Pentecost Sunday

Today, many people wore red because it is Pentecost Sunday. Pentecost is an important mystery. We may remember it as the miracle of tongues. The Gospel could now be proclaimed through out the entire world in a fragile human language, which was always changing. We no longer have a sacred language to proclaim the good news. The Spirit has come to the church so that it may assume every human language. With each language comes a culture with it's richness to share. The Church is challenged to constantly translate the gospel into the native speech of every nation upon the earth. Enjoy this gift.

Immigration

Dear Senators

I understand that the immigration situation will be on your agenda this week. The deal seems to be strong on helping those who have degrees and short on helping laborers with families. It favors the rich and shuns the poor. I wonder how many times I have heard some senators say they support strong family life. I don’t see it in this document. The one really good thing is that it is bi-partisan and that is something to be very happy about. Family certainly should include, all children and both sets of parents. The people from south of the boarder have a culture of helping their parents and that should be respected and allowed to continue in the immigration plan. A good labor force is something that we need in America and people south of the boarder fill that bill nicely. We need to respect them, and pay them fairly. The length of time (13 years) seems awful long to me. In a 13 year span the children of today have moved on, and the parents have died so you have just him and her left to become citizens. How can you expect them to be happy campers with the family so torn apart?

I remember Mother

The oldest memory I have of my mother was when she found me in the grove near the house when I was just less than two years of age. I was cold, wet and very glad mom found me because I was lost in the grove.

My mother was a large lady, but not a fat lady. She was beautiful in spite of a scar that she had by her mouth from a horse that bit her when she was a child.

When I was about 4 years old I remember mom sewing me a red gingham dress. I watch her lay the pattern out. She was extremely careful so the pieces were straight with the material. She carefully pinned and cut then sewed. I sat with my chin resting on the sewing machine as she sewed away. I still remember the sleeves; they puffed up and were so cute.

We moved and it was time for me to start school. We lived a mile and half from school. Mom fixed my straight blond hair with a braid tied up in a circle on one side of my head so as not to have my hair in my eyes. She let me wear my nice dress and sent me off to meet my father who had started chores at the neighbors place, a half-mile down the road, and he was going to walk with me the rest of the way to school, which was about a mile. I have a picture that the neighbor lady took of me that day.

I got a carbuncle type boil on my leg and I could not go to school because I had to keep my leg up according to my grandmother. Mom had all she could do to take care of this situation. She would often have grandma look at it and put a mixture of egg and flour to draw the infection out of my leg. I missed a lot of school that year and I still have the scar.

Every night, Mom led the rosary. The rosary hung on the speaker of the telephone during the day. The older children had to kneel, the younger ones could sit. I was the oldest so I had to kneel up straight. I think I was supposed to set an example for the rest.

Mom also saw to it that we learned our catechism. In those days, we memorized the answers to the questions. I was good at memorization, but I couldn’t read so mom read the questions and I recited the answers. I once won a prize for knowing my lesson and my mom framed it. It was a picture of an angel walking with a child over a bridge. That picture moved from house to house as we moved. We had summer school with the Sisters. When the movie “Song of Bernadette” was showing the Sisters arranged for a farmer with a big cattle truck to take us to the Movie. My mother rode in the truck with us kids. Not every mom would do that.

Mom always had a sandwich ready for us to eat when we came home from school. More often than not it was fresh bread with butter and homemade jam. Mom made wonderful plum, apple, and strawberry jam also choke cherry jelly. As we grew older she would give us dried beef on our fresh bread for our after school snack. She always asked us what we learned that day. She did not go to high school; I realized later she was learning from us.

Mom loved flowers and she had a victory garden of flowers in front of the house, enclosed by sidewalk and a short picket fence, from the two entrances of the house. I believe that little V shape garden is still there. At least it was there a decade or so ago when Dad and I went sight seeing. I remember the owner of the house always liked to see mom’s flowers when in full bloom.

I often helped mom rake the leaves and branches in the spring. My siblings didn’t care for that job and I loved it because I got to be with my mom and I had her all to myself. We would make a bond fire after wards.

I also helped pitch hay. That was a job that my brother, mom and I often did together. I can’t say that I liked that job. We all worked far beyond our capacity.

When mom, dad and I were sight seeing we went by the house with the grove and I said I remember when I was lost in that grove. My mom could hardly believe her ears when I said that I remembered that grove.

