Gleaning Facebook: Why We Fight For ObamaCare

A reminder of why we fight for the Affordable Care Act. Shame on those trying to repeal it. It is not perfect, but it has wonderfully improved our system. Let's fix it, improve it, make sure it is affordable for all.

Gleaning Facebook: Barr & Mueller

 

--------------

Mueller has found insufficient evidence to indict Trump or his campaign on conspiracy with Russia.

Mueller left the decision on the clear obstruction we all witnessed in plain view to the AG and Barr has decided that this evil behavior by the president is to be ignored legally and is now squarely in the hands of a Congress that, in the end, cannot get a fair hearing in the Senate.

The other criminal activities of the Trump financial and campaign organizations will be decided in other jurisdictions.

Our beloved America has been in a crisis since November of 2016. It will continue in crisis until at least November of 2020.

My friends we are in a fight for the very existence of our republic.

Comments:

Tim Shiflett We really need to see that report. Barr's interpretation of obstruction pretty much just gives two sides of the same coin.. I bet the Dems wind up having to issue subpoenas to get most of it.

Jim Curry Looks like we’re stuck with this for a few more months and maybe several more years unless Americans wake up and vote this now-more-than-ever-emboldened criminal enterprise out of office so the SDNY can finally levy justice.

Anne Edwards Langley I think NY is our best hope

Paula Dickinson ‘Clear obstruction we all witnessed in plain view’ and ‘evil behavior by the president’... You folks spew these ideas ad nauseam so much you actually believe them. 2 years and 25 million $ of taxpayer money has shown no evidence to indict. Get over it and support the good Trump is doing .

Terrell Shaw When I see good I will support it. Meanwhile you are OK with: supporting the murderers of Khashoggi; condemning American war heroes and praising Kim; condemning our FBI & CIA while praising and accepting the excuses of murderer Putin, overlooking daily money-grubbing by the Trump organization off our presidency, accepting daily, heck hourly, documented lies....

Don Henderson We brought in more in criminal penalties than was spent.

Daniel Eason https://www.google.com/.../mueller-investigation-cost-tax..

Fred Gould Don Henderson Come on Don don't go muddying the water with 10's of millions of dollars in seized assets.

Bill Schoepski Paula Dickinson Tell me what "good things" this President has done.

Howard Smith Could you please some specifics of “the good Trump is doing”. What I know is our national budget debt , which came down 7 years in a row under President Obama has skyrocked, our trade deficit is at a decade high, a record number of farmers have declared bankruptcy because of his tariffs, his tax cuts mostly benefitted corporations and the wealthy, Americans have lost trillions in personal wealth over the past two years, drug prices have continued to rise, mass shootings and gun related deaths have continued unababated and climate change is being ignored. I could go on but let me give you a change to present the good you see.

Greg Weiss Sadly, this is an accurate assessment of the situation.

Deborah Lake Dawson I was so afraid this would happen.

Marlene Wood Benghazi, SMH.

------------------

Gleaning Facebook: John Schulz "Keep Moving"

Storing this little gem from John Schulz for future reference: 

“ But I’m not here just to make records and money. I’m here to say something and to touch other people, sometimes in a cry of desperation: “Do you know this feeling?”

-Keith Richards in his most interesting book, “My Life”

Photo by Bill Land

I remember one cold and rainy day when Mister Cox walked down the road to visit in my greenhouse. Water was dripping from the brim of his fedora. He took his Prince Albert can out of his pocket. It was wrapped in plastic. He started build himself a smoke.

“Mister Cox, I didn’t expect to see you today.”

“Well, Mister Sholts,” he answered, “I learnt that at my age you cain’t set around all the time. Then you get old and die. The trick is to keep moving.”

I said, “So you went for a walk in the rain?”

“Hit was too wet to split firewood.”

“Mister Cox, aren’t you too old to be splitting firewood?”

“Well, Mister Sholts, I reckon if you kin do it you ain’t too old.”

I was in my early thirties then and I didn’t understand what he was saying. The more I think about Mister Cox these days, though, the more I understand.

- John Schulz

Gleaning Facebook: Canada geese

 Humans are omnivores. Rome has an abundance of Canada geese. Rome has hungry humans. Rome is in north Georgia where there are many poultry processing plants.... hmmmmmm.

Gleaning Facebook: Spring is Here!

Martha Jane Montgomery
Love this shot of house

Patricia Buffington Jackson
Pretty!

Dean Reeves
Very nice

Debbie Carter Reed
Love this picture! I passed it everyday on my way to work at Rome Florist. The last time I drove by it was on September 12, 2013. I had a stroke at 2:00 am on September 13, 2013. Now Rome Florist has closed

Terrell Shaw
Debbie Carter Reed how are you doing now? So sorry to hear about the stroke!

Debbie Carter Reed
I’m doing good. I can’t walk but I’m just thankful to be here

Rose McDonald Darby
How beautiful!

