It's History, not Racism

I am furious over this.

Auburn, Alabama City Counselman Arthur Dowdell went to a local cemetery and began removing Confederate flags from graves of Confederate soldiers that had been put there by the Daughter's of the Confederacy in honor of Confederate Memorial Day. He was personally offended and said that

“It’s offensive to me,” “To me, it represents the Ku Klux Klan and racism.”

I might could see his point if it were white sheets and burning crosses. But it wasn't. In his assault on private property he broke one of the flags. When questioned about this action he said:

“It might have snapped itself.” “If it did, so what? If I had my way, I would have broke them all up and stomped on them and burned them. That flag represents another country, another nation.”

WTF right. The flag snapped itself in half?

I do not know about anywhere else, but in Alabama, cemetery plots are actually sold deeded land. The land belongs to the family of the person buried there or whoever purchased the plot, thereby making it private property. I think that Mr. Dowdell should have been arrested for distruction of property, anyone else would have been. If anyone else had done the same thing to a black historical icon they would have also been charged with Federal hate crimes. The reaction of the mayor of Auburn:

Auburn Mayor Bill Ham Jr. and other council members said Friday they each have heard from citizens about the incident, but there is nothing they can do as a council to censure Dowdell for his actions.

Ham said citizens even asked him about the possibility of arresting Dowdell.

The only repercussions may be a misdemeanor charge if a report is filed with the Auburn Police Division. Assistant Chief Tommy Dawson said he knew of no such report as of Friday evening.

WTF right.

In response to learning that the flags are placed on the graves a week prior to Confederate Memorial Day and had been for the last 50 years, Mr. Dowdell said:

“I’m not going to tolerate it,” “They can have one day like everybody else. They can do
it for Sunday. That is their right, but don’t infringe on my rights for a whole week.”

Sorry? What is February? An entire month of celebrating black people, black heritage, black history. Banks, post offices, US Government and State agencies all close down for a day to celebrate an abusive alcoholic black man. For Confederate Memorial Day, state courts were closed. I know of no other closings.

Dowdell expressed no surprise at the reactions of the rest of the council.

“The council has disagreed with me before,” he said. “But I’m the only black man on the city council, why would they agree with me? They’re all white. They don’t understand.”

He seems to think that being black allows him special privilages to do whatever he wants to. He knows there will be no reprecussions from his actions because he is black. It's all being excused away. He calls flags in honor of fallen soldiers and family members, racism and hate. I call HIS actions more racist and hateful than anything the Daughters of the Confederacy have done.

But wait, this is Alabama, racism is only one sided right? Only whites are racist against blacks. It doesn't go both ways.

People need to read further into their history books. Look at books other than those presented in the classrooms. Find real live witness accounts. The Civil War and thus the founding of the Confederacy was not JUST about slavery. The Civil War was about many things, including State rights, something that the current administration wants to take away from us again. It was more about the right for individual states to make decisions for themselves, on many issues including slavery, instead of letting the US government make all the decisions.

Is it wrong for people to fight for what they believe in? Blacks were NOT the only slaves in this country. There were white slaves, Indian slaves, Chinese slaves. Slavery was NOT only prelevent in the South. Believing in the Confederacy and what it stood for does NOT make a person a racist. Honoring fallen soldiers who stood for what they believed in and a place they loved does not make a person racist.

Blacks fought for the Confederacy also, many willingly. Mr. Dowdell's disregard for the soldiers that were buried in those plots disregards the many black soldiers that fought for and died for the Confederacy as well.

The Confederate flag and Confederate Memorial Day are not about hate. They are not about racism. They are not about pining for the old ways. They are about remembering and honoring those that fought and died for something they believed in. They are about honoring our heritage, our history, as a State, as the South and yes, even as a Nation. The Civil War and the Confederacy are a part of our history as a Nation and should be remembered by the Nation so that it does not happen again. So that our Nation is not torn apart by differences of opinion and rights being stomped on.

Everything in the South, in Alabama is not about color of peoples' skin. It's not about race. And when it is about race, it's not usually the whites making it so. For instance read about the fight over a soccer field in Hueytown.

