MY Generation's SPUTNIK Moment!

In 1957, when the Russians launched Sputnik, I had just started High School the month before. That was the height of the Cold War, and there was no way that red blooded Americans, such as myself, were going to let the Russians beat us at anything! I was already set to be on the College Prep track, as it was called then, but I made up my mind to take as many math and science courses as possible (not the usual thing for a girl to do back then). I also took Drafting, and was the only girl in that class for 3 years! I had big plans of doing my part to help America one-up Russia in the Space Race.

For MY generation, Sputnik moment meant out doing and beating the Russians on every front. We were determined to show that we were the best nation on this earth. And we did!! I even took Russian in college, thinking it would be a valuable skill as a scientist in that era. I majored in Chemistry and minored in General Science, with lots of math courses thrown in as prerequisites.

I hope that's what President Obama had in mind, that kind of pride in America and determination to be the leading nation among the world powers, when he chose to say that we are in a Sputnik Moment in his State of the Union speech last night.

And I hope that's what it means to the youth of today hearing that phrase. But, frankly, I don't think there is any way the younger generations can possibly understand the strength of will that the American people exerted at that time to take back the lead in the Space Race. We need that same fervor to defeat this attitude that many in office seem to espouse that America has lost it's way, that it is no longer the best country in the world to live in.

So, I can only hope that the young people of today will find their OWN Sputnik Moment, when they act individually and collectively as Americans to bring our country to it's place in the world as the BEST, period.

For All the Fathers Who Have Sacrificed for Our Country

This picture and the following text was sent to me last year, and quite by accident today I pulled it up while searching for something else. It seemed appropriate to share it today in honor of all our young fathers who are away from home right now fighting for what they believe and for all those fathers who will never come home from battle.

This statue currently stands outside the Iraqi palace,
now home to the 4th Infantry division.
It will eventually be shipped home
and put in the memorial museum in Fort Hood , TX

The statue was created by an Iraqi artist named Kalat,
who for years was forced by Saddam Hussein to make the many hundreds of bronze busts of Saddam that dotted Baghdad .

Kalat was so grateful for the Americans liberation of his country;
he melted 3 of the heads of the fallen Saddam
and made the statue as a memorial to the American soldiers
and their fallen warriors.
Kalat worked on this memorial night and day for several months.

To the left of the kneeling soldier is a small Iraqi girl giving the soldier comfort as he mourns the loss of his comrade in arms.

Stop Abuse Now!

Today is the day that bloggers all over the world are writing about Abuse. Thinking about all the different kinds of abuse there are is simply overwhelming.

Things were so much simpler when I was a little girl. Families consisted of a Mama and a Daddy, with Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncles living nearby for many of us. People who got divorced were uncommon enough to be talked about in whispers. Not that our world was perfect in the good old days. We had our scary times, like learning how to duck under a school desk during an Atomic Attack drill. Our larger world was ruled by the Cold War, fear of polio, and the turmoil of the Civil Rights Movement.

But it was different at home. I was safe, and I knew it.

This post is for all those precious children who do not know what that feels like. They come home from school to hear their parents fighting over next to nothing. They cringe when a family member comes near, because they don't want to be touched or beaten again. We played Hide and Go Seek. Now, so many little children just hide and pray that no one finds them.

Let us do what needs to be done, so they can feel safe in their own homes. Let them be children.

This post is one of several hundred about Abuse of all kinds you can readhere.

Cold War Memories - Like Duck and Cover Was Going to Help??

I was born near the end of World War II, so my early childhood memories are filled with images of the Cold War and the fears that those images evoked. I remember that we used to have spend-the-night parties at one of my girlfriend's houses, and we slept in the basement. One whole wall was lined with shelving, neatly stacked with all kinds of survival goods.

There was a family in the next block who had their own bomb shelter in their back yard.

All the big buildings in downtown Birmingham had the Fallout Shelter Sign on them, which looked like a radioactive warning triangle, except it was bright yellow. Stockpiled in the basements of these public buildings were all kinds of K rations and supplies, supposedly to house the population while we waited for it to be safe to come out after an atomic attack.

When we went to the movies there were always Newsreels and cartoons before the feature movie. The cartoons were fun, but often the newsreels were pictures of the latest tests of the atomic bomb, or news of tests the Russians had made. I don't remember my school ever teaching us to do the Duck and Cover drill for nuclear attack, but I do remember seeing the drill on the newsreels.

The scariest of all were the newsreels showing the testing of the atomic bombs on the mockup American town built out in the desert. I can still see the heat wave passing across the roof tops and the houses dissolving in front of me over and over.

Growing up during the Cold War meant growing up with a pervasive sense of insecurity and paranoia.