Friends Report on Sept. 3

MARSHA - has had her wooden floors "re-done" and sends this picture: (click to enlarge)

VINCE - agrees with Obama's notion that Christians should be backing health care for everyone as a human right. He sends this:

Here are the statements of two bishops who stand firm in traditional Catholic Social Teaching (my humble opinion)

Rapid City Bishop Blaise Cupich:

“Reform efforts must begin with the principle that decent health care is not a privilege, but a right and a requirement to protect the life and dignity of every person....All people need and should have access to comprehensive, quality health care, the costs of which must be controlled so that all can afford it. All should be able to receive health care irrespective of their stage of life, where or whether they or their parents work, how much they earn, where they live, or where they were born.

“Our healing apostolate is rooted in a belief in the dignity of each human person, realizing, as did Jesus, that one’s ability to live a fully human life is greatly affected by health. In a word, we consider health care a basic human right. For this reason, the Catholic bishops have consistently advocated for comprehensive health care reform that leads to health care for all, including the weakest and most vulnerable.”

also the same principle stated by

Bishop William Murphy, chair of the bishops committee concerned with health care:

“Reform efforts must begin with the principle that decent health care is not a privilege, but a right and a requirement to protect the life and dignity of every person. All people need and should have access to comprehensive, quality health care that they can afford, and it should not depend on their stage of life, where or whether they or their parents work, how much they earn, where they live, or where they were born. The Bishops’ Conference believes health care reform should be truly universal and it should be genuinely affordable.”

DASHMANN - told a wonderful story about a weight-loss challenge that a group of workers in his office once had. The winner would be the one who lost the most weight. At the end of the contest, the winner was the guy who only gained 1 pound.

Dashmann is now on another weight-loss program and doing well. I asked if he had divine help, and he said, "sure, I held a prayer vigil." Whereupon SKUZZA said: "Preayer vigil! You can't even stay awake during church."

IRISH MIKE - brought up the matter of the school superintendent in these parts (Merrill Schools -- this is a correction! I am sorry about the mistake. ) who has bragged to the local newspaper that he got the service workers (bus drivers, cooks, custodians, etc.) in his school system to accept a 20% cut in wages . The newspaper article cast the man in such a terrible light -- with him saying he hoped his plan would get accepted in other school districts as well. Part of the deal involved threatening the workers to be replaced with outside contractors.

He's a bastard -- the Superintendent, not Mike, who is most certainly not a bastard. Mike is a swell fellow.

BILL from WNNCO - Tells a story about Ronald Reagan once saying to Congress that if you convert a trillion dollar debt into $1000 dollar bills they would make a stack 67 ,miles high. Bill notes that there are no $1,000 bills, so we would have to stack up $100 bills, and that pile would be 670 miles high, farther into space than the International Space Station.

GIGI - sends along this wonderful story about grandkids:

The other day, Thomas was having a meltdown (what's new). He cried and screamed until I sent him up to his room and told him to stay up there until he was done crying and screaming. So naturally he goes upstairs crying all the way.

A couple minutes later, Jack began to cry about something completely unrelated and it went on and on until he too was then sent to his room (which he shares with Thomas). As Jack proceeded to walk into the bedroom crying the entire way, I walked up the stairs high enough to sneak a peek at the two boys.

I see Thomas laying on his bed on top of his bear. Jack enters the bedroom and I hear a slurp/pluck sound which I quickly figured was Thomas pulling his fat thumb out of his mouth - because yes he STILL sneaks it in every now and again.

As Jack stumbles in all upset and indignant, Thomas rattles off (like only Thomas would)....

"So, what're you in for?"

He made me feel like a county sheriff locking up local criminals!

SCOT and STEVE-have been coho fishing on Lake Michigan. One of them seems to catch fish.


ALICE - won a victory against a lawyer by demanding and getting back her money from a retainer on a small case for which no legal services were rendered. It wasn't easy. After her spate of bad health, she's getting back in fighting form.

SPARTY - who is more than helpful when it comes to advising and explaining University of Michigan athletics, offers this possible explanation for why Michigan last year had its worst football season ever: "Maybe they were just tired."

SKUZZA - as always the kind and gentle grandmother has been taking and picking up kids at school because the buses are not yet running.
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SOME SNAPSHOTS

HERPE and SKUZZA at lunch

MIKE and DOUG at DAWN'S

JOSE, SCOT and LIAM