Is freedom of speech alive and well or are we becoming a sensitive country always demanding an apology?

Serena Williams: “If I could, I’d take this ******* ball and shove it down your ******* throat.”

Joe Wilson: “You lie!”

Kanye West: “Taylor, I’m really happy for you. I’ll let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time! One of the best videos of all time!”

On this Thoughtful Thursday all I want to know is: if someone speaks out/shows off publicly, and it is directed at one specific person, should we the public expect an apology, or is the apology only due the person the violent/unkind words were directed at?

Should Joe Wilson have been expected to apologize to the nation or just President Obama? And he did and when Obama accepted his apology, should that have been the end of it? Should Serena Williams have only been expected to apologize to the line judge or were all tennis watching fans due an apology? (as I shake my head) Should Kanye West have only been expected to apologize to Taylor Swift or the MTV viewing audience at large?

While I think the most disrespectful of the three was Joe Wilson, I do slightly understand his knee jerk reactive words (although they probably were somewhat premeditated). I am not agreeing with Serena, but I do get her overwhelming surprise when a call of this nature, at this point in the match was called (rarely, if never, is this type of call made at this point of a match). But for the record, I have no understanding whatsoever for that stupid, idiotic, foolish, childish, overbearing, rude, over-the-top stunt Kanye West pulled! Ridiculous! Maybe after some of your comments, I will be more explicit about how I really feel about his shenanigans!

But what do you think? Should public figures be held to the standard we demand or should they be allowed to make human mistakes and rectify those public mistakes in their own way? And… do you think these public displays will have a permanent negative impact on their careers? Personally I think Serena and (unfortunately) Kanye will bounce back from this with little to no repercussions, Joe on the other hand…not so sure. What do you think?

Holla back!

TGIF! 

For those of you who know about my previous Martin Army Hospital experiences and for those who don’t, I’ve got a doozie!  This one is about Nurse Lauren.  Maybe it will lighten your day and give you a little chuckle!  Here’s what happened!

I get bronchitis every year, at least once. (the devil is a liar!) Friday night got me rolling. Saturday hit me harder. Sunday I was well into full blown bronchitis/sinusitis/upper respiratory infection/etc. but I still got up and went to church. By Sunday night I was done and knew I had to go for medical help Monday morning.

I got up Monday morning and by 8:25 was at the Martin Army Hospital emergency room! Only two others in front of me! I was happy! I should be right in and right out! I filled out the paper work and returned it along with my military ID to the little girl at the desk. I sat down and coughed one time (which is good compared to the coughing I had been doing, but since I had cough syrup left from my last bout with this sickness, I was good and medicated!)  only to have the little girl at the desk give me a mask to put over my mouth. Lord Have Mercy. I put it on. Not bad. I can’t really breathe and when I try, it is my own contaminated, sick air that I am breathing. Oh well. After only a few minutes, the nurse came and got me. Her name was Nurse Lauren. Tall blonde “Barbie doll-ish”. I could instantly tell, we were gonna have a problem!

She took my vitals. My blood pressure was high and I had a small temp of 99.8. She asked me if I had tried to make an appointment with my family doctor and I said no, I came straight here to ER. (Uncle Sam is going to pay for it either way right?) She told me that three traumas had come in and my wait would be long. She directed me back to the waiting room. Just that quick, the waiting room had filled up and somebody had taken my seat! Oh well. I’m sick. Who cares! So I’m sitting there all nice and polite playing a little game of Tetris on my cell phone, breathing my sick air in and out under my mask and nurse Lauren comes out handing me this torn corner of a label that she had written on and said; “I have you an appointment, with your doctor, for tomorrow at 10:20”. HUH??? Here’s the rest of our conversation.

Me: “But I’m sick now!”
Nurse Lauren: “This is the soonest they can get you in.”
Me: “Well can you write me off work for today?”
Nurse Lauren: “No. I can’t do that.”
Me: “But I’m sick!”
Nurse Lauren: (as she whirls around to walk away from me.) “Well I’ll cancel this appointment and you can just wait here!”
Me: “ But wait.”
Nurse Lauren: (whirls back around and snaps her finger at me) (help me sweet Jesus!) “Come on. You need to make up your mind. I got all these people waiting.” (as she takes her hands and makes an all encompassing motion of the large group of people now in the waiting room, sitting in amazement as Nurse Lauren is loudly going off on me!)
Nurse Lauren: “Well you think about it and let me know.” And she walks away.

