I like this idea. I’m always look for clever, thoughtful gift ideas.  Anything that can help us focus on the positive things in our lives is a good thing.  And that sharing with others is never a bad idea.

You could decorate the jar to suit the recipient, come up with a clever little name for it.  I would appreciate the sentiment behind a gift like this much more than an after-thought trinket from the local mall.

Job hunting over 40.  It’s not for the faint of heart.   Job hunting after being (for all practical purposes) off the market, home raising children for 15 years.  Down-right harrowing. It’s a different world. And I’m a grown-up now.  It’s time to re-enter the grown up world.  Mixed emotions.

I still think of myself as young, you know.  And relevant & cool.  Although I’ve never sent a resume via the internet.  I’ve never applied for a position via a website linked to a website connected to a website.  I’ve never done a cover letter that looks like a standard email. My resume is on PDF.   It took me 4 hours to apply for two jobs. 

I need business cards and a head shot.

Say I do get an interview.  What the heck do I wear?  Black pencil skirt and conservative blouse?  Is that still the standard?  Or is there some tech-age outfit I’m not aware of?  And interviews – they still do those, don’t they?  Is there a new secret handshake or code words I need to know?  Youngsters, your help would be appreciated.

The search continues.  I will let you know if anything interesting comes up.

 

 

For most of my life, I labored under the delusion that I had no sisters because I was the only girl in my family.  I have brothers, whom I love dearly. But I always felt like I was missing out on something.

As I have matured, I have come to realized that all that time I had been living a lie.

I have four sisters.  Four women who are absolutely my family.  I couldn’t love them more if we shared the same genetic material.  We grew up together. We have shared our lives since before we started school.  Boy, do we ever have history.  We have laughed, cried, grieved, and celebrated together.  We have shared and kept each others’ secrets.  We laugh at each other and with each other.  We commiserate, instigate, and contemplate. We may not see one another every day like we used to, and we may be physically miles apart, but we all know that we can pick up right where we left off at any place, anytime.  These women are my touchstones and my guiding lights. My rocks. They keep me grounded in this crazy world. They remind me of where I came from and who I really am at my very core.  I am my true self with my sisters.

We know that if any one of us needs anything – encouragement, a listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, a swift kick in the ass,  a “snap out of it” smack, some levity added to a serious situation – we will defy the laws of physics and be there for each other at a moment’s notice, like the superheroes we are.  Day to day, we wear the brilliant disguises of mature, responsible, successful women – wives, daughters, mothers, professionals.  But when we are together, time holds no constraints on us.  We are 15 again. And 7 and 35 and 70.  And we will always be. We are ageless.  We are fortunate and we know it.  We are a tightly woven fabric.  We are strong.  We are sisters.

Have you had this experience?  You wake up one morning thinking  “How did I get here?  Who is this person?  Whose body is this?  This is not the life my 25 year old self thought I’d be living”.

Maybe you never have.  Lucky you.

Don’t get me wrong – I love my life – my family, my friends, the security and comfort.  But truth be told, it’s not what I had in mind for myself when I was half this age.  And if you’re honest, you just may be in the same boat.  And that’s perfectly fine.  In fact, it’s more than fine.  It’s great.

When I was younger,  I had a vision for myself.  I always thought I would do something fabulous when I grew up.  I told my high school guidance counselor I wanted to move to New York and be a writer of soap operas.  Imagine how well that went over – small town South, early 1980. Needless to say, unfortunately, that was a path I did not follow.

I’ve also had aspirations of becoming an actor, a filmmaker, a critic, an artist, an activist.  Anything cool and creative. Something that could change people.  While I’ve done some interesting things with my life,  nothing has truly quieted that nagging little voice that keeps on whispering  “if only…”.

Now I find myself  a woman “of a certain age” and still floundering, sort of – wondering what I want to be when I grow up.  I know I’m too old to be the wunderkind – the ingenue. Those days are long gone. But you know what?  Who cares?

I can be creative and find fulfillment in my suburban day-to-day.  I may not have accepted my Best Original Screenplay Oscar at age 25, or won the Pulitzer at 30, but the way I look at it, there’s still time.  I’m not dead yet.  We as humans are meant to be dynamic.  To constantly evolve.  As they say “Change is inevitable”.  Force it.  Embrace it.  Become it.