Here is the City of Auburn's official Statement about the flag incident.

The past is gone. Let it go. There are no slaves, there are no slave masters. There is no Union nor Confederacy. Live for today and make changes for tomorrow.

Then again, I guess this goes back to my post Right Wing Racist Bible-Thumping Extremist. I believe in the foundation of the Country and the Constitution so I must be racist and upset because we have a 1/2 black president.

Build a bridge and get over it.

Happy Birthday to me!

Yesterday was my 35th birthday. We did not do anything special. My mom is in town from Michigan and came to visit so I was happy to spend some time with her and of course the kids were thrilled to see Nanny.

Getting older really does not bother me all that much. I know it's "supposed to" but really, when do I do what I'm supposed to do. It provokes deep thoughts and self reflection but I do that on a regular basis anyway. We might go to dinner this weekend to celebrate as is tradition in my family. B'day person gets to pick the place.

I took the day off work Friday as a b'day present to myself. Man, let me tell you, that was NICE. I got up with everyone in the morning and got them out the door to work/school and me and the dogs went back to bed. We slept till 11:00 and would have slept longer except the phone rang and woke us up. We piddled around on the internet, chatted with my mom, ran to the store for a drink and laid around on the couch watching Bones and Monk reruns till @zerolove got home. I thought about cleaning the house and cooking dinner. Briefly. That soon passed and I decided the best use of my time was relaxing. I rarely take off when it's not for doctor, dentist, orthodontist, school function, or sick. I don't play hookie, and I come in unless I'm dying. I needed the break, the day to lay around and be a woman of leisure. Trying to decide when to take off again!

Right Wing Racist Bible Thumping Extremist

Yeah that's just a few of the things I've see myself and thousands of others called because we chose to exercise our Constitutional rights.

I have waited a week now to write about the Tax Day Tea Party rally that I attended with my family in Hoover, Alabama. I wanted to make sure that my thoughts were conveyed properly and not just a response to something someone said or posted.

I saw many people at the rally. Young, old, tall, short, white, black, straight, gay, christian, non-christian, anti-abortion, pro-abortion, anti-government, less government, anti-Obama...well you get the point. People from all walks of life came together for one thing, to speak out on their dissatisfaction with how this country, our country is being ran and things that are happening. It wasn't just about taxes, it wasn't just about Obama, it wasn't just about big government. It was about it all. We want our voices heard.

I will be clear here, I dislike Obama. I think that he is nothing more than a puppet being used to further the liberal propaganda. I couldn't care less if the man were purple polka dotted. He is not qualified for the job that he has been given to do. He is a career politician and knows nothing about living in the real world or doing a real job. Every time he opens his mouth he puts his foot into it, but unfortunately not before he disparages the country that he is supposed to be leading. He bows down to enemies and wants to make friends with terrorists that hate us based strickly on our nationality. He plays the "race card" every chance he gets. He is flatly going to "run" our government and country straight into the ground. But when I stand up and say I dislike him and think he's a horrible choice for President, I'm called racist, regardless of why I dislike him. He's allowed to play the "race card", but because he is black, I'm not allowed to dislike or disagree with him without being called racist.

Protest that are held for people's rights to abortions, giving rights to illegal immigrants, gay marraige or whatever else cause the Left considers important at the time is given tons of news coverage, for days before and days after. Yet the only news coverage the rallys got was negitive coverage, reporters verbally attacking people for their thoughts and ideas. Rallys were denied permits, which hello, the Constitution says we have a right to peaceful assembly, we shouldn't need a permit anyway. The Constitution already gave us one. There were not 4 different news crews at the rally. The local newspaper blantently underestimated the number of people there, even though a 2 year old could see it was more than "a couple of hundred." The left is allowed to stand up and speak out for what they believe in, but the right isn't.

I have heard asked, why now, the economy has been bad for years, the government has been growing for years, etc. I say, why not now? If not now, when? This has been brewing for years and has now reached a full boil. You're right, it's not new. We have just had enough. The Revolutionary War didn't happen over night. It built up for years before it reached its boiling point.