My, my, my. How do I take down this tall blonde leggy nurse when I don’t feel good! I sat there and thought about it for a while and then went up to the counter and told the little girl who made me put on the mask when I coughed one time, I guess I’ll take the appointment for tomorrow. I told her Nurse Lauren had it. I also told her Nurse Lauren wasn’t a nice nurse and she said she knew that. I also told her I was going to report Nurse Lauren. Her look was so encouraging. She went and got the little paper that had my appointment time for tomorrow and the name of the doctor I was going to be seeing. I went back home, got in bed and struggled the rest of the day.

I was a little concerned because when I had taken my temperature before I left that morning, it was barely a temp but when Nurse Lauren took it, it was 99.8. As I lay in bed, I began taking it and it began rising more and more. Several told me to go back to the ER but I was now having coughing attacks (and the cough meds were no longer working) and I was too weak to do a round two with Nurse Lauren. I promised I would go if it got to 102 but I broke that promise. Somewhere it in the night it rocketed to 102.5. But then I was too tired, too weak and in too much pain (ribcage from violently coughing) to go anywhere. I waited until morning. My temp had dropped and it appeared to be almost normal but I was still sooooo sick!

I went back to Martin Army Hospital.  When I went to check-in for my 10:20 appointment, you know what the little girl behind the desk told me, we don’t have you in our system. You do not have an appointment for today! WHAAAAT!!!!!!! I threw back my head and hollered at the top of my lungs! Lol. No I didn’t. Just kidding! (My throat was already so sore from my illness, I couldn’t holler if I wanted to.) I stood there in disbelief. You mean to tell me, after humiliating me in the ER waiting room in front of all of those people, Nurse Lauren didn’t even put my appointment in the system? Couldn’t she see how sick I was!!! Ok, so I explained everything to the little girl behind the desk. I told her (with the same look of desperation in my eyes as one of the starving kids, with the big bellies, in the Feed the Hungry commercials), I am so sick. I have to be seen and not tomorrow. She said; let me see what I can do. She told me to have a seat. I did. She called me back up to the window to say, she got me an appointment for 3:30. Seriously? Lol. All I could visualize was me going over to ER, taking down Nurse Lauren and while I had her held down on the floor, repeatedly snapping my finger in her ear. Help me Lord!

I gathered myself and took my new piece of paper with my 3:30 appointment on it and left. Eeeeerk! I took those few valuable steps back and asked the little girl behind the desk for the office of the HPIC! (Head Person In Charge) Funny thing: inadvertently I had met him once, on his first day of being in control of MAH and he told me if there was ever anything I needed, to come and see him. Wowser! I needed him! She found out where his office was and off we went. My husband was with me. He was fuming that I had no appointment, but what could either of us do! Nurse Lauren had done me wrong!

I got to the HPIC office and ran right into him as he was walking out. Quickly I said, you told me if I ever needed to talk to you, I could. He said he was leaving for a meeting but his secretary would make an appointment for me. Ok…I guess. I went to her and explained my situation and she told me there was somebody better for me to talk to, the DON (director of nurses).

He came and we went to his office. Did I mention how astonished my husband was with all of this because the HPIC and the DON were both full bird colonels? Well you see, I’m a civilian. Ranks and stripes and patches don’t mean anything to me. All I know is one was the chief of the entire hospital and the other was over all the nurses. We sat down and I explained my situation about Nurse Lauren to the DON. As soon as I was done speaking, he gets up and mumbles something. I said, excuse me. He tells me, I’m going to see if I can get you seen now. Holla! He came back and said let’s go. You have an appointment in five minutes. 11:10 am! He was walking fast and I got up all my strength and walked fast behind him. As we walked he told me he wanted me to write a statement and email it to him about Nurse Lauren. He said he was going to take care of her in the meantime because snapping her finger was unacceptable. He told me she was military and I told him she wasn’t in uniform. He said but she is and that is part of the problem! Heavy sigh…. Nurse Lauren was going to be taken care of.

