A prescription for what ails America.

The following story really doesn't need any words by me to explain how terribly wrong it is. there is noting the pharmacist or Wal-Mart can say or do that will change the fact that they put religion ahead of this woman's safety and health. This week in Dallas we have had a religious sect kill a young boy then try and "resurrect" him to cleanse him of his demons.The leaders of the church have been arrested, just as I think this phramacist should be.  If Georgia has a law supporting her, it should be found unconstitutional and thrown out.

Enough America.

Religion has gone too far.

http://samuel-warde.com/2015/04/walmart-pharmacist-refused-to-fill-prescription-for-woman-who-miscarried-video/

Your religion has no business in my doctor's office. Or my wife's or my daughters' and son's. Period. Get your church and your governmental dictates out of medicine.


On another subject having to do with medicine, the Texas Medical Practice Board has just announced an end to TELEDOCS, the practice of being able to talk with a doctor via phone or Internet to receive medical advice and even prescriptions. THIS RULING IS WRONG.

There are times when some people's only access to a doctor is via phone or computer.  there ar4e other times a doctor has a relationship with a patient who is away — via vacation or work. Or a doctor and patient have established an on-going relationship but the patient has moved away.

Our insuracne offfers us a TELEDOC practice for the everyday aches and pains and sniffles that come with life. We can pick up the phone and talk with a doctor who is familiar with our region and tell him or her what is going on and how we feel and what our temperature is. He or she can then ask questions (just like a doctor sitting across from you would do) and then offer a suggestive treatment for the ailement.

THAT IS A GOOD PRACTICE.  It saves us hundreds if not thousands of dollars a year in office visits.  And that is the real rub. Doctors and their lobby are trying to squeeze every nickle and dime out of the local practice they can.  And someone has to speak up and give another side to the story.  I am doing it.  TELEDOCS are not the end-all medical solution. but they do play a vital role in helping trim time and costs from the price of medicine.

I talked with my doctor the other day( in person) and he said he had several patient who lived far outside the metroplex (that's what we call the Dallas-Ft.Worth area for those of you not living here in God's Fairytale land) and he treats them via phone all the time.  If they have something is he not sure about he directs them to a specialist or clinic near their current home.

The QUACKS in Austin got this one wrong.

The Green Jacket on deserving shoulders

I watched as the Masters' Green Jacket was placed onto Jordan Spieth's shoulders by last year's winner, Bubba Watson, two of my favorite golfers and athletes.

The 21-year old Texan set an amazing number of records on his way to his -18 victory in Georgia Sunday. At one time, he was 19 under par. Nobody has ever had a score that low at Augusta.

But the thing I like bet about both Bubba and Justin, is that they seem like really nice, likable guys.  The kind of young men you'd like to go hit a round of golf balls with and have a brooskie or two.

I think more people in sports should be like them. Or like retiring fellow Longhorn, Ben Crenshaw, who played in his last Masters this past weekend. They represent good, honest folk who work hard at thier craft and when they win, they are humbled by the moment.

That is a far cry from most sports celebraties we see these days, especailly the ones on team sports.  (I can think of some rather obnoxious loud-mouths from the Seahawks that could learn a lesson or two from these golfers.)

A golfer's victory is usually self made.  There are no blocking lineman. There isn't a receiver who saves a QB's butt with a game winning catch over his shoulder. There is no shortstop jumping high into the night's sky to save a no-hitter for his pitcher. No. Golfers, especially a kid who leads wire-to-wire with the heavy hitters, like another favorite of mine Phil Nickelson, breathing down his back, does it all on his own. He has to address and execute each shot, all by himself. No one sets a pick for him. No one holds on the offensive line.  Speith had to do it all by himself.  And when he did, he was humbled by his accomplishment.

Even in tennis, which is considered the other individual game, there is someone on the other side of the net who has a huge say in the way in which the outcome of a match goes. But in golf, the man, his bag of clubs and a ball are it.