After some soul-searching and much middle-aged angst, at the tender age of 50, I decided my only option (and hope for sanity) was reinvention.  I’m writing,  I’m creating art.  I cooking, I’m decorating. I’m taking acting classes.  I’m intentionally making myself uncomfortable. Speaking my mind.  Stirring the pot. Putting myself out there.  Stretching.  Growing. Striving.

It ain’t always pretty.

Because with growth comes pain.  And sometimes reward.  In this space you will find various expressions of those adventures. I ‘m a dyed-in-the-wool film and television geek, a voracious reader, creative cook, mom, wife, daughter, a fledgling actor, a dabbling writer (social commentary, poetry, essays – whatever).  One day you may see a recipe in this space, the next day a photo of some bizarre found-object piece I’ve created, or a review of some obscure film I’ve seen. And hopefully some joy and a few success stories for good measure.  I hope you will find a little common ground here with me.  Share with me your goals, your accomplishments, you struggles, your screw-ups and your successes.

To quote the great George Eliot “It’s never too late to be what you might have been”.

 

 

 

“It is a peculiarity of the development of American fascism that at the present stage it comes forward principally in the guise of an opposition to fascism, which it accuses of being an “un-American” trend imported from abroad.” – Georgi Dimitrov

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” – attributed to Sinclair Lewis.

This meme has been making the rounds online for a while now.  I find it very interesting and quite frankly, terrifying.  Even more so now, what with Santorum running for Pope of the U.S. and all the fanatics using terroristic tactics against women in their attempts to impose Christian Sharia law on the entire country.   I truly think that it is a vitally important warning and timely message.   If you care at allabout our freedom, your children, or humanity at large, this should rattle you as well.

Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism

By Dr. Lawrence Britt

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism – Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.   Jingoism abounds.   Just wait until the campaign ads start.  Wrapped in the flag….  But how can we be “#ONE” if we’re a bunch of uneducated sheep?  Huh, Frothy?

  2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights – Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of “need.” The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.   Crosshairs on a campaign print ad? Texas? People cheering about executions, gay soldiers dying, the uninsured dying in a ditch?  The attack on “the others”, the alien, or anyone who doesn’t go to the same church.  And let’s not get started on the attempts at stripping women’s rights.  Poor children working as janitors & the general disdain for the immigrant, the poor, the least of these.  But hey, if you’re a white Christian (the right kind) gun-totin’ man, they you’re cool.  Do what you want.  The government is overreaching on you, dude, and it must be stopped.  TAKE BACK OUR GOVERNMENT!  KEEP YOUR GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY MEDICARE!  GET A BRAIN, MORANS.

3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause – The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial , ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.      Did you see any of the coverage from CPAC?  Ever watch Fox “News”?  Or glanced at a right-leaning message board? Have you heard what the Rep. candidates are saying about our President?  Who, exactly, do they think he is?  They’re running against a fictional character – Fauxbama.

 4. Supremacy of the Military – Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

Not that they don’t deserve respect and appreciation. But damn…we don’t have to bomb EVERYONE, now do we?   Ever listen to country music? Yes, Toby, I’m talking to your knuckle-draggin’, mouth-breathin’ ass.

5. Rampant Sexism – The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

OMG – have you seen the stories about the anti-choice legisation?   Birth control is satanic.   Women should consider a pregnancy that is the result of rape or incest a “gift from God”?   Who  the F@#%  ARE these people? ???  Attempts to make miscarriage a crime?  Life begins at conception – forget those fertility treatments or prenatal testing.   You might abort if you find you’re having a lowly girl child.  Simply having your period may be illegal someday.  Defunding Planned Parenthood?     (I could write a book about this one.  And I just might.)   Funny how the majority of  this shit is coming MEN. Santorum, Santorum, Santorum (terrorist).  How may kids have you adopted?  And google him, daily.     Here’s my rule:  you don’t own the equipment, SHUT YOUR GOB.