In just a few minutes I was seen by an acute care doctor, lol. Loved him! Loved the nurse too!  (who was really a doctor from another country waiting to get his license here) So after all that, I got a 15 minutes breathing treatment, six prescriptions – incuding inhaler and nose spray – and a note telling me to stay in bed until Friday. And I have! I have been in bed until this morning!

So that is what happened at Martin Army Hospital with Nurse Lauren. Always an adventure at MAH!

Have a good weekend!  Holla back!

We can be divided on his health care reform. We can think his plan won’t work. We can even not like the man but… to heckle the President of the United States, at an address to a joint session of Congress, is WRONG! So very disrespectful! As I sat and watched and heard the boos and shout outs, I got mad but he held his own! Regardless of whatever, he is the HPIC! (Head Person In Charge) How dare they! We can debate his ideas, plan and promises all day long, but at the end of that same day, he is still due respect.

I love watching/hearing Obama and I do get nervous when he makes promises. I want him to succeed. Period. I question how some of the fine tuning (as he said) is going to play out but the hutspa (an Oprah word meaning “guts”) he demonstrates is enough to make anyone want to root him on because his success equates to our country’s success.  Last night, he was a different Obama!  He was a man succinctly stating his vision for this country’s future, he stood firm on his beliefs and he didn’t care who liked it or didn’t like it.  There were no wimps present at the microphone last night!  Good job!  If it all doesn’t fall into place as he plans, he’ll try something else.  Has any President had a perfect, fail proof 4 years?  No, and neither will Obama.

Last night’s Capitol Hill show was amazing. Seeing the blatant disrespect and disregard on so many faces shocked me. How did some of these folk get these positions with such ugly attitudes? Kudos for all of those democrats and republicans who disagreed with Obama but were still big enough to applaud when he did say something they agreed with and big enough to maintain their composure when he said something they didn’t agree with.

I want to know, what do you think about the conduct of some of the members of congress who were there last night, and acted out the way they did? Wasn’t it a travesty? Share your thoughts.

Holla Back!

Happy Thursday morning to you! I have a short simple question for you to ponder today for Thoughtful Thursday. Do people really mean it when they say, “if you need anything, day or night, just let me know”? How many times have we heard that? How many times has someone looked us dead in our face, with what appeared to be genuine sincerity, and said those words to us? But did they really mean it? Is there anyone on the face of this earth that will stop what they are doing and just give you a hand, especially if it interferes with what is going on in their day? I think the answer is no. I do think there are great people out there that will do literally anything for anyone but still, it comes with conditions.

I have an Aunt and Uncle that are the closest I know to actually altering their day/night for the needs of someone else. One time when my mother and father were out of town and I thought there was a mouse in my apartment, I called them at 4:00 in the morning and they came right over bearing mouse traps! My Uncle whistled while he laid those traps and my Aunt held her normal, happy go lucky conversation with me. They only accepted a thank you and went on about their night/morning as if they had done nothing great! But they had! They actually fulfilled the, “if you need anything, just let me know, day or night” to perfection. They are great people! But again I say; that is so rare.

A while back I needed some things. I had been promised help if I was ever in this situation. It came. I called upon the promiser and the promise ended up void. Lol. I moved on and I depended on myself and others, but it was hard not to be bitter, especially when I felt like I had always been there for them! Another point, have you ever said you were going to do X Y and Z and a person steps up real quickly and says I’ll do it, only because it will benefit their greater cause for you not to do it. But then when it is all said and done, they didn’t do it for you and the time has passed for you to do it for yourself, and in the end, it wasn’t done. They could care less and have gone about their life, but not getting it done, greatly and adversely impacted your situation.

I guess what I’m saying is, can and should we ever depend on another person or should we only rely and depend on ourselves? My answer is, I believe we all need each other. I believe if God wanted us to not help each other, he would have given us all our own personal island and equipped us with the power to fulfill all of our own needs, but He didn’t. So yes, we need each other but can we really, truly depend on each other? Will you really get up in the middle of the night for me if you are tired and sleepy and have to work tomorrow? Does being there for your neighbor only hold true if their needs fall on the weekend? Does being there for someone come with the condition of you having free time at the moment, so helping does not interfere with your day?

