Day: February 17, 2020
She will live on at Slabbed forever….
Here we are seven weeks into 2020 and I am still reminded of the last week of 2019. I was melancholy that week, 2019 was such a rewarding year personally I didn’t want it to end because I knew 2020 would be a year of great change as our transition to an empty nest would be complete. One of the things my former partner in blog Nowdoucit aka Nowdy was big on was not living in the past and I reminded myself of that then as I shook off the blues and moved into 2020.
It’s no use going back to yesterday, I was a different person then. ~ Nowdoucit
2020 soon brought more change than I ever imagined that last week of 2019. Last week was huge for Slabbed as we learned of the passing of Nowdy. She was a co-founder of this website and the name on the masthead is her creation. So much of what you see here to this day is influenced and informed by the association between us despite the fact her last post here was almost nine years ago. What you guys never knew was she remained an occasional commenter here on the website as well as an important sounding board for me.
I wish I could tell you that life treated her kindly since she departed the website and in some respects it did but she also experienced incredible heartbreak more recently. It was the way she handled that adversity that increased the amount of respect I had for her exponentially. I was far from alone as she impacted the lives of hundreds of Mississippians from many different walks of life.
The archive of Nowdy’s posts at Slabbed will live on long past today as will her influence on me.
I want to find a quiet place, to sit with you a while, to talk about the happy times, and hope that makes you smile. Rest in Peace ~ Susan Smith
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” —Lao Tzu
Other Voices | Tom Callaghan: Bernie Sanders. A Man for This Season
Posted on February 14, 2020
Donald Trump is a dangerous force of selfishness, darkness and deceit. He is an existential threat and must be defeated by a more powerful opposing force.
Bernie Sanders is not a man for all seasons. Not by a long shot. But he sure as hell is a man for this season…a fortitutious meeting of man and moment. Most of the time America’s presidential personality and style preferences lean towards affable confidence and casual flair. JFK, Reagan, and Obama had the formula. Bernie does’t do “affable” but this isn’t “most of the time.” This is now and nobody available speaks with the seriousness and passion that Bernie brings to doing the right thing for the “human family” right now. Bernie is impatient to do right. He takes injustice personally. Listening to him is not always easy. We’re not talking Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue. I’ve heard him a few times and, if truth be known, sometimes he makes you hunger for the more soothing sounds of fingernails on a blackboard. But, as they say, no pain no gain. Listen to Bernie a few years ago at Liberty University, the school that Jerry Falwell founded, one of the most conservative audiences there is and see how he holds the audience and earns their respect. Anybody who tells you Bernie can’t win is either wrong or intentionally trying to misdirect because they fear his strength. Because his message is strong and true he can tell it anywhere…a biker bar in Steubenville, OH, a truckstop in Breezewood, PA, Silvia’s in Harlem or the Republican Women’s Club in an upscale Philadelphia suburb. Dissemblers and half truth tellers (Hillary Clinton comes to mind) are limited to preaching to the choir. Their message doesn’t travel. People see through them. Bernie can go anywhere because, as it says in the Good Book, “the truth will set you free.”