Is Faith Enough to be Redemptive?

In a world that is unkind to the poverty stricken perhaps my own family could be held up as the object of Hitler's cruel world magnified, emboldened by the existence of Trump, who if he only knew would decry, your family is the surplus robbing us of the benefits that the privilege few may enjoy. Only the privileged should exist as you are the burden on society.

I have never witnessed a crueler time in society, such as, with Netanyahu killing the Palestinians in Gaza when it is a small sect, Hamas, that attacked Israel. I am not dismissing the 4,000 that were killed in Israel; however, I view the response as excessive, 20,000 killed and White Phosphorus being used by Israel to further induce pain.

Trump is much like Netanyahu in being a dictator and let us not forget Putin is in that same category as well as Xi Jinping. So, what has all of this to do with my family? Both of my parents had mental illness. As for our children, the illness is rampant. In Trump's world, like Scrooge in Dickens' novella prior to Scrooge's reformation, those that do not contribute to the traditional workforce are expendable and thus forgotten while rendered to a life of poverty.

Is this my plight, no but for an aunt who looked after my welfare. My plea is for not only my family, but for others who are disabled.

How do we value a smile? How do we care for our young? Today, society under the capitalist system does not value our disabled. More than likely, if one is disabled, that person will be rendered to a life of poverty. I want to write a novel on this topic that will be as moving as Charles Dickens' stories, but without all the adjectives. The youth of today will not have the patience for all of Dickens' descriptions as their interest is quick ...tell me the story that is so conveniently found on cellphones.

I have experience with the orphanage for ten years and the fall of orphanages throughout the nation. I need to write the story from a child's perspective. I want to write about the mental institutions and how this is also a failure in society from a teen's perspective to an adult perspective.

Eugenics existed in many places including the United States in the 1920's and1930's. I fear Trump, in his beliefs, would love to revive the practice. Will humanity stand up against this tyrant?

I will be visiting these topics in books I hope to write. From time to time, I will update you through my blog.

An opinion on the crisis in Ukraine and Israel

 Reaction to President Biden's Appeal an Opinion

Tonight, I feel compelled to respond to the President's address. First, I will respond to our President's position in Ukraine. I am an ardent supporter of the actions the US is taking to support Ukraine. Putin as a former member of the KGB has continued to take actions to not only suppress his own people, but neighboring countries as well. Putin is a dictator and will hurt anyone who is at odds with him.

I take exception to President Biden's position in Israel. Netanyahu is problematic. He is a dictator and corrupt. I want to make it clear; I do not support Hamas. I believe the Palestinian people deserve to be protected. Some have said Netanyahu by giving 48 hours for the Palestinian people to get out of Gaza was sufficient. Imagine trying to leave in the chaos.

The tragedy of this whole thing is the innocents on both sides. As the daughter of a veteran, I was twelve years old when I went to a Veteran's Hospital and witnessed a young man with no legs and no arms on a gurney without anyone speaking to him.

I would see more in later years, which impacted me greatly. My father was a WWII veteran. I am grateful I never witnessed the atrocities of war that he saw.

As a child, I was shaped by many events including being raised in an orphanage for ten years and tended to by a Roman Catholic order of nuns known as the Daughters of Charity. I was not ready for the world I would come to know having led a sheltered life.

War creates orphans who may become embittered and want to seek revenge. It is for the children that I pray as I am older and have lived a life that though it was filled with strife, I am grateful for where I am in my life now.

I don't have the answers for these conflicts, but I am grateful there are so many people trying to come to solutions, and I believe in the United Nations to help facilitate peace.

Half-staff after 911

 I look at the flag today in front of our federal building and it is September 14, 2023. Our flag is still flying half-staff. Many of the workers have quit from our housing project over the years.

Sadly, someone was stabbed yesterday and is in critical condition. The person stabbed is not memorable as she walks in her own dangerous circle. So no, the flag is not half-staff for her. The flag has been this way since 9-11.

Why is it this person could not be helped? Sadly, I don't know.

I just came to the realization the other day that her attacker asked for ice cream and cake at my birthday party. I didn't know him well, but if he wanted cake and ice cream who was I to tell him no. I had no idea he had a drinking problem and could be dangerous.

A Monologue to be Presented at Open Mic Night at Totem Books in Flint, Michigan, Aug. 26, 2023

 This may bore you, shock you or amuse you, I hope it is the latter.

I lived in Fowlerville, Michigan for a number of years in a handyman special home. You know the kind of places with a stop sign and one stop light and if you blink you miss the village. At any rate, for those number of years we contended with a lot of issues. You may remember the movie, “Money Pit.” One of the first problems was the water line that gave a direct source of water to our crawl space, so much so, it might as well have been a swimming pool. Needless to say, we had to have the water shut-off, fix the problem and turn the water back on.

