Laura Bruno Lilly

The road ends, but the journey continues...

Category: Giving Voice (Page 5 of 6)

an ongoing series

Dear Rep. King: Suicide is no laughing matter

April 22, 2016 /

Something from my husband for your thoughtful consideration –

Tuesday’s edition* of MSNBC’s Morning Joe highlighted comments made by Rep. King of NY concerning his party’s candidate selections.
It matters not to me if one is Republican, Democrat, Independent, or even Green…my issue is with the flagrant tossing out of a suicide threat if his preferred candidate is not nominated as the Republican nominee.
His statement, as told to the Morning Joe panel:
“Well, first of all in case anybody gets confused, I am not endorsing Ted Cruz. I hate Ted Cruz and I think I’ll take cyanide if he ever got the nomination.”
This was my response which I sent to him Wednesday evening via his website’s comment section: Continue reading

Giving Voice: Wealth Inequality in America

February 15, 2016 /

I found this article/youtube last year during my researching of my Giving Voice Series. It was a bit info heavy, so I waited to post it.  It objectively details what ‘everyday Americans’ have been experiencing for years, but are unable to articulate.  The video is worth the 6 minute view.

Quote symbolPoverty is a major cause of homelessness, that in itself is not a major revelation. What has been surprising to me is the people who I have met in the homeless community who could be any number of people I know today. A cruel twist of fate could happen to most anyone; I have met people who have been overwhelmed by medical bills or who have lost their job and have ended up on the street. There are some people who have chosen this lifestyle and they are in the minority. This 6 minute video explained to me a trend that is growing and should be a cause for concern for all of us. The growing inequality and wealth divide is a problem that is undermining our society and community, and forcing an increasing number of families below the poverty line. By increasing awareness of this, I believe we can and must change this trend. Andy Robbins Photography

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vttbhl_kDoo
 

Giving Voice: Woman In A Café (poem)

January 30, 2016 /

While reading through Andrew James Murray’s newly published collection of poetry Heading North I was particularly struck by his poem, Woman in a Café.

Inspired by the memory of a woman who used to come into the café he frequented during his lunch break while working in Manchester, her fingerless mittened hands clutch bunched plastic bags while two worlds converge if only briefly but forever remembered.

woman in a cafe two
Re-printed with permission.

Trying out a re-blog

July 14, 2015 /

As a WP.org user, re-blogging an article from another WP site is not an easy task.  I decided to try my hand at it this time around just because…
According to the WP stats on my Jetpack, the article Veteran Homelessness Hits Zero In Las Cruces  has been successfully re-blogged on my site.
If this experiment does not work, please take a look at the article directly by clicking on the above link. Or here
As most of you know, this is something near and dear to my heart.  It is even more meaningful as Las Cruces, NM is hubby’s hometown and where The Goat Suite Saga was born.
 

3 Quotes, 3 Days – the first

June 19, 2015 /
Clementa Pinckney quote Huff Post

South Carolina state senator, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of 9 slain at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC

“Could we not argue that America is about freedom…” South Carolina state senator, the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, one of 9 slain at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC.

I’ve been nominated by Geralyn of Where My Feet Are to take part in the 3 days, 3 quotes challenge. This is my first ever nomination for anything ‘blog’ related, so I’m tickled pink to participate. And also sobered by its timing. Thank you Geralyn.
The rules of the challenge are:
1) Thank the person who nominated you.
2) Post a quote each day for 3 days.
3) Each day nominate 3 new bloggers to take part.
My nominees are:
Anna
L.Marie
Jayne
(Hope you can participate but no worries if you can’t)

Giving Voice (first wind-down)

March 22, 2015 /

This post marks the closing of what I consider to be the first part of my Giving Voice series.  While I have several more relevant articles in various stage of readiness to post, I think it’s time to take a break.  Because Giving Voice is an ongoing series, I intend to resume its ‘focus’ after an undetermined period of time.
Instead of composing some sort of summary post, I thought I’d ‘re-post’ a Swimming with Swans vignette I presented here on the blog in 2013.  Written at the close of our first stay in Las Cruces during our between homes journey, I think it speaks to the issue of ‘street people’ stereotypes in a positive and personal manner.
In doing this, I am also engaging in a blog experiment that I’m not sure will work!  Please bear with me.  Both this wind-down post and the archived vignette-post are presented in ‘sticky note’ fashion.  Theoretically, this first time published post will be ‘sticky-ed’ first and The Prophet and the Gift should follow without changing its original blog posting date.  We’ll see.  😉
Thank you for the many responses I’ve received during this first part of my Giving Voice series via personal e-mail, face-to-face discussions, and of course in the comments section.

No Place Like Home: Working families increasingly homeless

March 15, 2015 /

Quote symbolReporter: Darlene thought she had done everything right, even taking classes for her master’s degree.  She held a good job with the veterans administration for the last 15 years, had savings, college and retirement accounts, and a comfortable suburban home for her three sons…

‘They had never worried about anything.  They never had to go into the kitchen and look into an empty cupboard.  I lived a middle class life all my life.  That’s all I knew. I dropped from middle class to no class.‘  Continue reading

Giving Voice: Margaret Thatcher on Unemployment

March 4, 2015 /

I find it interesting that unemployment has been an issue of glaringly huge proportions for quite some time within the free market world.  That there have been sound ways of alleviating it during the course of these past decades, yet left untouched by those in power is disheartening, very telling and ultimately totally inexcusable.
Quote symbol

…Characteristically she covered her own weakest flank – unemployment – by counter-attacking Labour’s  record in the 1970’s. ‘In the end Labour always runs away,’ she jeered in her adoption speech at Finchley on 19 May:

            ‘They are running away from the need to defend their country…They are fleeing from the long overdue reform of the trade unions…They are running out on Europe…Above all, Labour is running away from the true challenge of unemployment.’

Promising to create millions of jobs, she insisted, was ‘no more than an evasion of the real problem’.  Real jobs could only be created by gradually building up a competitive economy with profitable industries that could hold their own in world markets.  ‘We Conservatives believe in working with the grain of human nature, in encouraging people by incentives, not in over-regulating them by too many controls.’ ‘A quick cure,’ she repeated several times in another favourite formulation, ‘is a quack cure.’

Margaret Thatcher circa 1983 (excerpt taken from The Iron Lady by John Campbell, pg 222)

Poverty and Beauty, Ugliness and Truth

February 21, 2015 /

a tree grows in brooklyn coverA short while ago, I reread this classic novel.  It’s one of the greats.  What surprised me this time around was that amidst the storyline and lyrical prose, its message speaks to the heart of what I’ve been presenting within my blog series, Giving Voice.
Very timely as the quotes I’ve pulled from within its pages read better than anything I could attempt to pen.
Meant to be read as a single ‘blog post’ the following quotes are from “A Tree Grows In Brooklyn” by Betty Smith.

Quote symbolSince her father’s death, Francie had stopped writing about birds and trees and My Impressions.  Because she missed him so, she had taken to writing little stories about him.  She tried to show that, in spite of his shortcomings, he had been a good father and a kindly man.  She had written three such stories which were marked ‘C’ instead of the usual ‘A.’  The fourth came back with a line telling her to remain after school… Continue reading

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