Memorial Day 2014: time for solemnity and outrage

The title says it all. This Memorial day is a time for solemnity and
outrage; solemnity in remembrance of those who gave the ultimate sacrifice
for our freedom and outrage over the treatment of our veterans by the VA.
What a contrast.

Memorial Day is a time to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for
our freedom. Without their sacrifice, we would not be free today. We would
not be able to express outrage at our government over treatment of our
veterans, advocate for special education services for blind and visually
impaired children, debate issues within an organization and much more. We
would be subject to absolute rule, something we are fortunate not to
experience; and it's thanks to our veterans that we are free. Please
remember them and what they did for us.

Now on to the outrage. We have the VA scandal which may have claimed lives
of our heroes, the ones who should be getting whatever they need, not being
put on a waiting list so bureaucrats can look good and get hefty bonuses.
How sickening.

This scandal has legs, even if not all Democrats speak out on it. People
generally don't like it when our veterans are denied what they deserve.
However, this country needs to do much better by them.

The ratio of doctors to veterans is 35 to 1 and there is a story out about
Gitmo that puts the ratio of doctors to prisoners at 1.5 to 1. What's wrong
with this picture? Plenty, if you ask me. When talking about Gitmo, we're
talking about terrorists who don't deserve better than our veterans. They
should be on the higher ratio IMO and our veterans should be on the lower
ratio. When will our priorities be fixed?
Unfortunately, that likely won't happen until Republicans take control of
Congress and then the White House as this administration sees only politics,
not human life and ramifications of its decisions in terms of that.

Then there is ObamaCare and our seniors. When they're not re-admitted, you
can thank the cuts to Medicare for this Again, where are our priorities?
More on this one at another time.

Our veterans deserve much better than they're getting. What does it say
about how we feel about those who gave the ultimate sacrifice? It doesn't
say much and VA Secretary Shinseki must go, preferably via the firing route,
as this is the only acceptable outcome for the VA scandal; but Obama is only
concerned about how things look for him politically. He doesn't care about
human life and that is evident. Look at Fast & Furious and Benghazi and
you'll see what I mean. Benghazi was all about winning an election, not the
4 men who lost their lives as a result of that terrorist attack. Fast &
Furious was about covering up a bad decision on handling gun runners, not
about the lives lost as a result of this hare-brained action. These are two
examples of the lack of priority placed on life by this administration and
the VA is the latest.

We need a culture in Washington that respects life not one that thinks life
is disposable for political purposes. Our veterans gave the ultimate
sacrifice and I have the freedom to say what I think and I thank all who
have fought and died to give me that right.

Thank you to all who have served. Your sacrifice is appreciated by me and
hopefully many others. I will pause to remember what this weekend is really
all about. Let's hope others will be forced to as well.

Weight loss and healthy eating: A work in progress

It's been a while since I've updated you on my weight loss and healthy
eating journey. I've lost about 20 lbs and want to keep it going. I have a
goal to get under a certain number by the end of June and am working on
that. Am I there yet? No, but I'll get there. It's a journey and you
never completely arrive as you're always working on it and trying to get
there.

Have I notice changes yet? Yes I have. For example, when we go out to
breakfast, I don't get the hash browns when I order eggs and bacon. I'll
substitute fruit for that, something I would not have done in the past.
However, I know how many calories I'm avoiding by substituting fruit for
hash browns and it's significant.

I don't eat at McDonald's as much and when I do, I get certain items which
don't include a medium or large fries any longer. I just get a small fries
when I get them which, unfortunately, is most of the time. When getting
chicken McNuggets, I don't get the sauce anymore. This saves some calories
right there.

When cooking at home, I only eat half of a baked potato most of the time.
This also cuts down on calories. We also don't eat potato chips at home for
the most part.

Do other changes need to be made? Yes but this will come with time and
effort. As I said, it's a journey and you must take it one day at a time.

Here's to continuing that journey to become the best I can be.