In the course of that time, I began working at the village offices. I made the mistake of letting the clerk know that our water was shut-off and then turned on again. So why is that important, the Department of Public Works (DPW) Manager also served as the Village Manager. He did not charge us; however, the clerk that I opened my mouth to did charge for the shut-off for services rendered. Oh well, the story goes on.

A new Village Manager was hired, Dan Bishop. He offered to have me be the Assistant Village Manager. The Clerk then made the decision to let me go as I was an, “at will employee.” I discussed the situation with George Tait, a trustee, who thought I should contest the decision. I decided; however, I did not want to work in a hostile work environment.

As it turns out, I was hired by the Fowlerville Schools. Yes, it is a small world as there were times I substituted for my son’s kindergarten class and low and behold, his teacher was the clerk’s daughter. The position worked out well though and I received $5.00 more an hour than when I worked at the Village offices. Sometimes it pays off to keep one’s mouth shut.

Well, turning along in time, the clerk ultimately became the temporary village manager as well as serving as clerk, which became an issue for the Attorney General, Frank Kelly. Remember small worlds, Frank Kelly graduated with my mom from St. Theresa’s in Detroit. Kelly ruled the clerk could not serve in an elected position and a hired position. I am glad I never confronted her myself, and we remained amiable over the years. She was forced to give up the village manager position. 

In the course of all the reminiscing, I nearly forgot to tell you about our resident bats for twenty-two years. The first night we resided in our new home, which was a VA, FHA, HUD home, my ex-husband and I were sleeping in the bed along with our two-year-old in the living room when dashing out from the ceiling light was a bat.

I immediately pulled the covers over myself and our daughter while my ex-husband chased after the bat like Pete Rose hitting a homer or for you younger generation, Miguel Caberra.

For whatever reason, maybe because my ex-husband didn’t know how, we never had an exterminator.

For twenty-two years and after a divorce I contended with bats. My neighbors, who I will call the Handy's, told me about the trick of a tennis racquet where the bats are unable to detect the swing and low and behold… I could probably have volleyed with Venus and Serena Williams as I learned how to nail those things.

For our environmental enthusiasts, know that we had a high number of rabid bats in Livingston County. So much so, that one day I was on a walk with my ex-husband in daylight and a bat leaped from a tree right into my right ear. My ex-husband ran and got a shovel and smacked that thing. 

My neighbor, Mrs. Handy, who was about in her eighties at the time, said I should take it to the health department. Just my luck, the bat had rabies, so I had to take the shots. It was in 2005, and my mother passed away that year.

I will share more of this story when time allows.

Insurrection in China

I asked, artist, Rick Rose to do a rendering with what I felt were significant events in China. Of course, many of you are familiar with Tiananmen Square and the events that happened there over thirty years ago. I want to draw you attention to the banner on the bridge in Beijing last year, 2022, in which a protester displayed the work in protest against the government. Rick did a wonderful rendering that includes my poem. I am hoping to display this artwork at Vista Visions Art Gallery in Flint Township, Michigan.

Due to the artwork being small here, I will once again share my poem that is on the artwork. 

Insurrection in China

By Madeleine Graham

If ever insurrection were correct, It’d be knockin’ at China’s door

Where little ones are dyin’ at Chinese hands And Communist philosophy still stands

While mothers cry, while mothers cry

And look at our American President Shakin’ the hands of dictatorship

How can this be, You tell me… Most favored nation, I don’t agree

If ever insurrection were correct, It’d be knockin’ at China’s door

Where little ones are dyin’ at Chinese hands And Communist philosophy still stands

While mothers cry, while mothers cry

Look at Tiananmen Square And the lives lost there

Most favored nation, I don’t agree…How can this be? You tell me

And who’s in the banking now? Reno tied the hands of Freeh

Now freedom parishes in the name of greed

If ever insurrection were correct, It’d be knockin’ at China’s door

Where little ones are dyin’ at Chinese hands And Communist philosophy still stands

While mothers cry, while mothers cry

So Clinton rules the American land And nods in favor of the Communist man

Where’s the American ideal? Sacrificed to the silver serpent

Woven in the red blanket of the babes who will never be…All in the name of greed

If ever insurrection were correct, It’d be knockin’ at China’s door

Where little ones are dyin’ at Chinese hands And Communist philosophy still stands

While mothers cry, while mothers cry

If we all believed as the Communist do That women can’t provide…So must die

Where the children deformed can’t breathe a breath

The Einstein’s would never have been

Beethoven would never have played

Woolf and Tolstoy would never have written

Michelangelo never painted

Churchill never calmed the seas

And this song would not be

If ever insurrection were correct

It’d be knockin’ at China’s door

Where little ones are dyin’ at Chinese hands 

And Communist philosophy still stands

While mothers cry, while mothers cry 

But go ahead and wear the RED…And don the blood that is shed

Believe in the Communist Philosophy

And cling to the RED FLAG

Immersed in the blood of babes

But I’ll believe in humanity and civil liberty

But I believe in the judgment day…So I’ll continue to pray

For insurrection in China

For babes who are dyin’

