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Petőfi Sándor:

“…Habár fölűl a gálya,
S alúl a víznek árja,
Azért a víz az úr!“

Recent Supreme Court decisions make my blood boil, which issues I will address one-by-one at some point, but here is a drawing that I had to make out of pain.

(Below content was written prior to these events!) I see the backlash (Kansas!! And South Carolina!! ) I hope more states to come) from the Republican party in support of some normalcy and human right principles. Thank you for letting your voice being heard over the crazy ones!! I am glad to see not the whole party is made of aberrated ones, who just tried to highjack the party rhetoric…I love the core’s push back!! Thank you!!! (and shame on West Virginia! )

My general views/ modus operandi:

Do not harm others/ self / planet

Freedom of / from religion

Equal rights (gays included!!!)

Consent is a must (without duress of any kind!)

Protect/ Speak up for the weak

Respect the person in the child

Voting, driving, military duty, drinking age limits should align (← if you are too young to have a beer perhaps you are too young to sign up for the military! Or is this the way to make sure you make a sober[ing] decision?)

Abortion rights, etc….(the extremist right and religious fanatics ..psychopath rapist f*k-nuts! Keep them out of normalcy! They are not norms/ normal! ..but they cry the government butts its head where it does not belong???- Like, my panties? Plus, hypocrisy a la mode! Unborn has rights, but the woman (← already “here”) does not; these same folks support capital punishment and sending troops to die all over the globe, have no problem with letting people die on the street (the homeless in USA!) and set these babies up to be born and die a predetermined disadvantaged way. Yes, it may be possible to get out of the cycle, but they set up all the traps to derail efforts and let people be chewed up by the system and left to die in the gutters. One has to overcome hurdles that is similar to Atlas’s task. “We are number one”, “the greatest country on the planet”, yet, we provide no free prenatal care, no paid leave for mothers to care for their babies, no childcare, quality of education is dictated by zip code (aka, parent’s wealth), no healthcare and folks go bankrupted/end up on the streets after a lifetime of hard work just to pay for medical bills while insurance companies deny and kill people out of profiteering, homelessness galore (many of whom are veterans!, when the ones who made it home from the wars got no support once they get back). Not sure if it resembles the caste system, apartheid or just plain slavery in a matrix kind of way. Force them to be born then squeeze the life out of them and extract the “resources”, externalizing “cost”. Kind of ugly in a colossal way. I think we can do way better than this.

And before you say, the democrats are just as bad… sort of but a little different way, though same money before people/ all else approach. Spineless, gutless wishy-washy bunch. Grow a ‘pair’ and step up to the line, like you know what you’re doing and have the guts to actually do it! They promise left and cater to the “middle” to appease the right. Like that ever worked? When the right is in power they shove down the most outrageous, not even malum in se, but malum insane policies, and institute systems against human consciousness (torture -in the name of defending our freedom?- 1984 style=-Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib etc../ locking up kids in cages -in the name of border patrol, PATRIOT Act -kommies did this sort of intrusion into privacy, of eavesdropping without warrants, and due process out the window….to name a few).

SO where to go from here? (aka, my Utopia how to fix it.)

Reform voting laws. Cut the beast of PACs out of the system. (Corp is NOT a human, just a legal entity)
Give more options. (Right now, ballot restrictions are making it next to impossible for new participants to enter the arena.) Having two choices, excluding more views from public debate is sidestepping the issues…or just plain bagging them.)
No divide-and-conquer. No electoral college, no gerrymandering. (Proposal: Vote for your party, then what percentage your party got for that state determines how many seats each party gets for the state, thus parliamentary for house of reps..) For time being, keep Senate “as is”, for comparative purposes of effectiveness. Current system see below.

Parliamentary system: 2 repubs, 3 dems. (Fairer representation of folks in an unbiased way. God forbid have more views than 2. During communism, Hungary had that many “fractions” inside a communist party! Kommies had choices very similar to this. I doubt, that is what Americans want.) I sort of like Alaska’s approach, too, of ranked voting system.

