When she died this week, I felt rather sad, remembering her, having met her only one time. I had just moved to California and was getting acclimated, including getting situated with AA meetings. At one women's meeting, I happened to meet a photographer who had worked in the Ford White House, an alum of the Betty Ford clinic, and as an apprentice for a very famous photographer. After I was done with the bar examination she mentioned to me that she needed some assistance carrying her camera bags to a Betty Ford event, it was an all day seminar in Santa Monica, where the former First Lady would appear and speak. It was on behalf of her foundation that this event was occurring to assist those who were accredited addiction counselors get their Continuing ed credits.
So, I spent the day carrying camera bags and attending the program which was wonderful, meeting dynamic and exciting women, and having the opportunity to hear Betty Ford tell her inspiring story of addiction and recovery. At the end of the day we were allowed back stage for photographs and speaking with her and her secret service detail, who clearly adored working for her and her husband. It was a memorable day with a class act. She will be missed by many whose lives she touched and saved.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Using US credit cards in Europe now a major problem
this is a must read for US travelers heading overseas this year.
We have never had a problem traveling in Europe or anywhere with US credit cards, but this year we have already hit problems at the toll plazas and one grocery store. We had no idea why, but reading this article from MSNBC explains it all.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43582483/ns/business-consumer_news/
We have never had a problem traveling in Europe or anywhere with US credit cards, but this year we have already hit problems at the toll plazas and one grocery store. We had no idea why, but reading this article from MSNBC explains it all.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43582483/ns/business-consumer_news/
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Thoughts on 9/11 years later
After learning of Bin Laden's death, I was again revisited by memories of 9/11. I wasn't there in downtown New York, but like many others, I was supposed to be.
That morning was a such a beautiful fall day. Clear skies. Lovely temperature. I got dressed and drove my son to school. He was in kindergarten, then only 5 years old. It was a Tuesday. I had just begun teaching at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, legal writing and research for first year students, 1L. We were supposed to do the library tour that day, beginning at 8:30 a.m. ending at 9:50 a.m. But I was also scheduled to be at a mediation at the federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan. It was my plan, to finish the tour, then walk across the street to the PATH station at Penn Station Newark, and be downtown by 10:15 and walk to the courthouse. I had informed everyone I would be late.
For anyone who knows me, I had being late. It is a neurotic pressure that I feel about being on time. Growing up with a mother who was forever late to everything, leaving me and friends standing on street corners waiting. Always the last one picked up from anything. So I am neurotically on time or early.
Had 9/11 been any other day but Tuesday, I would have been at the World Trade Center at 9:00 a.m. to get to the courthouse early, to walk, get a starbucks, and get my game face on for the mediation. I would have been walking when the second plane hit.
Instead, I was in the law library at Seton Hall, which looks out toward New York. We could see smoke in the sky, but not what it was from. Students began to approach us and tell us that two planes had hit the World Trade Center. I asked one, "you mean light aircraft?" He replied "no, 737s, big planes". A student asked me, "what do you think it is." Without thinking, I instinctually answered "Middle eastern terrorism" knowing how obsessed certain groups are with the financial district, since before the 1993 WTC bombing. As soon as I said it, I was upset with myself.
What if I was wrong? I just started this teaching gig and I am saying something that is politically incorrect. Did I just make a big mistake?
I continued the tour, while we watched the smoke on and off. Not realizing what the magnitude of what was happening. I was thinking in the back of my mind - what do I do? Do I still go to New York? We had not seen the pictures yet.
By 9:50 when the class was over, the Law School Dean gathered everyone in the lobby of the school, to discuss what was happening. The PATH trains were shut down. No one could get in or out of New York. Cell phones were not functioning. I could not call my husband, and he could not call me.
I recall offering my guest room to the Dean, if any student needed a place to stay who could not get home. I then headed for the car and began listening to the uncovering story. I recall a report of a bomb at the Supreme Court. I recall a report that the first tower at collapsed.
That seemed beyond my comprehension. I remember as a child the towers being built. Watching them rise over the New York horizon when we would go in and out of the City. I recall when they were lit up at night, being able to see them, as I watched planes come and go from the airports at night from my bedroom window, high on the hill in South Orange. I recalled how I took my ex-husband's nephew to visit New York and go to the observation deck there. But I also remembered how, around 1985, I did some secretarial temp work there for two weeks on the 87th floor. I was terrified. I could feel the movement of the building in high winds. One day at lunch, the local elevators were shut down, and we had to walk to the 75th floor to get the express elevators to get lunch. I always recalled thinking how dangerous these buildings were if a fire started. I recalled the 1993 bombing and how my fears were confirmed.
But now the towers were crumbing. I drove west down Route 280, still unable to get my husband on the phone. I thought to stop at my house, just off the highway on the way to my office. He was there, with the tv on, frantic because he had not been able to find me, and knowing that I was supposed to be in New York. I saw the fires and the people running and was transfixed by the horror, and the fear. It was surreal, worse than any horror film of mass destruction.