  6. Controlled Mass Media – Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

.  House voted to defund NPR.  And Comcast now owns NBC.  We’re going to be left with nothing but right-wing propaganda if they have their way.  Look at the reach of Faux “News” and all those who take their blatant lies as gospel.  We’re already there, folks

  

7. Obsession with National Security – Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

I don’t even have to point out examples of this one, now do I?  Everyone’s a terrorist. They might think I am.  I have dark hair & eyes and a big-ish nose.  I’m reluctant to wear scarves in public.   Faux “News” and all the hate-talkers on radio THRIVE of fear.  Thrive on it.

 8. Religion and Government are Intertwined – Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government’s policies or actions.

HELLO!  This makes steam come out my ears!   Dominionists and theocratic terrorists trying to rewrite the Constitution and impose their OWN brand of Sharia law on us?  I’m not about to stand for it.  Rick Santorum is the freaking poster child for this.  JFK’s speech on the separation of church and state makes him want to throw up?   Read your Constitution, Dick.  And how you can get away with it is beyond me.   Playing the “God card” is about as low as you can go.  You may think you’re holier than thou now, but if there’s a just God, you will answer for your actions.  And so will Romney and Gingrich for jumping on the bandwagon, even though they’re both about as insincere as plastic flowers.

 

9. Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.  PACS?  “Citizens United”? Koch Brothers?  This is what the Occupy Movement is about.  Tax cuts that the GOP keeps using to bait and switch the working class and to keep them in their place.

10. Labor Power is Suppressed – Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.   Nebraska.  Michigan. Ohio.  Tennessee.  The list grows. Unions are being demonized. See also: Occupy

 

11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts – Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked. 
“Obama wants everyone to be able to go to college.  What a snob.”  ( CHEERS FROM THE AUDIENCE- SERIOUSLY? )

Demonizing the “liberal elite”. Defunding NPR.  Faux “News” attacking Sesame Street, the Muppet Movie, and Dr. Seuss (lol- dumbasses). Cutting all education funding.  Vouchers for church-based private schools?  The homeschooling movement?  The anti-evolution/climate change/science movement? The rise of the willfully ignorant politician/candidate?  Fox News?  Rush Limbaugh?  Etc.  And the blatant PROJECTION they use in all things.  If you want to know what they’re up to, look at what they’re accusing their “enemies” of doing.

 

12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment – Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.     THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT!

  

13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.    sigh….. You  might want to do some research on who is funding these candidates.

  

 14. Fraudulent Elections – Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.    Did you watch television during the past few election cycles?    “The Liberal agenda…. Nancy Pelosi and the Obama Liberal agenda…. the evil Liberal agenda that wants to take away not only your way of life but steal your GRANDCHILDREN’s FUTURE…..”  oh, and did I mention the 2000 presidential election?

 

 So, yeah.  I’m pissed.  And I’m frightened.  And I am unwilling to believe that that many people in the U.S. are that ignorant and gullible.

For more information, Read American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, C-Street and The Family by Jeff Sharlet.

Now, read this.  

You can draw your own conclusions. 

It’s the Corporate State, Stupid

“Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power.” – Benito Mussolini.

David G. Mills — The early twentieth century Italians, who invented the word fascism, also had a more descriptive term for the concept — estato corporativo: the corporatist state. Unfortunately for Americans, we have come to equate fascism with its symptoms, not with its structure. The structure of fascism is corporatism, or the corporate state. The structure of fascism is the union, marriage, merger or fusion of corporate economic power with governmental power. Failing to understand fascism, as the consolidation of corporate economic and governmental power in the hands of a few, is to completely misunderstand what fascism is. It is the consolidation of this power that produces the demagogues and regimes we understand as fascist ones.

11/10/04 “ICH”

While we Americans have been trained to keenly identify the opposite of fascism, i.e., government intrusion into and usurpation of private enterprise, we have not been trained to identify the usurpation of government by private enterprise. Our European cousins, on the other hand, having lived with Fascism in several European countries during the last century, know it when they see it, and looking over here, they are ringing the alarm bells. We need to learn how to recognize Fascism now.

Dr. Lawrence Britt has written an excellent article entitled “The 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism.” An Internet search of the number 14 coupled with the word fascism will produce the original article as well as many annotations on each of the 14 characteristics of fascism that he describes. His article is a must read to help get a handle on the symptoms that corporatism produces.

