Archive for the ‘The Honey House Journal’ Category

Imagine being forcibly baptized into a new religion. Imagine all your relatives likewise being voicelessly initiated into such a “faith.” Getting a case of “Ick!!” are you?

It is not really a secret that the Latter Day Saints Church (the Mormons) think their religion is the best thing ever, so much so that they desire to share their “salvation” with everyone who EVER lived. People in pursuit of genealogical data go to the Mormons all the time, because they have some of the best data bases on the planet. But one use of that data base IS “proxy baptism” of people long dead. To be fair, the Mormons say that the dead folks in the hereafter CAN reject said baptism, but from the Mormon point of view, why would they?

Of course, the added squick factor goes exponentially ballistic when you think of the Mormons proxy baptizing Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Since these people were killed because of their religion and had historically suffered enforced baptism before (notably in Spain), this practice is severely repellent. So Jewish leaders went to the Mormons and insisted it all STOP. And in 1995, a sort of religious treaty was agreed upon. However:

“Database monitoring since then, however, has found that the agreement had failed to prevent both the submission of names and the baptismal rites from continuing. That sparked a dispute between the Mormons and the American Gathering over a breach of the agreement. The Jewish group withdrew from discussions with the church in 2008, saying the issue could not be resolved. ”

So talks resumed with the aid of New York state Attorney General Robert Abrams. And supposedly now, the Mormons will be more careful and “certify” that the names do not include Holocaust victims. Mr. Abrams proclaimed that the Mormons were showing “extraordinary sensitivity” (”They have made this extraordinary exception to the doctrine for Holocaust victims,” Abrams told The Associated Press on Wednesday. “Their doctrine seeks to offer baptism to the souls of all people who have ever lived on the face of the Earth and one grouping has been carved out. That is an act of extraordinary sensitivity and commitment, which is understood and appreciated by the Jewish community.”) by agreeing to not forcibly baptize dead Jews.

Really? Fucking really, Robert? Seriously? Since when is a random bit of ANY church doctrine more important than Constitutional guarantees of freedom OF and FROM religion? Why does the Mormon freedom to belief in baptizing dead folks without consent of their relatives trump the right to NOT be baptized into a faith you never chose, and likely never would. I would only apply the word “extraordinary” to the utter and horrific chutzpah of the Mormon Church.

(And btw, I do KNOW about these….at age 13, my father insisted I join the Mormon Church. I was baptized, and shortly thereafter taken off to the nearest Temple to be a proxy body FOR these baptisms. At the time, I was told the names came from Mormon families—and that their family members were certain their dead relatives would want to be baptized. Since then, the Church seems to have the idea that just any name you find is a good name to add to the list. My own parentally forced conversion obviously didn’t take, and I personally do not believe that if souls survive death, that ANY such forced baptism would “take”. I still find the procedure abhorrent in the extreme.)

My children are all grown up. And although I had teachers scream in my face, “He needs to be on Ritalin RIGHT now!” (To which I replied, “Or, possibly YOU need to be on Valium, right now?!”) they grew up without being drugged into compliance.

But the pressure to drug children is intense; insurers and state programs will often pay for pills but not counseling or parenting classes:

“But it is cheaper to medicate children than to pay for family counseling, a fact highlighted by a Rutgers University study last year that found children from low-income families, like Kyle, were four times as likely as the privately insured to receive antipsychotic medicines.”

And children are being damaged in the process. Just say “Fuck, NO!” to drugging your child.

Which is what I fear eventually will happen to the military men and women left in Afghanistan and Iraq; and to those who return in various states of broken. This is Mishi Donovan, a wondrous voice often singing about the loss and alienation among the indigenous peoples of the Americas. But loss and alienation are not limited by tribal affiliation, she focuses on the neglect of the old, too….and she has it right about those who “won’t listen”. Viet Nam veterans are old and forgotten now; how long before the vets of these wars are likewise relegated to such neglect?

As I prepare to end this blog, I intend to highlight some of the brilliant bloggers from my blogroll, as I did in the post before this one.

This link will take you to not only a favorite blogger, but to a favorite topic of mine: labor in America. I, too, hear all the time about the evils of labor unions and it is bullshit.

More and more local companies that support the super stores here in our state hire temps for the largest part of their work force in warehouse operations. Huge tracts of land that once grew fruits and vegetables are now filled with warehouses that service stores like Target.