“Anima sana in corpore sano.” Healthy Mind and Body: access to free healthcare (HR676!) and education.
1. Some folks fear “dreaded Canadian system”, who clearly had zero experience with it, but I think it was way better than USA’s. SO, here is my proposal: There is basic coverage that US gov would provide to all of its folks (no plastic surgeries, but if you get cancer it shouldn’t wipe you out of your home to pay for your medical bills); and if you find better alternative, you’re free to get that. (You can get gov ones signed over to your insurance, so you’re not paying for your “Ford” when trying to buy an other car. (Beware: What is advertised as a Porsche may turn out to be a lemon. Despite the price tag! So, an easily maneuverable system should be set up, and you can get smart or stupid on your own as you see fit. After all, Americans like to have their freedom and choices.)
  I think it’s crazy that US officials get their own healthcare coverage with US taxpayers’ money, but decide the public is not entitled to any of such. ( ← Preaching water and drinking wine, -never sits well with me!) Plus, why should a company pay for workers’ healthcare? Unless they are purposely harming their workers. Some may think that covering healthcare cost acts as a deterrent, but labor laws are so inadequate that the workers just end up as “disposables”. Gov’s lackadaisical enforcement of environmental and OSHA regs should not shift healthcare responsibilities of the government to a company. (Strengthen labor rights, give more teeth to EPA and Dep. of Labor to deter cavalier behavior, so penalty is not just negligible business risk/ tax write-off.) But, gov ought to take care of its citizens! It ought to be a symbiotic relationship. People support gov (taxes/ services/ participation), gov supports the people (services as human/ citizen rights).
2. Education predicts one’s life projectile in a very drastic way. Dooming someone’s entire life because of their parents’ circumstances is anything but fair. Caring for a child starts from invitro. Prenatal care (education courses too!) should be free to all mothers. (Babies do not drop out with instruction manuals, and being a mother is not an easy task!) Set up a free hotline [24/7/365] with professional advisory and give to mothers. Giving birth in a gov hospital should be covered by gov. Gov hospitals should be accessible for all folks within reasonable distance. Gov hospital safety data should be at least of the national average. (though with current US mother death rate and newborn mortality rates, it is not a high achievement. Want to feel ashamed of USA? – See its child and mother mortality rates compared with other OECD nations!) Mothers should be paid to stay home to care for their babies. (Even Afghanistan has this!! In Hungary, my grandmother received a pension as a “governmental thank you” because she gave birth to and raised 10 children during communism…not the riches nation of the planet, yet they thought it was that important…) After 2 years of maternal leave, mother could send child to gov daycare for free or stay home with a phase out reduced stipend. Daycare should be free to prepare the next generation to face the challenges of the nation/globe (with properly trained educators). This early age is so crucial in brain development yet so blindly ignored; – it is baffling!
  All education cost should be covered by gov all the way to post grad if set GPA is maintained (in any gov owned educational institution). However, kind of as in the military, or gov scholarship awards, graduates who use gov money should work for gov positions (if requested), for 5-10 years (depending on level of education) as a “thank you” right after graduation. (need doctors for those gov hospitals and services mentioned above? We train you/ educate you for free, but you must do your part of helping the country’s efforts!) If refuse to work as requested, must pay back everything (all cost of graduate/ post graduate education). Cost of education is crazy in this country, which is, unlike gambling debt, not dischargeable in a bankruptcy. Wrong message sent here: OK to gamble but not to study! Not in Anna’s world!
Do not destroy people and the planet in process. (including flora and fauna)

I asked Hubby too, 5 things you’d change in USA to make it a better system. This is what he proposed.: (Feel free to send me your list too! I am always curious what others think.)

Public electoral funding. (Threshold of signatures and $5 donation and restrict private funds.)
Medicare for all.
DC a state.
No electoral college/make it popular presidential election. Eliminate gerrymandering.
Half Military budget/ zero carbon economy/ closing the wage-scissor (CEO pay versus workers’ pay)

There is something out there already that resembles these values, so no need to reinvent the wheel. In order to see all colors on a monitor, you’ll need red, blue and green lights to see a full color spectrum…thus something is missing from our political arena! GREEN! Financially conservative, socially liberal.