And right now Jordan Spieth is it, too.  The man.  The top dog.

My favorite line from the TV broadcasters' verbal carnation of Spieth as the next God-send to the links, was from a CBS TV voice who said, "Had 21-year old Spieth not droped out of The University of Texas in his junior year, he would be graduating next month. As it is, he has earned his masters..."

Way to go Jordan.  Way to go Bubba.  And we'll miss you Gentle Ben.

Golf is back and has a good guy leading the way.

Dear NBA…we need a change.

Seven young men left the University of Kentucky on Thursday, headed for the NBA. Their careers set for them by some magic number in the upcoming draft.

I applaud them for the great years they had as a team. I personally think five of the seven are not ready for the NBA, but that is for others to write about and discuss.

What I want to talk about is a suggestion that their coach, John Calipari, made about the situation of early exit to the pros — referred to as one and done, although there were several sophomores in the group from the Big Blue heading to dollarsville. His idea was that the NBA push back its rules of allowing early college exit for players to enter the NBA draft. Players entering the draft should have at least three years of college under their belt before being eligible and should they decide to stay in school, for their third and fourth year, the NBA would pay for insurance on those players.

Let me explain what Coach Cal was saying with this. Say you are a twenty-year old and are very good at basketball. Good enough that the pros are drooling over you and want to draft you.  It will mean millions of dollars in your lifetime. Better than a PhD from A&M in farm science. But let’s suppose you like the alma mater and want to stay there for your last two years. Great. The school loves you for it. The alumni love you for it. Your girlfriend who is a sophomore studying nursing loves you for it. But what if you get hurt? (One of the Big Blue broke his leg this year. Ouch. That could have cost him millions.) But there is insurance to cover such calamities.  And the way the NCAA is letting bodies slam under the rim these days, you are going to have calamities.

This insurance is not cheap. It is based on projected worth and draft status. And right now, the player or his family must pay for that coverage. Like I said, it ain’t cheap. But suppose the NBA had to fork over the dough to cover these kids? Changes the balance of power just a tad.

Now a kid who wants to stay in school can do so and be protected by the organization that is wooing him for future employment.

It is a great idea. You don’t have to jump ship just because you fear an injury would set your future earnings back.

There are other proposals out there. Some are blanket three or four years in school until you are legible for the draft period. I even heard one writer suggest that a mock draft would be held each year for freshmen before they enter their sophomore seasons. Their position in the draft would then be solidified, but not exercised until their senior season. They would have a bonus paid to them if and when they graduate or at least matriculate through four years of college.

All interesting. All thought provoking. But one thing is for sure. The NCAA and the NBA are going to have to get together on this in some way. One and done is no fun for the school and the fans. It puts way too much pressure on the athletes and the coaches. Parents, too.

The schools invest a lot in the kids. And vice versa. It is a two-way street.  I want to see their future earning protected, but I also want to see them stay with the U of your choice long enough to enjoy all that college life has to offer.

Our American Values are under Attack. By the Chrisitain Right Wing

Yesterday’s blog generated a ton of mail. Most of it, I am surprised to say, was very, very positive. Many folks thanked me for speaking out on this subject. Others encouraged me to keep the fight up. Some just wanted to let me know they agreed with my point of view: that America is at a dangerous crossroads as religion tries to drive our government. 

But one letter caught my attention and I decided to share it today as a sample of what I am talking about when it comes to religion trumping the rule of law.

“Crawley, I have read your garbage for months now and you say the same thing. The freedoms and liberties of the extreme left are in danger.  Boo Hoo.  America is in danger.  Obama and you people put us there.  Making everyone have the same rights is silly. I work for a living. I pay taxes and I expect to have more rights than the freeloaders you represent. I earned it. Don’t try and take it away from me and don’t step on my religious freedom. I have the God-given right to worship my Lord and Savior as I see fit, even if it messes up your entire life.”