They are filled with workers from temp agencies like Labor Ready and the supervisors are encouraged to be verbally abusive to them. Workers are not allowed water on the job area, and very limited breaks and are ordered to show up “voluntarily” to work on break days or lose the job entirely. The shifts worked average 12 hours, even tho’ running three shifts of eight humane hours would be more effective.

They hire illegal aliens and if anyone is coming to inspect (Immigration or the Labor people) they get a two hour warning and all the people who need to hide leave the floor for the day. Supervisors who protest this style of management don’t last long, they are demoted or fired.

Labor unions may ask for more than America thinks it can afford. But truly, consider the option of a land with no surviving unions, folks? If you think the description above cannot be spread to store floors and offices, think again.

I sometimes wonder if the “practice” of medicine needs a bit more work before they are allowed to work on real people. In spite of recent claims that soldiers are not being over-drugged, I have to wonder.

The VA likes to prescribe the drug Seroquel, and doesn’t seem to realize the risks adequately. Or perhaps it is just a somewhat Mengele-like experiment to see just how much CAN be given? Seroquel is NOT a sleep drug, you see; it is for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but the military IS experimenting with it for sleepless troops. But PTSD affected soldiers, desperate for sleep without nightmares are taking it…and dying:

“In White’s case, the nightmares persisted. So doctors recommended progressively larger doses of Seroquel. At one point, the 23-year-old Marine corporal was prescribed more than 1,600 milligrams per day — more than double the maximum dose recommended for schizophrenia patients. A short time later, White died in his sleep. ”

And this drug, even for those it doesn’t kill, has some terrible side-effects. It deserves a whole new category of “Just say No!” to military experimentation drugs.

I know he is away in a war zone. And I truly don’t expect him to find a way to call with his cellphone every weekend. But a weekend when the phone does not ring, and no email arrives, and he is not shown “up” online at all, and the news reports seven US military killed…..well, that is the sort of weekend that makes silence fall around your heart.

A silence and darkness full of monsters worthy of a child’s night time closet.

I was just notified by email that Circle Magazine’s fall 2010 issue will contain an article about the Walk of the Fallen!! At the urging of a couple persistent friends, I had sent photographs and a little written bit to Circle Sanctuary’s magazine editor a good while back.

I heard nothing back and completely forgot about it. I am flattered and amazed!

This needs to be read aloud to both houses of Congress.

And yes, I am ashamed, too. Disgusted and dismayed; for although I get called a liberal and admit to dripping fangs, I also get told that I have a deeply conservative core on some issues. (Say, governmental solvency, for one thing, and not fighting wars you can’t really pay for!)

So, yes….I am shamed and Barry Goldwater is likely spinning in his grave.

On the weekends, with luck, I get the opportunity to chat live online with my son in Afghanistan. He is fortunate in some ways, he is in a place that is not seeing humvees come back splattered with blood and body parts. But that is unfortunate in some ways, too. Because all he is seeing is the excitement and emotion of the guys driving out on patrol.

Last week, the convoy of a Coalition nation was hit when an IED explosion stopped it and an apparent ambush ensued….very near to the location of my militarily excitable boy. But he didn’t see it. It all still looks like GI Joe to him.

When he joined the Army a couple years back, we knew the day would come when he would go to the war zone. His older brother, already medically discharged and partially disabled (tho’ still waiting on a rating of that from the VA), advised him to get into his same line of work: transport. And he did. He went to the same stateside base for a while and did a stint in Korea.

Now, sitting restlessly in charge of loading trucks and setting up routes of supply movement, watching the guys go out on patrol and come back alright, he wants to apply for infantry school. So he can be the guy to go out on patrol. No amount of telling him every military job applies towards the mission changes his mind. His father and brother telling him being an “11-bullet stopper” is not the best idea did no good. I even invoked his dad’s service with Special Forces and the lure of Airborne life to no effect. I asked him, why, if he felt a need to do more, why he couldn’t consider becoming a linguist (which both his father and I were in the Army) and he discounted translator duty, too.

He is in the grip of emotion. So are we. But entirely different emotions.

The next time someone decries the wretched state of things and asks, “How did we come to this?” tell them to read THIS as answer.

Big thanks to Obsidian Wings!