For those of you that sit at home twittering and blogging about how you are right wing, you are conservative, you dislike the government but you would never go to a rally like that. Please step to the left, you are doing nobody any good and you are lying to yourself. You are apathetic and willing to roll over and let a bunch of men in suits run your life for you. You cannot support and not support the matter both at the same time. Get off the fence, get out of your safe place. Put up or shut up.

As for the term Tea Party. I'm pretty sure the term was not meant to be taken in a literal sense. More of a "it's time to stand up and make them taken notice" than a "taxation without representation" kind of thing.

More to come, but lunch is over.

Fitness fail.

Okay. It's confession time. Again.

I have not stepped foot inside the gym in two months or more.

I have gained 10 pounds in that time, if my scale is right, though I question its accuracy.

I allow others to influence me and my eating and decisions to go to the gym, or not. I let them make excuses for me and just go along with it.

I am weak.

Every day I feel my health worsening. My bones hurt. My joints hurt. I find myself getting out of breath way more often and easier.

I have caught myself looking for a close parking spot, getting back into bad habits of trying to find the quickest, easiest, least physical way of doing something. How long is it going to be before I'm one of those people that just sits down one day and says fuck it, it's too hard to get back up.

My mother is coming into town this weekend. I am embarrassed because I have gained so much weight since the last time I saw her.

I have been fooling myself for the last year and claiming that emotional changes are just as important as physical ones. Bullshit.

I lie to myself. Yes, 5 M&Ms will hurt me

I pretend that I'm going to make it to the gym. Hey I take my gym bag to work with me, that counts right.

I have considered not attending my daughter's graduation next month because I don't want to embarrass her with how fat I am. I'm afraid people will stare at me and make fun and that I'll be the fattest person in the room.

Go Kristin!!!!

Okay I have to say up front that Kristin on Biggest Loser annoys the crap out of me. She's way too dramatic and always crying and blah blah blah. But man that woman has guts. She has done an amazing job on and off of the show. She has lost slower than some of the others but I have always been told slower is better, more chance of keeping it off.

I really hoped Kristin would win this season. At first I liked Tara to win but now, I wish Kristin would have. I'm sad that she got kicked off because I thought Helen should have gone, if you take you know, actual weight loss into account. Helen had less to lose and obviously Kristin needed the atmosphere of the ranch more. That being said, She has done amazing since being home. She truly is an inspiration to a lot of people, me included.

I dislike Mike and Ron more and more each week. They are quick to stab people in the back and look out for #1, Mike. Ron will do anything to keep Mike there and not for the weight loss I think. I think it's more for the money. I hope neither of them win. I would like to see them both gone.

Helen grates my nerves. When she gets into a tough spot she tends to start pulling guilt trips on people and begging them to let her win despite their own desires to win. I'm glad that Tara didn't fall for it tonight. Frankly a lot of overweight people do more for others than they do for themselves so it's good to see her standing strong and thinking of herself.

Tara was very selfish about her desire to keep Laura on the show. I understand her upset about her partner leaving but she never really needed Laura. Laura needed Tara and I think Tara was more afraid of what was going to happen to Laura than the other way around.

Filpe, well I just dislike him all around. He's just an all around ass.

We have come to the part of the season that I really just do not like. With only three weigh ins left before the finale, the claws have come out and they are going to be burying them into each others backs. Out of who is left, my vote is for Tara. She's young, she's cocky, she's strong and she's stood her ground and I haven't seen her back stab anyone....yet.

Ghosts from the Past

It's funny. You think you're over something from your past and bamm, one day it resurfaces. You wonder if you really are over it. You start second guessing yourself. If you move that bandaid is that wound really healed or just being held together by that bandaid? Is it going to start gushing blood and bad feelings all over again?

While writing my confessions series I picked at that particular bandaid. I tugged on it little by little and it didn't bleed but I was too afraid to rip it off completely. It brought up very strong feelings, not sad ones, happy ones. It helped me to realize how blessed I truly am.