Mom was the healthy one and we were taken back when she was diagnosed with cancer. The cancer traveled fast. One summer I drove her daily to Sioux Falls for radiation treatments. The treatment cured the cancer in that spot but moved on to another spot. Mom was happiest working and she didn’t want anymore of this laying around sick. She told the doctor to forget about more treatments, just give her pain relief medicine.

I remember the last time we said the rosary together. This time I lead the rosary. She was in McKennan Hospital and I came to be with her. We said a decade and then rested, said the next decade and then rested, this went on until we were done and then she said she was ready to go and hoped I would finish the afghan that she had started for my nephew, she thought my tension would be the most like hers and it would be a nice wedding present for him. Mom never fancied my choice of vocation, but this evening she said she thought I chose the right vocation for me. She also asked me to take good care of Dad, and then she told me to go home and rest. She died shortly afterwards. She always wanted to die alone and she got her way.

The very last time I saw my mom was seven years after she was laid to rest. She came to my room early in the morning, wearing the same clothes she was buried in. Dad was getting weaker and she told me that she was coming after Dad. This was a few days before Christmas, and I remember saying to her please don’t take him before Christmas. Dad perked up for the Christmas celebration, he loved family celebrations, and he died shortly after Christmas.

I have very fond memories of my parents. It is good to recall those wonderful memories even if they bring a tear or two to the eyes. I hope you can remember your mom in a loving way on this Mother’s Day.

The Flood 2007

It had rained a little each day for a couple days, the lawns were looking great, and the trees were budding or flowering out nicely. Many farmers had their seeds in the ground. Then around suppertime on Saturday, May 5, 2007, I could see lightning and I could hear the thunder. Yes, it started to rain. The TV weatherman did predict the possibility of a tornado so I kept my ears open waiting for the siren to go off. But it didn’t thank God!! The rain kept coming and in a couple hours the streets had streams of water. Then at about 8 o’clock the rain came down in a very hurried fashion and we got more rain in one hour then we usually get in the whole month of May. The rain kept up all night. Sometimes just a nice moderate rain fell and then a downpour would come. The lighting and the thunder were almost continuous until about 3 am. The back yard looked like a large lake. The front yard also had a couple small lakes in it. We had come through the night with one major leak, which was stopped when we finally found out how to shut the water off to this supply. The large elevator was not operating because of the water that had collected in the shaft. That did make it difficult for those of us who use wheel chairs to get around. We got to Mass, but the crowd was rather small. People just could not move around in many section of the city except by boats. Families were moving out of their homes with a few valuables wrapped in a plastic bag for fear that these water logged homes would collapse, some did! One of the hotels opened its door for people with out homes to come free of charge. The school for the blind also opened its doors to the homeless. A couple churches started food lines. One grade school had to close its doors temporally because it was surrounded by water. Meeting of city officials began. The newspaper with many pictures was printed and ready to be delivered. It took the delivery squad all day Sunday to find the people because homes were empty and surrounded by water. The Governor came and declared the mess a disaster. I just hope FEMA comes to the aid of these homeless families faster than it did in New Orleans. Farm field after farm field have been turned into lakes. Basement after basement were cleared of ruined furniture, carpet and even walls. Big dump trucks with healthy guards men came to collect the junk for disposal. The patches of grass and trees are a beautiful rich green, the likes that I have never seen before. There is nothing like lightning and rain to bring forth the nitrogen in the soil. The tree blossoms fell to the ground but the beautiful leaves are coming forth. The mosquitoes came by the millions. The City decided to spray Tuesday night and plan to have an airplane spray over the city on Friday night. According to the Mayor, the city water remains safe to drink, thank God for that!! Aberdeen is use to weather problems but usually it is a problem of being too dry not too wet. Graduation will take place as planned on May 12. The moral of this story is: ‘do not build a city on a lake bed.’