But even Britt’s excellent article misses the importance of Mussolini’s point. The concept of corporatism is number nine on Britt’s list and unfortunately titled: “Corporate Power is Protected.” In the view of Mussolini, the concept of corporatism should have been number one on the list and should have been more aptly titled the “Merger of Corporate Power and State Power.” Even Britt failed to see the merger of corporate and state power as the primary cause of most of these other characteristics. It is only when one begins to view fascism as the merger of corporate power and state power that it is easy to see how most of the other thirteen characteristics Britt describes are produced. Seen this way, these other characteristics no longer become disjointed abstractions. Cause and effect is evident.

For example, number two on Britt’s list is titled: “Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights.” Individual rights and corporate rights, at the very least conflict, and often are in downright opposition to one another. In the court system, often individuals must sue corporations. In America, in order to protect corporations, we have seen a steady stream of rules, decisions and laws to protect corporations and to limit the rights of the individual by lawsuit and other redress. These rules, decisions, and laws have always been justified on the basis of the need for corporations to have profit in order to exist.

Number three on Britt’s list is the identification of scapegoats or enemies as a unifying cause. Often the government itself becomes the scapegoat when the government is the regulator of the corporations. Often it is lawyers or administrators who take on the corporations. Often it is liberals who champion the rights of individuals, or terrorists who might threaten state stability or corporate profit. Any or all may become scapegoats for the state’s problems because they pose problems for corporations.

Other notable characteristics of fascism described by Britt which are directly produced by corporatism are:

< The suppression of organized labor (organized labor is the bane of corporations and the only real check on corporate power other than government or the legal system);

< Supremacy of the military (it is necessary to produce and protect corporate profits abroad and threats from abroad);

< Cronyism and governmental corruption (it is very beneficial to have ex-corporate employees run the agencies or make the laws that are supposed to regulate or check corporations);

< Fraudulent elections (especially those where corporations run the machinery of elections and count the votes or where judges decide their outcomes);

< Nationalism (disdain for other countries that might promote individual rights);

< Obsession with national security (anti-corporatists are a security risk to the corporate status quo);

< Control of the media (propaganda works);

< Obsession with crime and punishment (anti-corporatists belong in jail); and

< Disdain for intellectuals and the arts (these people see corporatism for what it is and are highly individualistic).

All of these characteristics have a fairly obvious corporate component to them or produce a fairly obvious corporate benefit. Even Britt’s last two characteristics, the merger of state with the dominant religion and rampant suppression of divorce, abortion and homosexuality produce at least some indirect corporate benefit.

In sum, it’s the corporate state, stupid.

As I have pondered what could be done about America’s steady march toward the fascist state, I also have pondered what can be done internally to stop it. The Germans couldn’t seem to do it. The Italians couldn’t seem to do it. The only lesson from recent history where an indigenous people seemed to have uncoupled the merger of economic power with governmental power is the French Revolution. The soft underbelly of consolidated economic power is that the power resides in the hands of a few. Cut off the money supply of the few and the merger between economic power and government becomes unglued. The French systematically took out their aristocracy one by one. It was ugly; the French couldn’t seem to figure out when there had been enough bloodletting to solve the problem.

The thought of an American twenty-first century French Revolution is ugly. But the thought of an American twenty-first century fascist state is far uglier. It would be a supreme irony that the state most responsible for stopping worldwide fascism would become fascist 60 years later. But far worse than this irony is the reality that an American fascist state with America’s power could make Nazi Germany look like a tiny blip on the radar screen of history.

For some years now we have lived with the Faustian bargain of the corporation. Large corporations are necessary to achieve those governmental and social necessities that small enterprises are incapable of providing. The checks on corporate power have always been fragile. Left unchecked, the huge economic power of corporations corrupts absolutely. Most of the checks are badly eroded. Is there still time to get the checks back in balance? Or will we be left with two unthinkable options?

David G. Mills is an attorney who lives in Memphis, TN. Email – mmillsas@midsouth.rr.com

*This was written in 2004… WAY before the Citizens United ruling.   Ugh, indeed.

For more information, Read American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America.