Lindy Davidson

[This is something I wrote several years ago.  It has been published in Spanish on the web here and I have shared it with a few people.]

In our enlightened age, one can hardly imagine the narrow minds that conceived of the institution of slavery as viable, good or defensible.  We marvel at the notion that humans were disregarded based on race.  I am proud to live in a land and a time where this heinous crime against humanity is no longer practiced and our past association with it is admitted with shame.  From this perspective, we see the shallow, selfish, arrogant nature of the arguments used to defend slavery—arguments such as these:

·      Negro slaves aren’t fully human.

·      They are not able to think in the same way and on the same level white men think.

·      I purchased these slaves, therefore they are my property and I can do what I please with my own property.

·      Freeing these slaves would hurt my lifestyle and ability to live as I now do.

Many of these arguments are false.  All of them are selfish.  However, if we look closely, we will recognize some of our own rhetoric regarding an issue which is hotly debated in our day.  That issue is abortion.

When we think of civil rights movements, we think of the refutation of the shallow arguments mentioned previously.  Unfortunately, those promoting civil rights are upholding these very arguments over the issue of abortion.  Do any of these statements sound familiar?

·      A fetus is not a person.

·      A fetus is not able to think and function as I function.

·      The fetus is inside me, therefore it is a part of me, and I can do what I please with my own body.

·      Allowing this fetus to live would greatly affect my lifestyle and I would not be able to continue to live as I now do.

Are any of these reasons good reasons for abortion?  Only insofar as they are good reasons to allow one race to enslave another.  And ironically, this debate is based on freedom.  We have turned the rhetoric for slavery into rhetoric for freedom.  Where is the lie?  It’s in the idea of freedom.  Does an abortion really free a woman?  Does pregnancy really enslave a woman?  These are questions which have not been asked in this 30-year debate.  But let’s ask.  Let’s ask the women who have experienced these things.  You, sister, who had an abortion 10 years ago, are you free?  Did that procedure liberate you?  Were you not told that it would offer you these promises?  Did they lie to you?  And you, sister, who chose to keep that fetus and birth that child, are you in shackles?  Are you a slave with no hope of a life of freedom?  Find you any joy in that one you call son or daughter?  It’s time we started asking the questions.  When we do, we will expose the lie. 

It is the great crime of our time.  Abortion is not the freeing of a woman, it is the enslavement of society to shallow, selfish and arrogant thinking.  How could we have been duped a second time?

Today I have been…

referee

food source

playmate

enforcer

teacher

counselor

maid

cook

waitress

secretary

nurse

translator

spiritual advisor

I have embodied…

elation

frustration

confusion

indifference

agitation

amusement

contradiction

self-control

recklessness

resourcefulness

I am…

a basket case

a glutton for punishment

a woman of privilege

a mother

doing it again tomorrow

The Lunchroom Bandit reviews a summer time favorite, while I discuss it’s favorite mate.

Ice Cream

Wow! This is my favorite ice-cream store is Baskin Robins! Well first they have a ice-cream that is called America’s Birthday cake. It’s vinila ice-cream blue frasting and sprenkls in it. Next they have a ice-cream that is called tropicol ice. It tasty like tropicol fruit and fruit punch. Last I have another favorite ice-cream store Clumpies Ice-cream Co*. My favorite ice-cream is pop rock. It is blue ice-cream with pop rocks on it. And those are my favorite ice-cream store and ice-cream.

—LRB

*Clumpies is located on Frazier Ave. in Chattanooga, TN. If you go, say “hi” to Anthony.

Cake

Mmmm. I love cake. I love to make cake and I love to eat cake, with ice cream, of course. So here is a pictorial history of some of my most memorable cakes. (well, the ones I’ve captured in digital form, that is.)

First up, the kidney cake of 2006.  This was made by our dear friend Mo to celebrate the anniversary of Will’s kidney transplant.  (Grandma Kathy was his kidney donor).  It says “Yipee! It’s your anniversary. I love you Will”  And yes, it is in the shape of a kidney and yes, that’s a red licorice ureter.  I haven’t asked Mo if she’s ever done any other organs, or perhaps armadillos???

Next we have the Barbie cake I made for Mo’s birthday a year and a half earlier.  She said she’d always wanted one when she was a little girl and I figured, who says you have to be a little girl to get a Barbie cake?!

Here is the birthday cake I made for Will and Aaron this year while we were in Kentucky.  I did not have all my cake-makin’ stuff available, but it didn’t matter because it had “Wightming Naqueen” on it, and that was all that was necessary to make my boys happy.

And finally, here is the cake I made (at home with all my cake makin’ stuff) for our friend Stephen’s 7th birthday.  He loves gummy worms, so, if you look closely, you can see that they are crawling out the sides of the cake.  F.M. admitted later to me that this kind of grossed him out. Ha!!!  I was really proud of this cake, I should consult the Lunchroom Bandit for the perfect ice cream to accompany it.

—L.D.

I keep meaning to put this link up and I keep forgetting.  A couple of months ago, the people at Arnold Palmer Hospital shot some video of our family for a fundraiser for the new Kids’ Kidney Center.  You can see it by clicking HERE.  They did a great job, and Will can be seen in the intro as well as the video about him.  Hope you enjoy.