I got a phone call last night that completely ripped that bandaid off. No tugging, not teasing, no slow and easy. It just ripped right off of there. Like real bandaids it hurts for a second as it's coming off but you take a deep breath and it's gone.

I am proud to say that while the bandaid being ripped stung a good bit, I took a deep breath and it was gone. There was no bleeding, no gapping wound festering underneath. There's a scar but it's tiny and barely visible. If you don't know about the wound then you never notice the scars.

I truly am blessed to have my wonderful husband and kids that have helped heal those wounds.

Quote of the Day

What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?-Thomas Jefferson

Quote of the Day

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security" ~Thomas Jefferson

More Tea Party Pics

Rick & Bubba!

Tax Day Tea Party - Hoover, Alabama

The crowd at the Tea Party was AWESOME! Estimated 7000+ people in attendance and great speakers including Rick & Bubba

Quote for the day

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
~Thomas Jefferson

This one turned out awesome

If I do say so myself. Somewhere between my mother scanning this, sending it to me and today someone well "fixed" this picture. Obviously the fixes aren't so great.

After is much cleaner and actually looks pretty good I think. This was a very hard picture to clean up. My clicking finger is tired now so I'm going to bed.

Picture Clean up

Baby Stephanie - Before This is a scan that my mother kept in her wallet/purse. It got messed up pretty bad.

Baby Stephanie - After I was able to take out most of the dirty spots. There is a filmy looking place right by her mouth I have not figured out how to take off.

Photo Restoration

I've been trying my hand at restoring some old photos of my grandmother that my mother scanned and sent me.
before - there is an obvious bend mark near the middle of the picture.

After - I removed the line and cleaned up the picture a little. Unfortunately there was a lot of pixalization in the picture and I could not yet figure out how to remove it. I had a good bit of problems with the patterned dress on the girl on the far right. The dress was smudge and pixally so I didn't have a decent spot to pull from.

New Outfits

I've spent about the last week and a half making these outfits and wanted to show them off. I changed up the pattern a little, It's supposed to have buttons down the front and be open but I wanted less chance of it getting messed up by buttons being popped off so I sewed it shut.

The pants are just a basic two piece pant pattern. I added the ruffle because they were a bit plain. First time I ever tried ruffles so I'm proud of myself for doing them and doing them right.

Tiny*Prints Stationary

I'm going to do my first ever product review today. As you know, my daughter is graduating this year. I did not really care for the generic graduation announcements that every one in the class gets every single year. They're very cookie cutter and non-personal. Plus they are major expensive. Our local schools only use one company to do them so there aren't many options.

I decided that Stephanie is an unique young lady and this is a special occasion so she deserved something special. So I went hunting on the interwebs. I swear I hunted 100 times and checked out a million companies and designs. I finally stumbled on Tiny*Prints. They had lots of designs to chose from. Their website is very user friendly. I was able to design and change just about every aspect of the announcement the way I wanted it and view the changes immediately. That was a problem I had with some of the other sites, I couldn't see my changes or change certain things.

Once I decided what I wanted and how I wanted it, it took me all of 10 minutes to put it all together and place my order. The price was VERY reasonable, 50 photo announcements (3 pics) for $109.00 including shipping.

The customer service was phenominal. After I placed my order, I received a call on my cell phone. One of the pictures I had uploaded was too red and looked strange, did I want to change it, there were a couple ways they could change that picture to make it fit or I could submit another photo. They sent me a digital "proof" to view both options with my original picture and I just had to pick one.

A couple of days later they called me back, they had not received my changes and wanted to follow up. I had submitted my changes but they had not gone through for some reason or another. She okayed it over the phone and put the order in. I ordered the announcements on 3/30 and received them today via UPS, 4/8/09. The changes that had to be made did not even delay delivery of the order.

I have to say the cards look AWESOME. I am so pleased with them and I think Stephanie will be too once she sees them. The paper quality is great, the photos came out great, everything is printed exactly where and how I wanted it.