The letter goes on to call me several names and reminds me that I am bound for hell. (To the last point, if the letter writer is going to heaven, I’d rather be in hell, thank you very much.) It also blames all of our troubles on the “gay and queers” (sic) because …“they are trying to infect us all with their way of life. It is ruining the family.”

It is that very last line that really got me.  Call me any name you wish. Tell me my writing sucks (Miss Hart at Kilgore High would have agreed with you…) but do NOT blame the problems of America on an oppressed minority trying to ruin your family.

Excuse my French here…but that is blatant bullshit. (I am told the Apostle Paul’s reference to sin as a pile of dung is the same language translated into a proper form by the English scribes under King James.)

My family is not in danger due to gays.  Lesbians do not pose a risk to the Crawley household. Or yours. The bigger risk to my family and to all families and to American Values is the simple minded, narrow vision of a few deranged folks who think the water Jesus turned into wine was non-alcoholic, because their preacher told them so.  They are that stupid as to follow these pulpit pundits in almost anything they say. I am now hearing pastors preaching against global climate change, like they even know what they are talking about. It is amazing to me, you can study Greek and Hebrew and suddenly you are a science scholar and you know for sure the world is only 6,000 years old.

And when it comes to global warming, this guy quotes his pastor as saying, “It’s God’s will.” Funny how when things don’t go their way in an argument or when facts refute their position, they always say, “It is God’s will.”  So I remind my friend, the election (two times) of Barrack Obama must have been God’s will. (Oh that’s not bound to sit well with the pious and the preachy.)

That is exactly why I wrote yesterday’s blog. This guy has just made my case.

America’s ultra orthodox conservative religions are dumbing us down and trying to take over the rule of law in our land by subjugating faith over fact.

For the other dozen or so of you who wrote in to encourage me to keep the home fires lit…I will and I thank you for your support. To the letter writer whose words I quoted here let me simply say, “You need to live outside of your little town and your little church and your little circle of small-minded friends. Take a trip somewhere that they don’t play Fox News 24-hours a day. Talk to real people. Listen to them LISTEN TO THEM. Don’t be like your mentor, Rush, LISTEN TO OTHERS NOT LIKE YOURSELF…and learn from them. It is called growing up.”

As for my premise yesterday, one letter writer wrote, “…there is a play on words in your headline. And it is so true…both ways. (Yesterday’s headline read: Freedom is in the Balance.) Freedom itself is on a very narrow edge and walking the fine line where we all have our rights, privileges and respect in a balancing act that a just society strives for. Keep up the good words. We need them. We need the balance.”

All I can add to that is a huge — Amen.

Freedom is in the balance.

I want to start this column out by saying that I believe a person has the right to have faith in any religion he or she chooses.  I respect that; but I also add this caveat: so long as that religion does not violate the civil liberties of others. It can be a thin line, but rational folks know how to walk it. It the others, the irrational — the extremists — that I am writing about today.

I watched a documentary the other night about the days before and after the fall of the Shah of Iran. Now let’s set the record straight…the CIA and the Brits screwed this one up almost as badly as they did in Cuba and in Palestine.  They pushed the pendulum so far in one direction that when it swung back, it went way, way to the extreme, and a flourishing modern society came to a crushing halt and became a mob-ruled festering sore in the Middle East.

When the hardliners took over Iran in 1979 and drove democracy out of the country, they replaced it with a theocracy — a government based on religion. Everything in society changed over night.

The way women were treated in society changed most abruptly.  Education for women was curtailed. Freedom of expression for women was all but shut down. Look at old footage of the revolutionary days and you will see men’s faces in the streets, but no women.  Before the rise of the theocracy, women were everywhere in Iranian society.

Free speech and freethinking was also curtailed. Freedom of expression from all opposition parties was stamped out, as were hundreds of social mores that no longer sat well with the ruling Islamic Revolutionary council. A once proud and free society became a dark and brooding culture of hate and mistrust and poverty. (To be sure, American, European and British sanctions aided this process, but it was because of the hardline attitudes and actions taken by the fundamentalist in Iran.)