I called my office to tell them I would be there later, but my husband and secretary both jumped at me. She said the office was closing, don't come. My husband said that we are under attack and we are not going anywhere. We debated about picking up my son, who was only a few blocks away, and decided to leave him at school, that he would be safe there. We watched the day unfold. We picked up my son at 2:30, and walked him home to discuss what was happening before he saw it on the television. We didn't know if he would even understand it.
The next few weeks were equally surreal. In October, I began a trial in South Jersey and would drive on the Turnpike South every day at 7 a.m. As I approached the Turnpike from Route 280, I could see the smoke was still rising from the pile and it was as if someone had punched a hole in the sky where the towers and other buildings should have been, and where the people who had died should have still been working.
It made no sense to me, that much hate. That much evil. We are all people trying to survive, to do the best for our families, to educate our children, to keep them healthy and safe. Why can't we find common ground? Why is compromise viewed as weakness? These are questions that continue to resonate with me, nearly ten years later.
This week's news that Osama Bin Laden had finally been found and killed, was surprising. Like many I believed we might never find him. Like many I don't believe that anyone can really have closure from this even in our history, but many now, we can begin to move forward more, than look back. To plan the future, rather than worry about what we didn't finish in the past.
That morning was a such a beautiful fall day. Clear skies. Lovely temperature. I got dressed and drove my son to school. He was in kindergarten, then only 5 years old. It was a Tuesday. I had just begun teaching at Seton Hall Law School in Newark, legal writing and research for first year students, 1L. We were supposed to do the library tour that day, beginning at 8:30 a.m. ending at 9:50 a.m. But I was also scheduled to be at a mediation at the federal courthouse in downtown Manhattan. It was my plan, to finish the tour, then walk across the street to the PATH station at Penn Station Newark, and be downtown by 10:15 and walk to the courthouse. I had informed everyone I would be late.
For anyone who knows me, I had being late. It is a neurotic pressure that I feel about being on time. Growing up with a mother who was forever late to everything, leaving me and friends standing on street corners waiting. Always the last one picked up from anything. So I am neurotically on time or early.
Had 9/11 been any other day but Tuesday, I would have been at the World Trade Center at 9:00 a.m. to get to the courthouse early, to walk, get a starbucks, and get my game face on for the mediation. I would have been walking when the second plane hit.
Instead, I was in the law library at Seton Hall, which looks out toward New York. We could see smoke in the sky, but not what it was from. Students began to approach us and tell us that two planes had hit the World Trade Center. I asked one, "you mean light aircraft?" He replied "no, 737s, big planes". A student asked me, "what do you think it is." Without thinking, I instinctually answered "Middle eastern terrorism" knowing how obsessed certain groups are with the financial district, since before the 1993 WTC bombing. As soon as I said it, I was upset with myself.
What if I was wrong? I just started this teaching gig and I am saying something that is politically incorrect. Did I just make a big mistake?
I continued the tour, while we watched the smoke on and off. Not realizing what the magnitude of what was happening. I was thinking in the back of my mind - what do I do? Do I still go to New York? We had not seen the pictures yet.
By 9:50 when the class was over, the Law School Dean gathered everyone in the lobby of the school, to discuss what was happening. The PATH trains were shut down. No one could get in or out of New York. Cell phones were not functioning. I could not call my husband, and he could not call me.
I recall offering my guest room to the Dean, if any student needed a place to stay who could not get home. I then headed for the car and began listening to the uncovering story. I recall a report of a bomb at the Supreme Court. I recall a report that the first tower at collapsed.
That seemed beyond my comprehension. I remember as a child the towers being built. Watching them rise over the New York horizon when we would go in and out of the City. I recall when they were lit up at night, being able to see them, as I watched planes come and go from the airports at night from my bedroom window, high on the hill in South Orange. I recalled how I took my ex-husband's nephew to visit New York and go to the observation deck there. But I also remembered how, around 1985, I did some secretarial temp work there for two weeks on the 87th floor. I was terrified. I could feel the movement of the building in high winds. One day at lunch, the local elevators were shut down, and we had to walk to the 75th floor to get the express elevators to get lunch. I always recalled thinking how dangerous these buildings were if a fire started. I recalled the 1993 bombing and how my fears were confirmed.
But now the towers were crumbing. I drove west down Route 280, still unable to get my husband on the phone. I thought to stop at my house, just off the highway on the way to my office. He was there, with the tv on, frantic because he had not been able to find me, and knowing that I was supposed to be in New York. I saw the fires and the people running and was transfixed by the horror, and the fear. It was surreal, worse than any horror film of mass destruction.
I called my office to tell them I would be there later, but my husband and secretary both jumped at me. She said the office was closing, don't come. My husband said that we are under attack and we are not going anywhere. We debated about picking up my son, who was only a few blocks away, and decided to leave him at school, that he would be safe there. We watched the day unfold. We picked up my son at 2:30, and walked him home to discuss what was happening before he saw it on the television. We didn't know if he would even understand it.
