Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Aloha First Family

ALOHA

Freezing Friends
Welcome to
WARM WAIKIKI

Click on photos for a warm feeling.
Photos courtesy of blog, Talking Points Memo


"Let no feeling of discouragement prey upon you,
and in the end you are sure to succeed."
- Abraham Lincoln



"The fiery trials through which we pass
will light us down in honour or dishonour to the latest generation."
- Abraham Lincoln


"He has a right to criticize, who has a heart to help."
- Abraham Lincoln




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Well,
the President and his family boarded Air Force One on Sunday evening,
leaving his childhood home (and birthplace) to those of us lucky enough to remain here.


Watching him walk up the steps with Michelle (on the local news)
my eyes filled with tears.
So much for one man to do! So many challenges!
And so many unthinking folks whose hatred trumps their duty to the future. But don't worry; millionaire Rush says that his first class medical care here in Honolulu proves that our best of all systems WORKS.
Can he really be that insulated or insincere?


My 84 year-old father (a WWII) veteran was on Medicare,
but after his death last May, the hospital (Queens Hospital - where Rush stayed) held my mother up by her ankles and shook the last few thousand dollars out of her bank account for the laborious over-treatment
that Dad was subjected to
in the last weeks of his life.


We wanted him to receive palliative care at home (saving him untold struggle and suffering - and the system tens of thousands of dollars) but his doctor told him that he HAD to continue to get chemo.
"Had to!"
To people of my father's generation the doctor knows best
so Dad fought a hopeless battle, and suffered longer,
instead of making peace.
(Even if he was treated beautifully by the patient care-team.)




Resources were wasted, and my mom still gets calls from creditors.
But hey, isn't it great that the system works!




On his last weekend on-island,
Barack played basketball with his old High School teammates
(they won the State championship together in 1979),
strolled the zoo with his kids, and stopped to pay his respects to his paternal (WWII veteran) grandfather who raised him,
and the other honored dead,
at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.
The children were with him for that too.




The United States
is seeing the largest transfer of wealth
(all upward)
in the history of our country.





The Middle Class,
and the "American Dream"
are passing from the scene.




Elites are reckoned to be "worth"
millions, even billions,
even as we close Hawaii's schools on Fridays
for lack of funds.





Too bad that the kids and their parents
don't all work on Wall Street.





The sun is shining today here in Waikiki,
the air is balmy,
and I am grateful
for the treasure of today.





But I also e-mailed my Congressional Representative,
urging him to support Health Care Reform.


So please join me if you can, Fellow Americans:
Don't despair!
Celebrate YOUR life
by making the world better!


To my international friends
who I value so very much:
I wish YOU all of the prosperity & security
of a life well lived,
a life that you work so hard to create.




May all of our children
have a better life than we have had.


And Thanks to each of YOU for listening;

Don't forget the magic that surrounds you!


Warm Aloha, cloudia