10 key values of the Green Party:

The Green Party doesn’t accept donations from corporations, political action committees (PACs), 527(c) organizations or soft money. The party’s platforms and rhetoric harshly criticize corporate influence and control over government, media, and society at large. (Nazis and Commies all got corporate power under their influence…in US it is the corporate power that tries to assert influence over politics. …my view? PEOPLE first!)

Greens are gaining momentum in Europe. Keep a close eye on them!

Needed change is coming. Because someone has to fix the mess and avoid bigger ones. Justice and sensibility must prevail!

Social injustice, in general, just gets under my skin. It baffles me that US pays so little attention to children. There is so much focus on the life before it is “born” yet so little attention and compassion once it is here. (running a full gambit from a baby to a grown-up or elderly. )

Babies need love and constant competent care aka. their mothers. Yet, mothers’ importance is discarded, and they are forced to ‘abandon’ their babies to go to work. Leaving a newborn with someone else is NOT natural. I thank my husband from the bottom of my heart for providing me with the financial freedom to never be forced into such a barbaric choice. (This is when money matters! As much as I hate the subject and find it vulgar and bourgeoise, even I must realize that not having enough money can create huge issues. Money does not make you happy, but not having enough can make you miserable.)

A little while ago I was telling my husband how on my 16^th birthday our contract workers showed up on my mother’s doorstep with their small children leaving them with my mother (unannounced!!) for an indefinite period because they hit some hardship and they could no longer take care of them. My mother took the kids in on the spot and took care of them (until parents showed up again some months later). My husband asked me what I would have done. I replied, same exact thing as my mom did. I wouldn’t even ask for his permission on this. If it’s about helping kids, you act, and ask questions later.

Childhood trauma either destroys you or puts a fire in your belly that not even an apocalyptic flood can extinguish. Not certain if the victim has a say in which option will occur, but must try converting the hurt into energy to fuel your drive to fight the evil from happening to others.

Views on god.

I have no respect for poor parenting. (I do not buy into “I did my best”.) Which is a contributing factor why the Catholic ideology of god does not sit well with me. You impregnate someone else’s wife, without her consent. (Wouldn’t that be considered rape??) Then have her go through pain of childbirth for your “experiment”. Abandon the child/mother. Pay no child support, nor look after them in any manner. On contraire, make them chastised being associated with you and hunted with a “kill” sign on their forehead due to such association. Make an other man raise the child and take care of the mother, and when kid is grownup make him a sacrificial lamb…Wow! Some great father-figure! NOT! (Getting a taste of my zing yet? 😉)

If you can create the world in 7 days, perhaps there was a better way to go around “experiencing” the world as a human (if we take Trinity at its core). The whole “fighting evil”, also gets me…If god created the whole Universe, then he created evil as well. Or was that by mistake? (God makes mistakes?) if was not a mistake, then he created evil on purpose? Neither options I can digest. God must be perfect. This story is NOT. I rather live with a belief that there is no god, than to worship evil or incompetence. I expect more from humans than what some folks put up “from god”. If my children fight, I step in… Are we not the children of god, per religious doctrine? Reckless abandonment comes to mind? Would you discipline your kids with this line “when you grow up, you’ll see what punishment you’ll get for hitting your sibling just now”? NO! You punish ASAP to teach them the proper way to be and protect the other. (and certainly would not give the misbehaving one rewards afterwards… Nor would reciting rhymes diminish the wrongdoing’s consequence; -at least not in our household. If you did something wrong, you knew it was wrong, yet you did it anyway, there’s gonna be a proportional consequence, to teach you not to make mistakes like that again and use better judgment in the future. I am certain this is a common parenting approach.) So reciting Hail Mary-s, confessing sin in private, or eating a wafer did not undo the wrong nor deterred the culprit or make victim feel vindicated; -heavens forbid, fix any of the underlying issues!!

If god existed, he’d sue for defamation for what is being done in his name!! (← Anna joke.) But jokes aside, this is where religion gets ugly for me. Leave the “punishments/ making a believer” to your god. If you have such belief and god wants this or that, he can make it happen. Inspire others all you want by your wonderful behavior, but forcing others in the name of god and acting on “his” behalf using aggression in any form?? Please, get a grip! Stop glamorizing yourself that god cannot make something to happen without your help (or that a god would truly want that and not actually you personally trying to have a power trip). He created the whole Universe, right? Per your own scripture. It was without your help! So, stop acting in his name! He’ll do whatever needs to be done. (Since according to bible story, god created a child with a human woman, it is fair to say god is presumed to be a man. We’re all children of god, so Mary was, too. Does that not add up to incest??? ← Doesn’t that violate the 10 commandments??) And we won’t discuss age of Earth, and dinosaur fossils.)