The next few weeks were equally surreal. In October, I began a trial in South Jersey and would drive on the Turnpike South every day at 7 a.m. As I approached the Turnpike from Route 280, I could see the smoke was still rising from the pile and it was as if someone had punched a hole in the sky where the towers and other buildings should have been, and where the people who had died should have still been working.
It made no sense to me, that much hate. That much evil. We are all people trying to survive, to do the best for our families, to educate our children, to keep them healthy and safe. Why can't we find common ground? Why is compromise viewed as weakness? These are questions that continue to resonate with me, nearly ten years later.
This week's news that Osama Bin Laden had finally been found and killed, was surprising. Like many I believed we might never find him. Like many I don't believe that anyone can really have closure from this even in our history, but many now, we can begin to move forward more, than look back. To plan the future, rather than worry about what we didn't finish in the past.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Hong Kong Article
The Times again:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/travel/20hours-hongkong.html?hpw
http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/travel/20hours-hongkong.html?hpw
Monday, March 14, 2011
Two-Tiered Society
Many days I am in court, representing indigent children who are wards of the state, foster children. My job is to ensure that they are cared for properly and have a voice in the courtroom. Over the years, I have worked as a prosecutor enforcing domestic violence laws, hate crimes laws as well as white collar cases like Medicaid Fraud. More and more each day, I believe that we have created a two-tiered society. Clearly, the upper tier contains those we have managed to get an education and find a job and maintain some semblance of a family life. Naturally at the upper end of that tier are the very wealthy. At the lower end are those who have scratched and clawed their way into the tier and are hanging on for dear life.
But then, there is the remainder, the other tier, and that is what concerns me. We have created a permanent underclass of our society, our country who costs us millions and billions, for foster care, programs for mental health, addiction, domestic violence, for therapists for these abused and neglected children, for incarceration of parents who engage in the abuse or neglect, or for the children who grow up repeating the cycle. The movies and television shows cannot accurate depict what is truly happening in our court system. Every so often we will hear about a particularly horrific case that captures our attention for a brief moment before Charlie Sheen or Lindsey Lohan comes back in the news. We send money overseas to fix other societies but don't fix our own.
The crazy part to me is that no one really studies this. What works? What doesn't work? What is less expensive and better? Wouldn't long term studies make sense, especially in these economic times. It seems as though we just keep throwing money at the problem without really knowing what works. Birth control - shouldn't there be a requirement if someone is receiving public assistance and so much economic and social support? Don't we need to stop having children when we can't support them physically, emotionally, financially?
I know, I know, what the Supreme Court says. Forcibly sterilizing someone is wrong. Too much big brother is wrong. But somehow we need to rescue our society from this mess. We need to really study this, as did Daniel Patrick Moynihan at various times in his career. Not some presidential commission, but social scientists, sociologists and psychologists, and MPAs and figure out what works, where to put our money, how to stop this freight train of disfunction.
Stop.
But then, there is the remainder, the other tier, and that is what concerns me. We have created a permanent underclass of our society, our country who costs us millions and billions, for foster care, programs for mental health, addiction, domestic violence, for therapists for these abused and neglected children, for incarceration of parents who engage in the abuse or neglect, or for the children who grow up repeating the cycle. The movies and television shows cannot accurate depict what is truly happening in our court system. Every so often we will hear about a particularly horrific case that captures our attention for a brief moment before Charlie Sheen or Lindsey Lohan comes back in the news. We send money overseas to fix other societies but don't fix our own.
The crazy part to me is that no one really studies this. What works? What doesn't work? What is less expensive and better? Wouldn't long term studies make sense, especially in these economic times. It seems as though we just keep throwing money at the problem without really knowing what works. Birth control - shouldn't there be a requirement if someone is receiving public assistance and so much economic and social support? Don't we need to stop having children when we can't support them physically, emotionally, financially?
I know, I know, what the Supreme Court says. Forcibly sterilizing someone is wrong. Too much big brother is wrong. But somehow we need to rescue our society from this mess. We need to really study this, as did Daniel Patrick Moynihan at various times in his career. Not some presidential commission, but social scientists, sociologists and psychologists, and MPAs and figure out what works, where to put our money, how to stop this freight train of disfunction.
Stop.
Monday, March 7, 2011
Social Security Rescue?
Isn't it interesting that no one is discussing, as part of the remedy, having those earning over the current cap, to continue to contribute, and perhaps having no cap on income for contributions? I know there are those out there that want to see it go under Privatizing would certainly tank it. Are we really saying that some millionaires can't space a few thousand more a year? Get over yourselves and be part of our society.
If incomes continue to decline, you will not find good workers for your companies, no one will buy homes, appliances, cars and other goods because they can't.
What a mess.
If incomes continue to decline, you will not find good workers for your companies, no one will buy homes, appliances, cars and other goods because they can't.
What a mess.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Bob Woodward on Rumsfeld's book
Very interesting:
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/01/how_rumsfeld_misleads_and_ducks_responsibility_in_his_new_book
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/01/how_rumsfeld_misleads_and_ducks_responsibility_in_his_new_book
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