Now we do not have an Ayatollah leading an armed revolution, but we do have the makings of a fundamentalist theocracy in the United States, as hardliners on the far right of the Christian faith would have us revert to an Old Testament penal system for sins and sinners with whom they do not agree.

America’s pulpits are getting the fires stirred.

And they are marching us down that path, one little law at a time.  A discriminatory practice here, an anti-abortion ruling there. A mandatory church attendance run up the flagpole in Arizona’s legislature.  The weakening of voter rights all across the nation. Step by step, the far right is trying desperately to move America away from individual freedom and toward a shared faith philosophy in the way in which we govern.

Civil rights are almost sinful to them.

Women’s rights are definitely sinful. A man should be in control of a woman. It is preached from their venomous pulpits, with no less zeal than the Imams who preach hatred from their Mosques in Iran and Iraq and other extreme Islamic countries.

Sharia Law is not that different from the practices that the evangelical extremists would have us move. Not different at all. Everything is based on the “word of God.”  Everything. The reason and rule of law is subjugated beneath the bible to them.

And if you do anything to stand up to these merchants of discrimination and hate, they cry persecution and defilement. They wrap themselves in the flag and wave their scriptures around and protest with loud voices that they are not being allowed to practice their faith…even if their faith tramples the rights of others.

Our country is headed into an election year. Ted Cruz has raised millions from the far right PACs and is ready to start spewing his right-wing, ultra-narrow,  Christian propaganda over the land.  Convert, contain and conquer — the three C’s of the movement. And he is at the head of it. Just listen to his stump speeches and you can all but see and hear an old time evangelist railing against the pitfalls of an evil society gone wrong and gone against God’s will.

These are dangerous people. Well intentioned, I am sure. But dangerous. If America decides to follow them down their path, it will be a dark time for these United States. A dark time in deed. For women. For minority communities and for free thinkers everywhere. Artists, writers, even other ministers will find it a time of great concern should these extremists be successful in their quest. There will be no room to step out of line.

It will be their way or the highway.

I know good Christians who fear this sect of their faith. They fear it an awful lot. And that should tell you something. Don’t fall for the lies. Don’t fall for the half-truths and the innuendo. “Family protection”, “religious freedom”, “return to values”…these are their catch phrases designed to deliver a warm glow to people who feel marginalized on the fringe of society. Perhaps they are marginalized because they have placed themselves out on the edge of a modern, progressive and inclusive society —the place America has moved. A place where all people can be free. 

Our country was founded on the principles of liberty and justice for ALL.  Not for just the born again. Not just for the churchgoers. Not just for those who carry an ideology around that would put anyone not like them down. No. America was founded on the premise that all men (and women) are created equal. Everyone in America has their civil rights granted to them by law.  Those rights come to us through the Constitution. Not from the bible. Not from the pulpit. But from the pen of men who wrote down the framework for our great country.

‘We the people’…it means all of us.  Not just the saved.

Wake up America. The hardliners are at the gates and they are well armed, well financed and bitter as hell. Just listen to the gospel they sell. There’s not an ounce of love in it.

A quick peek into Selfies

I saw my first “selfie stick” at Epcot Center this past year.  Perhaps I had seen them before, but just not put two and two together to realize what they were used for. I can’t tell you how hard it was for Michele and me to get a selfie with us and the sign at Big Bend National Park behind us. The stick would have made it so easy.

But I think the stick also says something about us as a society, as well. We had to make an invention that would allow us to take pictures of ourselves in front of monuments and attractions. For what purpose?  To prove we were there?  To honor ourselves as being important people? 

 It all seems a bit narcissistic, to me. Call me old fashion, but you used to ask someone, “Hey buddy, can you snap a shot of my wife and I as we stand here and look like total geeks in front of Mickey’s ears?” And normally the other person would oblige with no questions asked.  He might even ask for you to return the favor with him and his twelve kids all from Akron, waiting to board the Disney Express.  And you would. You didn’t need a stick.