I had a friend that would claim to be there for me, however, whenever I needed that friend, I could only depend on help about 30% of the time. My needs always came behind what was happening in their day! But is that really true help when you need it? My mother used to say, “if you can’t help a fellow when they need it, it isn’t really help”. I agree.

What do you think? I’ve said a lot here, but the simple question is: Do people really mean it when they say: “if you need anything, day or night, just let me know”?

Holla back!

Happy Tuesday to you! I meant to talk about this last week when it was fresher but we can still talk about it today!

I believe in it taking a village to raise a child but a complete stranger coming up and slapping my 2 year old child four times because she is crying in Wal-Mart, is so far past sound, reasonable behavior, it’s not funny! Oh Jesus… Please help me Lord! I don’t even know what to say about this except, Lord Jesus. Only He (Jesus) would be able to stop the consequences and repercussions that would take place after everybody I know and loved found out. As far as my own daughter, if this had ever happened and her father found out, he would have been a one man force and gladly served time in jail in the name of protecting his one and only daughter.

Why would a 61 year old man feel the need to chastise a two year old little girl with her mamma right there with her? Yes, we have all been in Wal-Mart and on airplanes and in places of business where a crying/whining child got on our nerves and we wanted them quieted but… this is unbelievable! Below is the story, with his picture. Don’t he look a hot mess? Read the article and share your reactions. He’s gotta pay and pay dearly for his actions!

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/02/georgia.tot.slapped/index.html?iref=newssearch

Holla back!

Being on a military installation and working in a military/government job, I see families day in and day out with one or both parents who are deployed. Typically, there is no way around that if the parents are in the military. According to a new study by military doctors and researchers, results found that stress levels were high for children and spouses of deployed troops but also support networks, from military to religious, helped mitigate the problems. But is it enough?

According to the below article, “children surveyed who have a parent deployed in a war zone are at “high risk” for psychological problems”. Wow. This is disheartening, don’t you think? Seriously, we should stand up and applaud any American brave enough to join the military and essentially, instantly put their life at risk, just by joining. And with that, we should strive to make sure they are granted the opportunity to live as normal a life as possible, including having children if they so desire. But is having deployable parents in the military a curse to those children?

Funny thing about deployment and the impact on the family, the article states: “it is the return from deployment that is most stressful, according to three-quarters of those surveyed”. Gosh, it is hard on a family to loose that parent to deployment and it is harder on the family when they return, especially the soldier. It is hard to come back and find your place and fit into a well oiled machine (or so we hope) that has been running for months without you! That’s tough but really and truly, shouldn’t the child and getting them through these formidable years, with circumstances they didn’t choose, be the primary concern?

Hear me when I say, this is just a question to think and something that will never be reality, but I am going to ask anyway and get your opinion: Should military men and women have children during their deployable years?

Read the article below and talk to us about your thoughts concerning the negative repercussions when a military parent deploys and the children are left behind.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/02/military.kids.stress/index.html?iref=24hours

Holla back!

Good Afternoon. I hope you are having a good Tuesday. I have nothing heavy today, just a short little “What Would You Do” question. Here’s the dilemma.  Let me set it up.

You are at work and you go to the bathroom while you are in the middle of a texting conversation with a family member. You take your phone and go to the bathroom. You really have to go! The only stall available has leftovers from the person before you! And I mean food leftovers not liquid leftovers. How disgusting! You are angry but what can you do but flush and do your business, with your cell in hand. When you are done, you begin to fasten your clothes. You put your cell under your chin, for a few seconds. Right before you are about to flush, your phone falls in the toilet. OMG! What do you do? Do you fish it out or do you scream or do you cry or do you go get someone else or do you FLUSH! Lol. What do you do?

This is your familiar work restroom where the debris in the commode before you was at least debris from someone you know. What if the same thing happened when you were at a rest area or a football game or a gas station? Lord have mercy! I had a friend who once told me this same story except his was binoculars. He left them there!

So….it’s your cell phone looking up at you in the toilet, with your own body waste in the toilet, following body waste from the mystery person before you. Tell me, What Would You Do!

Holla Back!