I am a human being.

I want to tell people in the bureaucracy that I am a human being. And that I want to be treated like a human being. That I have an inherent right to be treated as a human being. And that I have come to them because I have a problem. And that I don't deserve to be bogged down in the bureaucracy. That I am Jim Broede. A real being. With feelings. With needs. And that every human being is special. And therefore, every human being should be treated as special. I don't care what level of bureaucracy I am in. It could be customs. Or the postal authority. Or a private courier. Or an attorney. Or furniture movers. Or a bank. Makes no difference. I am to be treated as a full-fledged human being. I am to be treated decently. And with respect. And that I intend to treat bureaucrats with decency and respect. As human beings. That it's a two-way street. So let's start. Right now. I'll tell them I have a problem. And that I need their help in getting it solved. And it hasn't been solved up to this point. I am caught up in a bureaucratic mess. In a bureaucratic hell. And that it's time that the bureaucracy became more humane. Because we're all dealing with human beings. Real people. --Jim

A lesson I learned.

When Jeanne was in the nursing home for 38 months, I found time to come home. And found solitude. So that I could recuperate and handle the next day. Almost as if I were on vacation for a few hours. I got so that I enjoyed being Jeanne's care-giver. Maybe because I was able to get away, so to speak. Every day. Inside my head. Inside my being. Getting away is a mental state. One must work at it. Mind over matter. Maybe it's impossible if one is a 24/7 care-giver. I didn't accomplish such a feat when I was 24/7. Only when I became an 8-10 hour-a-day care-giver. One has to learn to make time for one'e self. To, in a sense, take a daily vacation. A daily break. Then life begins to make sense again. I learned that lesson when I was an Alzheimer care-giver. And I still apply it today. --Jim Broede

Keep the faith. We shall overcome.

After all these years, we (the USA) are gonna work out a deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. The war really was unnecessary. That pretty much goes for any and every war. But still, we persist. We wage senseless war after senseless war. We humans are fallible. Very fallible. We make mistake after mistake after mistake. And when it comes to war, we never learn. We assume that wars are necessary. That we must kill each other. Make each other miserable. Exploit each other. Hate each other. Even amongst ourselves, we wage continuous wars. Between the Republicans and Democrats. The whites and the blacks. One ethnic group against another ethnic group. Even men and women wage war with each other. Little wonder that thousands of marriages break up. Daily. Often, it's a form of war. A mutual hatred and distrust. And here I am today. Keeping my head above the morass. I'm in love. And I tell my kindred soul to not worry. We'll survive. We shall overcome. Keep the faith. --Jim Broede

I consider myself blessed.

I like being me. There's nobody else I'd rather be. I suppose I could be a better human being. But I also recognize that I'll never achieve perfection. However, I won't stop striving to become better. I'm comfortable with myself. Knowing that I'm a romantic idealist, a free-thinker, a liberal and a lover. I'm also a troublemaker. Yes, I like to stir things up. And I'm trying to become a citizen of the world. Not merely an American. I want to feel at home no matter where I am. My loyalty is to other human beings. Not to a country per se. I'm grateful that I was born. And that I've evolved into an alive and conscious being. Able to pursue happiness. And able to connect with another unique living soul. In a loving way. I have a desire to live forever. And maybe I will. In a spiritual realm. But if not, I'm appreciative of having lived in this instant in time and space. I consider myself blessed. --Jim Broede

A worthy consolation.

I'm gonna move to Italy for the winter. And that's gonna be a big change for me. I'll be living on an island in the Mediterranean Sea. With my Italian girlfriend. I'll think of it as Paradise. In her town, she's seen snow only once in a lifetime. But hey, I'll make do without snow for the first time since I lived in Florida back in the 1960s. Anyway, I won't feel deprived. Because I'll escape America and a sad state of politics. Unfortunately, I may be entering an even sadder state of politics. In Italy. Where a buffoon, Silvio Berlusconi, is the prime minister. But still, I tell my girlfriend that the reign of Berlusconi can't be any worse than the 8 years we Americans had to put up with George Bush. She tells me that's not so. That Berlusconi is worse. We'll see. Maybe I can't escape the world's worst politicians. But I'll make the best of it. With my sweet love. That's a worthy consolation. --Jim Broede

Too stupid to know better.

This upcoming national election is fixed. Pre-determined. By a misinformation blitz. Paid political ads by conservatives. And big corporations. By Republicans. And Republican sympathizers. And because of a listless effort at rebuttal from Democrats and liberals. We are allowing our nation to be taken over once again by the very people that led us into two terrible immoral and costly wars and left our economy in a shambles. Yes, the Republicans are telling us it's all the fault of Democrats and socialists and a gawd damn black president. And to prove that we are a nation composed largely of idiots, we'll buy into the scam. And believe everything we're being told by the scam artists. Yes, we are about to sell out our nation. Because we are too stupid to know better. --Jim Broede

The making of a racist society.

I am more convinced than ever that we have a racist society in America. Doesn't necessarily mean that most of us our racists. Only that a big number of us are capable of being sympathizers of the Ku Klux Klan. And maybe even of the Nazis. And we would have been comfortable living in the South Africa of a generation ago. I sense that there's an underlying hatred of Barack Obama in America. Not necessarily expressed by a majority. But by a minority that can sway an election and make life difficult for Obama and anyone who isn't white. People will say they dislike or despise and even hate Obama because of his political stands or because they doubt that he was even born in America. But the real reason is his blackness. Even though it's a light shade. After all, he had a white mother. Only a black father. But that makes him persona non grata with white racists. They fume that this man made it all the way to the White House. Which really is a credit to the non-racists amongst us. Decent people may even be a majority in the USA. But many of us too often stay home on election day. And we allow racists and lunatic fringe Republicans to carry the day. And that's what makes us a racist society. --Jim Broede