As is fitting for the season, the Lunchroom Bandit decided to review her two favorite concession stands.  Unfortunately, I haven’t had much concession stand experience lately, but with 3 small boys, I’m sure those days are just around the corner.  However, I do remember two of my favorite concession stand experiences.  One was in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where the concession stand was more like a walk-up cafeteria.  You could get a quarter of a chicken for 75 cents.  This was at a youth-league baseball game.  They had fresh bread and soup and all kinds of homemade food.  It was a welcome change from plastic cheese nachos and stale popcorn.  My other fondest concession stand memory was in my home town of Paducah, Kentucky where my father coached a baseball team.  When I was a kid, Jim and Peggy ran the concession stand and Peggy made burgers on a griddle in the back.  My sister and I called them “Peggy Burgers.”  They were smooshed flat and probably grade C meat, but we thought they were the BEST!  After Peggy and Jim retired from the lucrative business of selling concessions at youth baseball games, my mom had to take it over.  In addition to being “team mom”, our mom, the coach’s wife, and the statistician, she also got the privilege of running the concession stand.  Peggy burgers were no more.  My mom made hot dogs in a crock pot and stopped the sale of bubble gum because she had stepped in it and sat in it too many times.  (As a school teacher, she had a natural disdain for Super Bubble.)  My mom had no love for the sales of concessions, and it showed (sorry Mom, I know you’re one of the three people who actually read my blog).  On the upside, my sister and I got to work in the concession stand, which we considered great fun, almost as much fun as eating a Peggy Burger.

–L.D.

At tea ball they have: hotdogs, candy pizza, boiled peanuts, hamburgers, and soda. At soccer they have . . . tea, air heads, and hot chocolate. Those two concessions are my favorite food stands. The End.

–L.B.

I just saw a link to my blog in the RTS Alumni snippets and thought, hmmm, maybe I should update.  Will is doing fairly well in his body cast.  Of the 5 members of the family, I think he is the most likely to be cheerful in such a confining state.  He’s got his Grandma, Grandpa and oldest cousin here this week to keep him company, but after that, it’s just his boring parents and pesky younger brothers.  His cast is gathering signatures and is bright green.  We are looking forward to the 6 week mark when he should be able to shed that green shell and hopefully be on the right path to learning to walk.  Dressing him has been a challenge, so I resorted to making him some shorts.  I managed to turn out two pairs in one day.  Look out fashion world.  Theologian, food critic, seamstress…who knows what’s next?

компютри втора употребаThe Lunchroom Bandit and I are going to tell you about two of our favorite restaurants:

Olive Garden:  I am going to tell you about my favorite restaurant.  First they have great bred sticks.  Next they have awesome salad.  Then they have yummy pasta.  Now dilishes soup.  Last they have terifec chicken.  That is my favorite restaurant!

–L.B.

La Choza:  Rarely do I think about a meal I ate in a past decade.  Ok, it happens occasionally, and it’s always the same one.  Sometime around May of 1993, I ate a grilled shrimp dish with creamed jalepeno and garlic butter sauces.  The jalepeno sauce was not spicy, just marvelous in every way.  The shrimp were ginormous (to quote “Elf”) and whatever else was on the plate was simply bowing towards the shrimp and sauces as if to say “we’re not worthy.”  The unfortunate thing for me is that this restaurant is in Cozumel, Mexico and I am very much NOT in Cozumel.  So if you ever go to Cozumel, you must go to La Choza and order this dish.  But be warned, the succulent flavors will stalk you for the rest of your life.  

–L.D.

Well, everyone knows I’m a foodie so I decided it would be appropriate to start a section of my blog on favorite foods, restaurants, recipes, etc.  To make it more interesting, I decided to invite a fellow foodie to join me.  Her blog name is “The Lunchroom Bandit” but you should know that she is the greatest aficionado of food McKeel Elementary has ever known.  In our first posting, we will discuss our favorite restaurants.  Hope you all enjoy!

Pajama parties, playing cards, being creative in the kitchen (i.e. making a BIG mess).

Shirley Temples, white table cloths and fancy dresses.

Johnny Cash, Boxcar Willie, classic country.

Brutal honesty: “you need a shampoo” and “that skirt makes you look like Little House on the Prairie.”

Absolute affection: hugs and kisses, zerberts and pats on the rear.

Tender care: help for the sick, meals for the hungry, watchful eyes for the babies.

Sounds like a winner!

Nana

April 28, 1926 - March 21, 2008

So I had knee surgery on Tuesday.  Last Thanksgiving I tore my meniscus while ice skating and this was my first opportunity to really do anything about it.  So now I’m on the couch helpless to do anything worth doing around here.  I’m now realizing that most of my day is made up of quick, dashing movements that I cannot manage at the moment.  Levi topples over in the floor and what can I do?  Yell for someone else to come and rescue him.  Will begins to disassemble one of Aaron’s new toys and what can I do?  Yep, yell for someone else to come and take it away.  I need a drink of water, so what can I do?   You guessed it, yell for someone to come and get me a drink and hope I don’t have it poured over my head since the only people I have to ask are now taking care of 3 children so I can sit on the couch and yell instructions at them.  Let’s all hope this recovery is a quick one.