Frank Logue
Love seeing y’all’s house looking so good!

Monte Howell Fricks
So very pretty! Is this your home, Terry?

Terrell Shaw
Yes. We love the ol' Money Pit. Built in 1969 [Later Note: Sheila noticed my typo! Off by a century... 1869!!] by Rome's founder Daniel Mitchell.

Monte Howell Fricks
Is it on Ave. A?

Terrell Shaw
yes.

Monte Howell Fricks
Terry, I'm now living in northeast Ohio. Wish I could drive by & see it again. Also wish I could have heard you speak at the retired teachers meeting. You make me proud!!!

Terrell Shaw
Sheila & I would love to have you stop by for a cup of coffee the next time you visit Rome. You were a wonderful, caring teacher and a positive influence on the life of an unfocussed undisciplined 17 year-old!

Monte Howell Fricks
Thank you so much, Terry. I would so love to stop by, but I'm afraid ...I'll never be back. (That was difficult to say.) We never know. 

Anita Stewart
I love your home!!!

Dona Ward
Beautiful!

Gleaning Facebook: Bil & Andy Are Unleashed On Rome

The class clowns have arrived in Rome.

Mama Wolf’s expression says it all.

We kick off the public shows Friday evening at eight. Www.bigfibbers.com for tickets.

Paula Gordon Lepp, should you allow this guy out of the house unchaperoned? 

Comments:

Bill Candler
A traveler who went to Europe last fall informed me the original has only one sucker.

Terrell Shaw
Huh?! I never heard that! Did somebody steal one, like someone did here one time? 

Bill Candler
No clue, they seemed to be on the side of it was originally that way and the gift to Rome, Ga. is different for an unknown reason.

Andy Offutt Irwin
Bill Candler . ‘Posed to be two, the twins Romulus and Remus.

Benjamin Amis
There should always be two.

Capitoline Wolf - Wikipedia

Paula Gordon Lepp
I thought Andy Offutt Irwin WAS the chaperone! My mistake...

Terrell Shaw
Have mercy, Paula, you gotta know better'n that!

Paulette Crimm Gordon
Wish I was there.

Terrell Shaw
Paulette Crimm Gordon come on we got room.

John Paul Schulz
They're making a new one that looks like you. You will be honored.

David Matheny
No, Bil and Andy.....Momma ain't sharin'.

Dekie Hicks
Uh oh. It's started!

Tammy Lepp Killebrew
We will see u Saturday!!

John Paul Schulz
"Hey Romulus, this one's chocolate"

Tony Pope
Between our regular Tellers of Tales...can Rome handle this much storytelling at one time?!?!?! 

Gleaning Facebook: Big Fibbers Contest 2019

Y'all come! What an amazing line-up of tellers. 

 

Gleaning Facebook: Green Tree Frog

 What a great story... my wonderful fellow teachers Marilyn Murdock McLean and Ruth Pinson helped our Armuchee kids accomplish something marvelous.

From Beth Gibbons Facebook:

My mom ran across this article today from the AJC, dated March 14, 2005. Matthew’s class at Armuchee Elem lobbied and got passed naming the green tree frog the official State Amphibian of Georgia. Awesome experience for those kids. Great memory. And doesn’t he look precious in the frog hat?

Gleaning Facebook: Memory

 This morning I noticed a post from Antioch Mackville United Methodist Church … Kenneth Riley, 83, of Mackville had died. And my 71 year old brain, which cannot call up the names of friends of many decades at times, instantly retrieved a sixty five year old image of a teenage boy from my father’s church in Mackville back in 1952-54.

I went to the Mackville yearbook. It was his senior year and my first grade year in that little First through Twelfth school. He did well for himself. Was a businessman, a farmer, and a banker. Married and raised a family there in Mackville and will be buried there. I moved to Griffin Georgia that year (1954). I think I’ve driven through Mackville once since then.

I think he would understand that, as a six yaer-old he was just a “big kid” in our church to me. I didn’t know him well then, and barely remember him now. Still it saddens me to see he’s gone.

Tell Me A Story - Monica Shepherd

If you missed it yesterday, take a few minutes to read Monica's op ed from the Rome News.... and go ahead and order your tickets online for Rome's own Big Fibbers Storytelling Festival --- 

What a joy to read this, delivered with a perfect cuppa joe to my sorry late rising retired self this morning, courtesy of my sweet wife, Sheila Matthews Shaw.

Monica Sheppard is a talented writer and captures much of what I love about storytelling in these few words.

She mentions David Holt's signature motorcycle story. If you listen carefully to this recording...

https://youtu.be/Am5-Zzb4-8M

... you may make out my laugh, I was at Jonesborough to hear David tell it. My kids, like Monica, grew up listening to Holt and other world class professional storytellers. Bil Lepp --- just one "L" please --- and Andy Offutt Irwin fit in that category too. Y'all get your tickets at www.bigfibbers.com.