Overall I give Tiny*Prints 4 stars. I did not have one problem with my order from start to finish and I highly recommend Tiny*Prints for your printing needs. They do everything from stationary to wedding, birth, graduation announcements, birthday cards, invitations, I think if you name it, they can do it.

Biggest Loser 4/7/09

Last night's Biggest Loser episode was interesting to say the least. I thought the temptation challenge was a little out there. It makes it very clear to me who is there for the money and who is there for the weight loss. The only one that even hesitated at eating all that junk was Kristin. Everyone else was gung ho at getting that golden ticket and the cash prizes. That was a whole lot of calories to shove in your mouth just for control for one night. I agreed with Kristin in that the best strategy was work hard and make sure you do not go below the yellow line.

Tara blows through challenges like nobody's business. I like Tara and yet, I'm even sick of seeing her win all the challenges. She does them so well that I'm beginning to wonder if she really was fat. I mean, obviously she was fat at the beginning of the season, but did she maybe put all that weight on just to be on the BL? Is it a set up by her and/or the show to have another female winner to try to even things up between the boys & the girls? I feel like she's winning everything and dropping unreal amounts of weight every single week. Where's her brick wall been?

I was okay with Laura winning the Golden Ticket and having the voting power for the elimination. However, I was not okay with her asking Tara to throw the weigh in so she could have an easy choice when it came time to send someone home. Tara would have been stupid to do that because Laura is not consistent, she does not put in big numbers historically, and her immediate thoughts on having the golden ticket was breakfast in bed, and bribes from the others, in addition to asking her bff to throw a weight in. I do feel she made the right choice. Sione was a huge competitor for Tara. If Tara wins more than likely Laura will get a portion of the prize money. So it makes sense to get rid of one of her biggest competitors. Helen made me baby barf a little bit with the whole "you're like a daughter to me" bit. Can we say manipulation? Seriously, lay on the guilt thick and choak the poor girl. It obviously worked in her favor, I just hope it does not come back to bite Laura on the ass. Helen seems wishy washy to me and I feel she will turn on everyone before it's overwith.

Ron & Mike, well I have disliked them from the beginning. Ron wants to be in control of things and he's hanging on by the skin of his teeth every single week. No one feels truly threatend by him so they're tossing off bigger threats. Ron is there for one thing and one thing only, to have his SON win. He doesn't care about winning himself, he wants Mike to win. And I'm so sick of Mike's cry baby "my dad" blah blah blah crap. Grow a pair would you please.

Fairy Garden

As promised in my last post here are some pictures of the fairy garden at the Aldridge Botanical Gardens in Hoover, Alabama.

I love the fact that Aldridge Gardens has created a very special place and opened their grounds up to invite fairies in to live. Kids love fairies and this is a wonderful way to get kids involved outdoors. They can learn about gardening, different plants, conservation, and ecosystems just to start.

We have a fairy garden at my house. It is in a garden area under a big tree in our front yard. At the moment we only have a fairy circle, a couple houses and some furniture in it but I think this year we will expand some. I got some great ideas for different kinds of fairy homes from our trip to the Gardens and the kids and I can't wait to go out and gather the materials and get started. My girls love our fairy garden. They helped me build and create it. Every time we go out to work in the garden they check out the furniture and the houses and if something is moved, they say the fairies have been there.

I need to get me a couple of the doors shown above so the fairies can come into the house. Wonder if I should put a "Beware of Cat" sign above the door though.

Aldridge Botanical Gardens

Saturday we had some free time and we were out and about so we decided to stop by Aldridge Botanical Gardens in Hoover, Alabama.


The Gardens are just beautiful. All of the wonderful spring blooming flowers are bloomed and bees flying around everywhere. There is a lake out in the middle with a nice trail around it. It was a perfect day for just laying back on the grass and admiring the clouds. And there were quite a few people doing that.

One thing I particularly loved about this place was the special little hideaway in the back, off the beaten path dedicated to being a home for fairies. I have posted a blog and some pictures about that here.

We took lots of pictures and I look forward to going back when the wild flower field has bloomed.