Well, it is now January 1st, 2012. 2012!!!
It's been a while since I did anything on this page. 2011.....hmmm.
Ok, a quick review of 2011.....

January, we lost two wonderful young children in Southwest City. I don't usually boast about kids coming into the library, but these kids were amazing and smart. I called the boy "Senator" cause he had gone to Washington last fall fall, but he really aspired to be an astronaut. His sister was Ms. perfect, she was always proper. When they would come into the library, the place would light up. They had that kind of personality. The Glory of God shown in their faces and behavior. They went to be with the Lord after playing on a pond and had the ice give way. We don't always understand things. My prayers will continue and always be with their family.


May was awful around here. Here in Mac county, we had our second (never will happen again in 70 years) flood. The first one was in April, it took out our entire neighborhood. Then, the same day Joplin was getting hammered with one of the worst tornadoes ever. We got hailed on, and flooded out again. But, we were troopers, we dropped our buckets and shovels and went to Joplin to help out up there. It was awful. I consider myself a tough old bird, but trying to get through the carnage that happened there was beyond me, and I just cried. Joplin, God Bless you, you are one of the strongest places I've ever been to. You rallied, you helped your neighbor, you did what we all are supposed to do. You cared, you cried, you helped.

October was interesting....... In our county we have two chicken processing plants. One in Southwest City and one in Noel. In the last two years, Tyson, in Noel, has brought in more than 300 Somalian workers. It's amazing, Tyson gets tax credits for bringing them in. On the 21st of said month, 120 Somalian workers walked off their job. They didn't get their break for their religious rites. Well, that opened the door for 120 positions to local folks right? Nope. Tyson Foods likes their tax breaks more than they care about the community. All positions were given right back to the ones who walked off. And once again the locals were left standing saying, what?
I emailed Matt Blunt about this...... He emailed back within days (to his credit) a campaign statement about how he sponsored bills that said that Corporations such as Tyson Foods had to make sure that their employees were legal to work in the states. No response to the fact that our small community is dying because of Tyson Foods. It didn't seem to matter to him that the same folks who voted him into office can't be hired on at Tyson's because they wouldn't get the tax breaks if they hired local folks. Why would he care, his house or livelyhood isn't in jeopardy.
The Somalians, however, are great. These folks are coming here like our ancestors did just a few years ago. They are honest and hard working. I can't even imagine the hurt they feel when they left their families back in Somalia. We have many that haven't heard from their brothers, sisters, dads or moms in months and years, and don't even know if their relatives are still alive. It breaks your heart. In a way, it is an honor to have these folks comes here. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses longing to be free. For too many years it has been, give us your rich exiles, your drug lords, or anyone who already has money.

In November of 2011, the world population hit 7 billion...... 7 billion. It took us almost 11 years to go from 6 billion to 7 billion. We aren't allowed to teach abstinence in schools, but we can have abortions on demand. We can only afford foods that are genetically modified, so that nearly 40% of the US population now is considered either diabetic, or near diabetic. Corn, America produces corn, Monsanto alters it, and we eat it, in everything, we eat corn. It's cheap it's economical and we eat it. It doesn't matter that it is killing us, we can afford it, so we eat it. Have ya ever seen pictures of the folks back in the late 1920's and 30's? These folks were thin as sticks. They ate corn too, and they ate apples. Not the modified type of corn or apples. It makes ya wonder if Monsanto owns stock in the pharmaceutical companies, cause they seem to have the chemicals required to fight diabetes.

We are controlled by the media. Since I don't have a tv anymore. I rely on the internet to get my news. According to Yahoo news..... in one week, unemployment is down... next day, no unemployment is up..... Gingrich is the frontrunner..... next day..... no Romney is the frontrunner...... Rick Perry is gonna make a comeback..... Cain is the man..... No, Cain isn't the man.... Bachman is the one.... nope not Bachman.... On MSN, the most important thing is Demi Moore's sad sad divorce. Didn't she dump Bruce Willis to be with this youngster? And J Lo is happy again..... well that is really important. And of course we all wait with bated breath to see what Kim Kardas.....(whatever her name is) is gonna do, or sleep with next. And of course, we have to know what Brad Pitt and Angelina what's her name are gonna do. Newsweek will tell us that Obama is doing a great job, the New Republic will tell us he's not. Vanity Fair can tell us of the history of Perry, but can't seem to dig up any history on Obama, or don't even know if they tried. Maybe they have tried. Who knows? National Geographic thinks we all should live in cities, and have used examples from all over the world to show it.

Lost three perfectly healthy friends to government health care. Two were subject to the Veteran's benefits. Both were required to have annual physicals, both were suddenly diagnosed with prostrate cancer and required (or else they would lose their VA benefits) to undergo chemo therapy at the VA Hospital in Arkansas. Both dead within six weeks. The third person was a dear friend of ours who had the same situation as the vets. She had a nasty fall in her apartment, and was rushed to a hospital in Joplin, MO. Since she had the assurance of our Social Security benefits, she was relegated to a mental facility, also in Joplin, with the assurance that she would be back home within just a couple of weeks. She died December 3rd.

Okay, lastly...... this is for all you folks that think that you can't live without your cell phone or your texting continously..... For 6,000 years we did without cellphones and did just fine.....
Turn it off, clear your brain, listen to that still small voice that God sometimes uses to get our attention.

Wow, it's been almost a whole month since the last time I blogged anything in here. Hey, we got a coupla of the new movies in that were soooo popular that everyone was asking about them. The first one "Twilight" on dvd was viewed by yours trully and I never got through it, slow slow and did I mention? slow!! But the youngsters like it and if they wanna watch a slow, terribly slow movie, then this movie is for them. (I had also tried to read the book, same thing......slow and couldn't hold my attention). The other movie we got in was "Marley and Me". Now there is a reason that I never watched "Old Yeller". I don't particularly like tear-jerkers. But "Marley and Me" was not only a wonderful written story, but the entire movie was dangerously close to being G rated. I was trully impressed. Welp, gotta go shush some folks, that's my job.

Well, here it is Tuesday. That's the start of our week here at this library. I just got to tell a patron Happy Birthday, and then to shush. I enjoy that part... shush. Actually we have some of the nicest and most pleasant folks come in here. This being the tax season, folks are scrambling to get their taxes filed, so we are seeing folks that don't ordinarily come into the library. They are greeted with a friendly "howdy", and how can we help ya, then ( I enjoy this part), shush.
This is a library and shushing is to be expected. And that is my job..... Cleetus official library shusher. In the afternoons, once school lets out, we get hit with the varmits racing here to check their myspace or facebook accounts. They are out of breath from running here. They just can't wait to see what the person sitting right next to them, posted on their site. And of course with all their giggling and talking, I get to go in there and (my job) shush them. I just love my job.