Well, gentle readers, did your candidate win? Do you think there will be noticeable changes from the one who did win? Do you feel more secure and hopeful--and do you think your children and their descendants will have a better time of it in the next 12 years?  Perhaps the change is indeed very much needed and our country is ready for this historical event and it will make all of us, of whatever group, more aware of national events and in our town.  One can but hope. 

Why anyone would want to be president over the next 8 years is a mystery to my doggie mind, but, as a friend said, "Well, there you have it" and when I asked what the "it" was, she said one learns that. Okay.  I haven't decided yet whether I'll go to one of the several inaugural balls but I want the one where I get a chance to dance with a handsome movie star, and I'm open to any options from Harrison Ford to Jimmy Smits. Now, I'll just wait for my invitation to arrive--yeah, right! 

So, now our choice of a president is an established fact and one of the many, many problems he'll face is toxins in the air, water, food that his citizens live with, and "Poisoned Profits; The Toxic Assault on Our Children", by Philip and Alice Shabecoff, deals with that definite problem. The ones most affected by the poisons around us are the children of baby boomers--"the first to be raised in a truly toxified world, have higher rates of birth defects, asthma, cancer, autism, and other serious illnesses than previous generations." And the dangers are not only in the outside environments but have infiltrated our homes with chemicals in flame-retardant mattresses, the softening gel in pacifiers, "to arsenic and antibiotics in chickens"--to say nothing of big corporations who will pollute streams and airspace because what they are making or combusting or putting into the trees and ground is worth a good deal of (betcha haven't thought of this!) money.

The great "tug" of conflict in major businesses is "I know what's in first place, what's in second?" What's going to matter to them versus100 million in profit?  One big thing is public opinion--parents and teachers and the "greenies" and the "tree Huggers" combining to make their objection to pollution and toxins known--and, in some cases--register in sales figures.  Yes, it has been done, successfully, and fairly recently as in the outraged parents reaction to China's use of an unacceptable amount of lead in children's toys. Well written and an eye opener--if, in 20 years, children don't have red and irritated eyes! 

Superman was a comic book figure known to generations, in written form, and the movie and its star, Christopher Reeve, was enjoyed and admired by "new kids on the block".  And this same "Superman" became all-too-human when a riding accident left him crippled for the rest of his short life and a nation gasped and stared, on TV and the press, at Chris' inert form and yet drew a measure of his courage when they heard him talk about his accident and saw him smile and "keep on living", and "Somewhere in Heaven; The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve" is an account of their lives together and their love. 

We were all affected by what we could ascertain of their devotion to each other and their son, Will, and to learn that Dana, who was a non-smoker, had Cancer and subsequently passed away just 17 months after Chris' death was a cruel joke.  However, this book has some absolutely wonderful moments such as his appearance at the Academy Awards and how worried he was that his wheelchair would hit a bump, as he was being placed center stage before the curtains opened, and, of course, it did and he went over his waist and his arms and legs were dangling but the nurses and Dana got him repositioned just before the curtains parted in front of this huge audience.....who  rose immediately to their feet as they welcomed him and his opening words were priceless--""What you probably don't know is that I left New York last September and I just arrived here, in  Los Angeles, this morning--and I'm glad I did because I wouldn't have missed this kind of welcome for the world." 

That night, at the after-party Governor's Ball, almost everyone stopped by his table and said how much they missed him and what an inspiration he'd become. These two loving parents had also thought about what would happen to Will when--and if--both of them should go and both parents wanted him to be with family friends/neighbors with kids who were already Will's friends, rather than relatives--and so he was.  Will can grow up with these same kids, go the same school, and participate in his same athletics that he had started in, and perhaps the icing on the cake is that someone who has had his share of Cancer problems and fought to overcome obstacles--and genuinely likes Will--is Lance Armstrong. Everyone at Dana's funeral agreed that Will's parents had given him the gifts of bravery and grace and, add to that, the love of friends and family to help in the years ahead.