Republican Debate May 3

Republican Debate May 3, 2007
This is my glimpse of the Republican debate. It was rather boring, no outstanding guy came through. They all wore black suits and most had red ties. Some of these guys I had never seen before. The questions centered around the War, Iran, Abortion, Cloning and public funding, Stem Cell, Religion, Immigration, The first thing you would do if elected, Energy, What takes you would cut? Chris Matthews did a good job keeping it going.
I think Gov. Mit Romeny (a Mormon) stuck out as looking the most presidential. He was very well prepared. When asked why he change his position of abortion, he said he studied the matter in detail and had gone to some educational conferences and had learn a lot and changed from a position of choice to pro-life. He said cloning is going too far. When asked if he would tell a Catholic Bishop that he can’t deny communion to a person who believes in choice. Mit said he wouldn’t tell the Bishop any thing. He felt church and state needs to be separate. As Governor he fights abortion and thinks health care reform is the top of his list. He would put an all new team in the White House if elected. He favors a tamper proof card to help with the immigration problem.
Mayor Rudy Guiliani is a can do man and thinks America offers lots of hope and strength. He loves America. Rudy believes he could work with either a person who favors choice or one opposed to all abortions. He hates abortion himself, but respects women’s right to make a choice as that is the law and he would not change the Roe Vs Wade decision. Rudy believes neither party has a monopoly on all good or all bad. He says he has lots of weakness but didn’t name any. He believes the tamper proof card for immigrants is a good idea. He understands the difference between the various sectors in Iraq. One group believes in power being inherited another group believe you have to earn it. Basically, debate is not Rudy’s best stage. He does better when alone.
Senator John McCain who is now 72 years old is fearful of Iran because of the threat of them having Nuclear Bombs. He would like the support of the people. He feels he is the best prepared of the candidates so far. He feels that spending is out of control and wants the line item veto. He would stop the pork barrel problem in the government now. We need to secure the boarders yet we need to protect the workers. He’d pick men of talent to fill the White House he would not rule one in or out because of party affiliations. He favors a tamper proof card and claims he will go to gates of Hell to get Osama Bin Ladin (I’m not sure how to spell his name). Lets face it this man is too old for the job, he didn’t displace his usual fire.
Doctor and Representative Ron Paul was the Dennis Kucinich of the group. He spoke strongly against the war. He believes in a foreign police of non-intervention. He’d get rid of the IRS to lower the taxes. We over expend on defense according to Dr. Paul. He said he made many tough decisions as a doctor and is very happy that he did not vote for this war. He doesn’t believe in funding stem cell research because we have plenty adult stem cells available. The tax he would like to get rid of is the income tax. He trusts the Internet more than the media and doesn’t think the Internet should ever be taxed. He supports free speech. He believes in privacy and doesn’t favor the tamper proof cards. I think he got his message out and did a good job to improve his position.
Senator Sam Brownback said he is pro-life but could vote for a person who is either pro-life or pro choice. Anyone involved in corruption should be sent to jail. The president should lead by example. He supports laws that support the family. He opposes funding for cloning. Personal beliefs does influence ones thinking according to Sam. Faith should be invited in! We can use our Social Security Cards, do not need tamper proof cards. What we need is a fence. Immigration is a strong concern of Senator Brownback.
Governor Jim Gilmore favors the cold war approach toward our conflict with the entire Middle East. He believe in pro-life. He wants less Government spending. Let the courts decide if non-violent women should be put in jail or stay at home and be a mom and take care of her children. He believes in supporting or funding of stem cell research. He would cut taxes but didn’t name which ones. Gov. Gilmore thinks he is a conservative.
Governor Mike Huckabee says do it right and win the war. We got to win the war. America has great people. We will go to all length to save a miner, we have a culture of life we do not strap bombs on children and let them commit suicide. He believes faith does influence our decisions. He wants a fair tax, what ever that is. I think he is for some reform in the manufacturing tax. He says, bring the jobs back home, don’t send them overseas.
Tommy Thompson wants Iraq to be split three ways: have a centralized government with all three faction participating, oil revenue divided equally. He believes that an employee has the right to fire a gay person if he sees fit to do so. He’d put priority on welfare reform- A president needs to unit people and that will ease the race tensions.
Duncan Hunter claims to be a combination conservative- what ever that is. Iran has crossed the line and US should go after Iran. He wants a boarder fence to stop the massive immigration to US. He has not watched Al Gore’s movie but he does believe we should become independent Energy wise.
Tom Tancredo believes Israel is a real threat He doesn’t support a vote for Karl Rove. He doesn’t feel you have to be a centrist to run for president. He feels immigration needs to be dealt with but not with a tamper proof card.