If the idea of god gives you comfort, makes you a better person, gives you strength, by all means, pray all you want in peace and without anyone ever stopping you (but same as we don’t blast our music in public so we do not disturb others, do not force on others your prayer). Give same courtesy and leave others to be, as well. …Catholics are not singled out, just most acquainted with it due to my upbringing. Other religions I found questionable as well. (sacrificing own kids, inequality/ mistreatment of women, etc… but Confucius teachings are not exempt from this mistake either. More on questioning authoritative folks who are put on the pedestal without scrutiny: Want to lose admiration for Aristotle? Read Politics; – talking about who deserves what in life based on their looks!…And defending slavery.) Fair warning, nothing and no one is beyond reproach with me. I am a tough audience. The golden rule: if the shoes were switched, would you be still OK with the fairness of the game? If not, then the system needs fixing as it is unfair. My ideology is “simple, not easy”! 😉

WAR

While I did not see one in person, but, Iris, my Yugo (Split, Croatia) pen-pal did. She and I were in high school when the war broke out in her country. She wrote to me about how one night they spent in the basement and how she saw a little girl’s hair going grey in front of her eyes from one day to the next. (Let that sink in for a second at its full scope, what level of trauma one must go through for that effect!! ) And later on, I heard on TV some French official’s interview. When questioned why they didn’t feel the need to do anything in the Balkans, when it is Europe, and this is where WWI started, given the fact that they have no issue sending troops/aid etc. half-way around the globe to Kuwait. His most shocking succinct reply: “They have no oil.” My blood pressure goes up and my fist clenches just thinking about what sort of sh*t floats to the top and without shame makes a statement like that on public TV. FLUSH! Then the Yugo tanks were lined up on the Hungarian border pointing at us, as their food and other supplies started to run low. (Thankfully they did not cross the borders in any physical manifestation. I am assuming there was heavy diplomatic involvement behind the scenes and military alert galore.)

As an adult, I have friends from all parts of the globe including some from uber stormy and war thorn nations (and US friends and ex-es from the military who were sent into these areas). Considering how much the US is doing on the foreign policy front and what changes it brings about globally, the grotesque silence in US news reporting enables the US government to not have its citizens know the answer to their ever-resurfacing question “but why do they hate us?” I used to think it was communism’s specialty to misinform the public and silencing the free media. Here? It’s a straight up collusion when it comes to foreign policy cover-ups! (Though the blacks may think that it is the same with domestic affairs if it is not a middle-class white issue…which is ALSO true… Some glimpses of hope that shine through due to civil unrest and public protests. I love the teamwork and spirit of Black Lives Matter, Me Too movement, unionization at Amazon (+ others), and Greta and her youngsters. JUSTICE MUST PREVAIL!! YOU ARE AWESOME! KEEP GOING!

I think I heard this from Chomsky: we all have the capacity to be Mother Theresa and the gas chamber operator. (← regarding the scope of human nature.) It is our choice which side we nurture.

Power can be very satisfying, but no match for true happiness. At the end of the day, we all seek a happy and meaningful life. Yes, it can be accomplished! Waste less, be creative, find smart solutions. It’s a question of working together utilizing our efforts and smarts…and that we have, don’t we? Do not stop at “what” focus on “why”, and if rational results, move onto “how”. Once you learn why someone wants something (reasonableness must be part of the approach!!), it is much easier to come up with amicable solutions. Look at what worked and was sustainable or evaluate if it needs tweaking etc. Fix all that needs fixing, leave all that works and is fair. Make it idiot proof. (← Book: The Nudge)

Lesson:

Pareto efficiency optimization!! Take human nature (compassion and greed) into consideration. While “having it all” may seem very alluring but after a certain point any additional power/wealth means so little “extra”, when it may take so much away from others. I am not saying we must all have equal shares, as that is not sustainable nor fair. (-and ignores human nature all together. We like being rewarded for hard work and talent to get ahead.) But, when the social scissor opens too much (and/or allows no dignity or restricts autonomy for a human being!) it will eventually go on a crazy vendetta, which inevitably ends with bloodshed. Some speculators may like that, as the saying goes when there is confusion there is money to be made, but the sum of all pros and cons outweighs their agenda. If you have seen war, you’ll never want to take that route again;- unless you went nuts. As I said, war is a nasty beast and can turn a person into one too.