Do you remember the horror and shock you felt at seeing the pictures of the abuses done to prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison?  The beatings, the humiliation, the dogs, the taunting in deliberate defiance of the sensibilities of the prisoners?  An apt title for it and for its "cleaning up" is, "Fixing Hell; An Army Psychologist Confronts Abu Ghraib", by Col.(Ret.) Larry C. James, Ph.D. When the horror of the story, to say nothing of its accompanying pictures, broke in the press,"the U.S. Army dispatched Col. Larry James to Abu Ghraib with an overwhelming assignment; to dissect this catastrophe, fix it, and prevent it from being repeated."  Col. James had been to Guantanamo Bay and amassed a lot of knowledge of the workings and passions of prisoner's minds and justifications and he'd also learned that this war we're in had given us a new battleground to walk on that combined terror and treachery (and, perhaps,over-zealousness?) He was sent to ascertain "what can--and must--be done to ensure that interrogations are safe, moral, and effective."  He also tells, in this amazing book, wonderfully inspiring stories of many of the men and women serving this country and their "shining examples" of not only military service but humanity.

Oh, one more thing, before we go on--he won the Bronze Star for service in Iraq and another "one more thing"--the Baghdad Bureau chief for Newsweek said (about the incident)--"The abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib alienated a broad swath of the Iraqi public. On top of that it didn't work. There is no evidence that all the mistreatment and humiliation saved a single American life or lead to the capture of any major terrorist, despair claims by the military that the prison produced 'actionable intelligence." Indeed, Col. James and all involved felt that the pictures of the men and women of the Military Police seemingly "enjoying" their abuse and sadistic treatment of the prisoners "marks a low point in our history as a nation, as well as an enduring shame for the military and the Bush administration." 

The foreword was written by a Dr. Phillip Zimbardo who put an experiment into place--the Stanford Prison Experiment, that took college students and divided them as to who would be guards and who would be prisoners and then, to see what happened to "decent, normal personalities", encourage the "guards to mistreat and be vicious to the designated prisoners" This experiment was to be for two weeks only--"but it had to be terminated after only 6 days because it was running out of control"--and this professor said they all-all of them, including himself--fell prey to circumstances "that encouraged degeneracy."

Zimbardo's video was studied over and over, on his flight to the prison by his friend and colleague, Col. James, who stayed in touch with him and how it seemed that a lot of these same conclusions were to be drawn by the circumstances in Iraq. One of the major changes that can happen--and did--in the case of those "in charge" is a condition called "moral disengagement"and this is what happens "to human beings when they're stretched beyond their emotional and psychological capacity".  They would simply "not be there", disengage from events that were happening around them and "use strained logic to justify their amoral behaviors."

I could, I'm fairly confident, do a whole column on just this one book, what Col. James found and what he did about it, but there's a column constraint here, so I'll simply close with two thoughts; one is "Too many Americans do not understand that this enemy in the global war on terror cannot be won over by tourism and Levi's jeans, by 'understanding them' and ' respecting their culture'".  We have never fought an enemy like this--single-mindedly fanatic and dedicated to human bombs --and it got Col. James to asking himself--"Do we need a new mental illness diagnosis for the terrorists? Are they, truthfully, mentally ill?" and my second thought--come into the library and check this book out!  Marvelous "real-life" story. 

So, it's been told to me that cut-up pieces of pumpkin are tidbits that deer and raccoons will eat, out in the fields, and it's getting time to cut dead branches out of trees and trim them, if needed. From now on, until you-know-what, be good boys and girls 'cause a list is being kept by Santa Claus and some of us have used up the really good excuses!  Be sure and give your dogs and cats fresh water--Rufus Cooper likes his "treat" dunked in it!--and when in doubt as to what to give to someone, send a donation, in their name, to a charity. 

At the end of a shopping day--or just because you'd like to go out to eat--go to the beautiful River's Edge Tuscan Grill and sit there to look out at the river and the lights along the banks to say nothing of the wonderfully prepared food!   Keep walking every chance you get--park at the back of the parking lot and walk up to the store to force yourself to exercise--and treat yourself to a relaxing massage--right in the middle of this shopping season--at Highest Intentions. Your body will melt down into a pool of butter!

Take care, go to a movie, make it a point to meet someone you have only just seen "around", eat fresh fruit twice a day, and practice "random acts of kindness" (it'll confound your enemies!)  See you next time, gentle readers--bye!