From coast to coast, from North to South, and nearly everywhere in between, old man winter and young Jack Frost seem to be tag-teaming most of the country in snow and ice.
When winter slams areas of the country that are comparatively unprepared for it, Nebraskans and other midwesterners often laugh at the minor struggles of their fellow Americans. We admit, we've also been guilty in pointing at other areas of the country, and questioning their weather intelligence levels.
What we've discovered in all of our traveling this past year is that maybe we shouldn't be laughing.
For example, take something that Nebraskans and other midwesterners take for granted: Snow brigades.
Most of you know exactly what we're talking about; small groups of individuals, who have agreements to clear snow away from businesses or small residential or rural areas. When large amounts of snow fall, most people who belong to a snow brigade call their regular employers, and let the employer know that they have snow brigade duty.
Almost like National Guard duty, most employers simply agree, and let their employees go for a day. No argument, no charging them with a 'sick day' - and no loss of their job, either. Sure, most employers don't count it as a paid day off for those employees who call in to clear snow - but most people on snow brigades get paid for their efforts anyway, so there's no real loss for either employer or employee.
In most parts of the country outside of the midwest, when you say 'snow brigade', you may as well be speaking to others in alien tongues.
That's not a knock on those who aren't used to midwestern winters. It's just a gentle reminder that not all parts of the country are set up to handle the same kind of winter weather issues that Nebraskans and other midwesterners are used to.
For others to be as prepared for winter as midwesterners, would be like Nebraskans stockpiling hammers and plywood to board up their windows before a tropical storm.
That doesn't mean midwesterners shouldn't be able to do a little finger pointing and chuckling at their fellow Americans. Just don't believe it's a lack of weather smarts that leads others to shut down whole regions when they get levels of snow that Plains inhabitants simply scoff at.
Those non-midwesterners just don't get that much snow, usually. Then again, these are unusual times.
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