But today we’ve got sticks. Long Sticks. And if you’ve been to anywhere half-way historic they are all around.  Sometimes they are so prevalent in a location it is like trying to fend off branches in a rain forest.

I have never understood why it is so important to have pictures of ourselves at allocation. The location itself should be photographed with great care, preserving memories of it for our future. But instead, now we have a group of grinning tourists (ourselves included) in front of Rushmore or the Grand Canyon or Lincoln’s Monument.

My parents used to travel quite extensively and my father was somewhat of a photo hound on trips. And in almost every picture was my mother.  Here’s is Edith at the Pyramids. Edith at the Taj Mahal. Edit at Old Faithful. Here she is again in Tehran before the fall of the Shaw. Brandenburg Gate…there’s my mom. Every picture. 

So one day I asked him, “Why do you always pose mom in the pictures?”  He said, “To show we’ve been there.” But every picture? He continued that I just didn’t understand photography.  “People make shots interesting.”  I agree.  But not my mother seven hundred times.  It’s other faces with craggily lines and squinting eyes.  It’s women balancing loads on their heads as they walk along dusty African paths. It is the soldier— the guard at London’s Buckingham Palace or Rome’s Swiss Guard at the Vatican.  People are incredibly interesting. But not my mom over and over and over. (She was interesting…but I’m talking photography here.)   

And then there’s today’s selfies. Our faces in every shot of every imaginable angle of every thing to see in Washington, or New York, or Chicago. Museums, wharfs, battle fields, historical sites, the selfie is now front and center.

I don’t get it. We are not that important. And besides, all you have to do, is tell someone, I was there.  I don’t need to see you and my mother seven hundred times.

It is said, “Pride cometh before the fall.” I think vanity fits in there somewhere, too.

An Easter Tale:

My favorite Easter story*:

Three Italian men die on the same day, at the same time, in a fiery car crash just south of Palermo… and all wind up at the pearly gates the same instant.

St. Peter looks at his watch then at the books and shakes his head. “Too late in the afternoon to let anybody else in. We’re booked up. You three have to go back.”

They protest of course, because you never know what you’ll be if they send you back. For God’s sake you could be a Zebra, or worse a rattlesnake, or worse yet, a Southern Baptist Preacher. They had even heard one man returned as a Republican. Fear gripped their souls.

“Signore please. You help us, No?” said one man.

Peter looked around and shrugged. “Okay. I will ask each of you a question. The first one who answers it correctly gets into the Kingdom. But…but the other two must return to Earth. Understood?”

The three little men looked at each other and then nodded.  They were in agreement with the conditions.

“Oaky, number one, step forward.  What is Easter?” asked Saint Peter looking over his glasses.

The man squirmed a bit then spoke in a nasally vice. “Signore, that is the time when the little boys and girls rush from a de house to de house and ask for tricks or for a treats.”

No. No. No.” Said St. Pete.  “That’s Halloween.  “Next.”

A sheepish small man with suspenders stepped forward. “Si.”

“Can you tell me what Easter is?”

“Signore that is easy. It is the time when the Indians dey feeda da pilgrims with pumpkin and cranberries and de wild turkeys…”

“Noooo!  That’s Thanksgiving. Go to the back of the line. You. Number three. Step up here. Can you tell me what Easter is?”

The skinny man who barely kept his pants up, slumped his boney frame over and thought. Then he nodded. “Signore. Si. Dat is the time dey takea my lord and savior Jesus Christ and dey hang a him on a rugged old cross.  A nail in each of his scarred hands.  He a dies up there on de cross and dey take a him down, wrap him in cloth and place him in a dark cave.  Then after a three days, the big a stone, it’s a rolled away and Jesus, he a steps out into the light…and if he see his a shadow, we have a six amore weeks of de winter…”

Regardless your theology…have a good Easter.  See y’all next week…No blog on Sunday.

*Dedicated to the good men and women of Westboro Baptist Church.