For mothers who are cryin’

And lives lost in Tiananmen Square

For the Communist in China

Who embrace the bloodbath of babes

The RED FLAG must fall 

For the freedom of all

And greed must be seen as the green

Silvery serpent slithering in our Garden of Eden

Robbing us of babes 

In the season of spring

Note: I believe in changing hearts and minds not warfare

St. Vincent Sarah Fisher Home for Children

St Vincent Sarah Fisher Home for Children is facing the wrecking ball, my residence for ten years.

Both of my parents suffered from mental illness. My dad was able to work most of the time and was the glue that held our family together.

He was a WWII veteran and was a lifelong member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV).

I am hoping when the new owners take charge of the orphanage that they do what they say and preserve the Chapel.

My father had us stop in the Chapel on Fridays when he picked us up and on Sundays when we returned to offer a prayer for our family.

I often asked my dad when we would be going to the Chapel, when will we be going home? His response was always the same, "In God's own time."

God's own time would be ten years, but my father had an unwavering faith. Struggles for me continue to this day as I have bipolar disorder, but I have been blessed with a loving community and the nuns who raised me, as I was two when I went to the orphanage, continue to play an important role in my life.

My Aunt Madeline, who recently passed away, was a true loving support along with my grandma.

All the years that I lived in the orphanage, I never learned why the other children were there. We just knew it was not home.

The nuns, the maids, kitchen staff, social workers, grandparents and volunteers all contributed to my upbringing and for that, I am grateful.

I was informed this is Van Gogh's birthday and he was posthumously diagnosed with bipolar disorder and today, March 30, is bipolar disorder day.

I am grateful I had the opportunity to know my mom as in those days, they didn't really have the best medicines.

I hope others will be inspired to share their personal story by me sharing part of my story. I wrote this in a private section on Facebook that is reserved for the children and staff of the orphanage.

 

 

A Visionary Artist With Many Passions

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BSLL_x6hgKe7XcL5Mg88WslMQs0HCnwT3PpLRgVDMrg/edit?usp=sharing

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview artist, Rick Rose. Please see the article here and comment.

A Visionary Artist With Many Passions

 By Madeleine Graham  

In a home situated just outside the heart of Vernon, Michigan, lives Rick Rose, artist, along with his mate Wendy Durecki. Rose indicated that he has been working on his home for over twenty years, as the house is nearly two hundred years old. 

At one time, his estate was rumored to have a vein of gold discovered by a Native American, but alas it appears that was only a tale as Rose explains, but certainly something for fodder.   A reminder of the past includes original wooden siding that he plans to restore along with making a wine cellar for the wine variety vines they own. Rose’s main passion; however, is producing many works of art. 

 

Rose graduated from Eastern Michigan University with a B.S. in psychology and a minor in art. Certainly his father has had a positive influence on Rick, as his dad's love of woodworking also shows a creative flair. At age 8, Rose did a painting of a ship, and his dad knew then his son had a gift.

Rose has dabbled in many mediums including, charcoal, pencil, oils and acrylics. In 2006, palette knife painting in oils was favored by Rose. As a Christmas present for the family, he published his Knife Painting book containing many dogs, fish and other works through lulu.com publisher.

He has produced more than 200 artworks, of which several were commissioned works that people liked and purchased from Rose.

He went through a period of political renderings including painting portraits of Senators Hiliary Clinton, John McCain and former President Barack Obama. He also produced a White House painting.

Additionally, Rose has done some wire sculptures. He worked primarily in oils in his early years and later began to work in acrylic. 

Recently, he began working on landscapes. Rose hopes to create a collection of perhaps 40 or 50 for a solo show. He has dabbled in photoshop and used art filters as well as AI generators. Previously, to capture a particular time of a setting, he used a camera.

Of course, like most artists, Rose has many ideas that he creates in his head using graphite pencils and by using his love of charcoal.

Rose enjoys expressionism and impressionism. Many years ago, he worked with Target Industries in production printing by hand, in which every cover was different while also working in silk screen.

Some of Rose’s passions include scuba diving and swimming. Another is working as a personal trainer though with Covid, that was placed on hold as so many restrictions were being placed on trainers. He earned certificates in training and nutrition. He is particularly pleased with his nutrition endorsement from Wagenigan. Displayed here are a few of Rose’s artworks for critiquing. To see more artwork https://www.instagram.com/rick48476