Steady slow progress outweighs neurotic roller-coaster ride of fast gains and losses. We are part of nature and the Universe, not its masters! Want to control something/someone: start with self, since you’re the center of your own Universe. How much more do you really need than that? Get your planetary bodies orbiting you and let other galaxies do their own thing. At the end of the day, we make a spectacular group of constellations across the sky.

Observations with US education versus Hungarian system.

Granted I only attended US universities/ colleges, but frankly, high school back home was way more stringent than undergrad here. Yes, my initial encounter with US students wasn’t the best in terms of intellectual capacity/ maturity/ decency, but later on I have seen where student tried but the teachers were using their position as a “punishment” tool as opposed to “I am going to teach you something fascinating”! Story/example: I was taking a generic college level math class. A month or so into semester it was apparent I liked math more than most of my other classmates. Teacher assigned a bunch of different new math problems for different groups in our class which we had to teach to the other students during the next class. My group was assigned the “tough” problem. (We covered these in Hungary during elementary school maybe in 5^th grade? -Fractions in word problems. Fill up/empty pool with different number of faucets and drains all with differing flowrates, add timing differences etc.) My group said they have no clue about these word problems, and voted that I should show the class how to tackle these. I did. I made it stupid simple, and anything else under the sun that may be solved by same concept (start with concrete, break it down into its elements, ergo simplify the heck out of it, then extrapolate). Student afterward thanked me, in all “awe” asking if I am engineering or math major… (nop, fashion design…their reaction was cute and priceless.) The teacher gave me a hard time after class, saying, he wanted to put this on the exam to get a good curve, but now he cannot, as everyone will know how to do it right… I told him he is here to teach not get bell curves! A grade he gives out to a student is just as much a reflection on him as it is on the student. Teaching is about helping students to conquer the unknown and not a power-trip for him, putting students down to feel inadequate. Something really ugly about it. Why go to become a teacher then???

Another teacher (economics) made a keen observation that I sort of agreed with though. He said he can tell who is paying for their own education and whose parents paid for it just by looking at class participation.

Now, the stories that I heard from classmates at the HBCU, what passed as education in high school for them was just a cruel joke. I felt so sorry for them. I loved the environment how they accepted me and made me part of the experience and had some frank discussions. A brain is a horrible thing to waste. How incompetent and inferior one must feel to purposely sabotage others to tilt the process to get ahead as an “entitlement for the privileged” and why would you play along as a teacher?? So different approach than what I grew up in!! I did not like the commies, but the equal education access and quality across the board, they got it right!

Conflicts on a personal level:

I also do not buy into the notion “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”. While it might be true, but they left out a crucial part of the story: That it may leave you scarred or even crippled for life that not even time will heal. I know a few people who have to face the devastation caused by others, victims are disadvantaged, in therapy (or turned to drugs/alcohol) while the perpetrators roam freely without a second thought. (In a double standard kind of slap, I find revenge/ countermeasures most effective with healing properly! No need for therapy. It’s fixed! Yes, my hypocrisy is duly noted. Preach peace and bring war. But I cannot emphasize this enough: I never instigate or start controversies out of the blue, I just put an end to it my way.) But, frankly, at the end of the day, I prefer “happy” over “strong”. Yes, I can bring a storm from hell, like Attila the Hun has passed down to my bloodline, but I prefer to avoid such, if I can (not at all costs though!). But that is just me. Each person may value something different in life that is most important to them.

My general views/ modus operandi:

Views on god.

WAR

Observations with US education versus Hungarian system.

Conflicts on a personal level:

More topics to come: because I cannot stomach “collateral damage” nor can I shut up if I see wrong