Thanks for the plug for Rome's annual storytelling festival, Monica. (Click the picture to read Monic'a articles in the Rome News-Tribune.)

Gleaning Facebook: White Privilege (Three Posts)

The inequities in sentencing in America are nauseating. We lock up more people than China but give a traitor 47 months? Someone resurrect Charles Dickens, we need some stories told. What if Manafort had been poor or black or an immigrant

---------------

Comment:

Cece Baker

It's not racism, there are PLENTY of Caucasians that are treated unfairly by the justice system as well. With judges investing in the construction of prisons and receiving financial returns based on occupancy rates, reported increase of crime within the African American race, and law enforcement's maltreatment of EVERYONE, THIS is what you get - a broken justice system.  https://www.aclu.org/ Not every injustice in this world is about race, and it appears that there is plenty of "reverse racism" to go around.

----------------------

This enrages me. This despicable criminal, and really a traitor, put his own greed, his own financial gain above his loyalty to America. Meanwhile poor, or black, or immigrant defendants are incarcerated at rates much greater than people in China or other nations and for longer terms for lesser crimes than Manafort.. Our republic is very damaged right now. We have much work to do if we are to re-establish it.

Comments:

Katie S. Kimbrough
I feel like it isn't the right punishment.

Jim Curry
What you bet Trump called the judge.

Terrell Shaw
Three years ago I would have considered your suggestion conspiratorial insanity. Now it has to be considered seriously. No evil can be dismissed as too absurd to be real in the age of Trump. Still I suspect this meme has it right: this judge perceives Manafort as part of his tribe. A poor, black, or immigrant criminal would have been seen as the scary "other" in his eyes.

Jim Curry
Yep, I can hear it now. “Please go easy on this guy. He’s a good man (white, rich, Republican).”

Sandra Pride
This judge is not a patriot. I'm betting Republican,maybe knows manafort or got paid off,

CeCe Baker
With judges nominated by political parties in the Northeast, and sitting on the bench for life, you can bet that there was outside influence on the judge's decision.

Gleaning Facebook: Rome Georgia With Kids

 will enjoy it just as much as their parents do. Thanks to the neat website Rome GA with Kids for this good summary of why to bring your kids with you to the festival.

Click this link:

http://romegawithkids.com/spotlights/

Click this link to order your tickets online, quickly and securely:

www.bigfibbers.com

Gleaning Facebook: Bil & Andy, Not Mr. John This Time

 From John Paul Schulz:

March 5, 2019

Taking the living room to the schools.

Our Ridge and Valley Storytellers group is bringing two of the best story performers in the nation to entertain and teach storytelling at most of the local elementary schools.

Here’s a sweet story that answers a child’s question about a local storyteller. I take care of the flowers for a client who has horses. I go there in the afternoons every now and then to check the flowers and I often run into Hayley who sees to the needs of the horses (physically and psychologically). Haley has two daughters and a son. I’ve watched the daughters, Fern, (5), and Finch, (3), grow into lovely young ladies who always have a greeting for “Mr. John” (that’s me). The girls are delightful. The little boy is too young yet to recognize my brilliance. I’m sure he and I will be good buddies one day.

The other day, I got a message from Hayley on Facebook: “Fern asked if the famous storyteller who is coming to see them at Model Elementary is Mister John.” And here’s the answer:

“Please tell Fern that Mister John will not be one of the story tellers but that Bil Lepp and Andy Irwin will be there to wow them with a story or two. And Fern, I guarantee that you and your friends will truly love the show. You’ll laugh and you’ll go “awwww!” Both of the storytellers will be at Model on Wednesday, March 13. You are in for a treat!”

And for the adults, the Ridge and Valley Storytellers is bringing you a wonderful storytelling festival called “The Big Fibbers Festival” on March 15 and 16. Mark your calendars. Details will follow tomorrow.

--John Schulz

My good friends Fern and Finch with their new little brother.

Gleaning Facebook: Clemmie Today

 

Gleaning Facebook: John on Preparing His Fib

John Paul Schulz is getting ready to compete in the 243rd Annual Big Fibbers Contest (during the Big Fibbers Storytelling Festival at the city auditorium here in Rome. He’s got some fierce competition from eleven other fibbers from five states! 

Getting ready for the Big Fibbers competition on March 16.

It's a rainy Sunday afternoon and I'm taking myself to school. I've learned some things today.

1. I learned that eight minutes is not a long time to introduce a character, set up a situation, and finish a story--especially if I pause for audience laughter (which I expect to do several times). Do you think the judges should deduct laughter time from total story time? I'm sure they won't.

2. And I have learned that a good short story is not at all the same thing as a script for a good storyteller story. That's what I'm working on mastering. I'm having to change the short story into a script. This concept is new to me.

But I shall persevere. "Never" is the best time to stop learning.

-John Paul Schulz