AND the woman in front of me in the grocery store line (this was a few days ago) were BOTH using resuable grocery bags.  I was so jazzed to see that one by one, little by little, we can have an impact on the world we live in.  Making it more habitable, seeing fewer bags in landfills and on the streets.  If we band together, we can do amazing things.

Then, in one of those little synchronicities that God likes to send our way, I found this YouTube recording of "Stand by Me" where the performance is a pastiche of different street performers around the world.  It's worth a listen and a look.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Us-TVg40ExM
I'd embed it but my "content rich" weebly page takes long enough to load.  So click on the link above and enjoy.

And by the way, thank you each and all for standing by me.

As anyone who's been reading my blog for a while knows, I am a social liberal and a fiscal semi-conservative.  For the most part, on fiscal policy at the State and Federal level, I support paying for infrastructure, education and medical care for all people.  I'm not so keen on bailouts but was persuaded to back them.  I'm not so keen on taxes either, but I understand quite well the need to pay for goods and services that are common to us all but that no one would pay for individually unless they were forced to: clean air, fire departments, police departments, medical care (including mental health services, etc.)

Which leads me to California's sorry state of financial affairs.  In a nutshell, we are some $40 billion short of meeting our financial obligations over the next two years.  As a result, our State legislature and Governor Schwarzenegger put together a gaggle of 6 propositions aimed (according to them) at solving both our current fiscal shortfall and also mending some budget issues for the long term.

By way of background for my recommended slate of up or down votes on these 6 propositions, I will provide a summary here of what I feel the two crucial issues are that would genuinely move us in the direction of sound fiscal policy.  Then I will list each proposition with my recommendation.  As opposed to my thorough dissection of most propositions, I'm going with a quick and dirty yea or nay.  I know by-mail voters already have their ballots, so I want to get the recommendations out quickly.  If you have questions, I can supply details in subsequent postings.

Two Crucial California Budget Issues: 

1.  Ballot Box Budgeting:  I know, I know..you've heard this from me before.  And you'll hear it again now.  One of the most unwieldy processes for building a budget is a semi-sacred cow here in California.  We have, for the past several decades; limited the ability of our legislature to increase property taxes resulting in underfunded education, voted in new taxes and earmarked the funds raised by those taxes for special programs outside the legislature's control and outside of the General Fund budget, and we have voted to reserve a HUGE portion of our general fund for K-14 education under proposition 98. (45% of the general budget if my sources got their math right.) 

These mandated expenditures take up a substantial portion of our tax dollars and then we sit back and blame the legislature for not properly budgeting when we've tied one hand behind their backs.

2.  Super-Majority Required for Tax Increases and Budget Passage:  California is the ONLY State in the union where a super-majority vote of the legislature is required to both pass a budget and to raise any state taxes.  The super-majority rule, intended to protect the taxpayer from rapacious State legislatures, has resulted in partisan stalemates over budgets and in the ability of the minority party to hold the majority party hostage.

I can possibly support a super-majority for tax increases...but for budgeting?  It's pure nonsense.

With those two points firmly in mind, here's my roundup for the May 19th ballot.

Proposition 1A:  Vote Yes.  Painful as it is, imperfect as it is, Proposition 1A is how we're going to pay the piper for our whimsy at the ballot box and our refusal to hold legislators truly accountable beyond partisan bickering.  We owe the money, we should pay the extra taxes (1% sales tax, restoring the Vehicle License Fees to pre-pandering Arnold levels and increasing personal income tax by .25 percent across the board).  I also think that the Rainy Day Fund (aka BSF) increase is a plus and that the ability of the governor to reduce operational expenses and withhold cost-of-living adjustments for programs will help rather than hurt us.

Proposition 1B: Vote No.  I have quite a few friends who are teachers or former teachers, so I know my opinion will not be popular with them...however, I fail to see how creating a $9.3 billion "supplemental education" obligation against a $1.4 billion current "debt" created by Prop 98 helps us balance the budget in the long term.  It smells to me like a way to buy the Teachers' Union support of 1A and 1B.

Proposition 1C: Vote No.  I have nothing against modernizing our lottery to enhance revenue to the State and provide more oversight.  But I do have a SIGNIFICANT objection to securitizing future lottery earnings, borrowing against projected earnings now and paying more for them (with interest) in the future.
Didn't we learn anything from Wall Street's implosion?

Proposition 1D:  Vote Yes.  This will temporarily take funds from existing surplus funds accumulated under Prop 10 (ballot box budgeting for children and family services) to pay for State programs targeted at the same constituents.  It may reduce some programs temporarily, but since the program has an uncommitted surplus equal to the fund diversion, I see this as common sense.

Proposition 1E:  Vote Yes.  See above.  Same argument, different ballot box budget diversion.

Proposition 1F:  Vote Yes.  This proposition is more about the message than the meat.  The dollars saved will be negligible, but telling our State legislators "no budget, no raise" makes sense to me.  Heck, I'd go a step further and say, "no surplus, no raise."  But that's me.

That wraps it up for this edition of the Laura Morefield Proposition Voter's Guide.  If you have questions, ask.

Here are a few handy websites to do more research on your own:

The California Budget Project

League of Women Voters (whom I disagree with a lot this time!)

Open almost any book on cancer patients, surviving cancer, or treating cancer and you'll find a section on attitude being a key player to living with and/or through cancer.  A big component of a positive attitude for me is living today for today (and letting any future problems stay just where they are: in the future).  I also visualize dire things happening to cancer cells and hope to be the one person out of many who makes it through the other side of stage IV colon cancer.  I call that "dwelling in hope."

It's pretty amazing the amount of push-back that I get on hopefulness as a cancer patient.  The media supplies photos of Patrick Swayze and Farrah Fawcett with dire predictions about their "sell by" date.  Movies provide tropes of saintly sufferers or not-so-saintly cancer patients racked with pain.  And individuals who've experienced the loss of one or more loved ones due to cancer, or who've had other traumas in their lives...well, it's tough at best for them to join me in hoping to be a miracle.

Which leads to today's quote and question.  Albert Einstein said, "There are two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle."

Now that's dwelling in hope.  Today's question?  What is the nature of hope as you see it?

We had a long but pleasant trip up to see our friend in prison.  We will see him tomorrow, but tonight got to catch up with his wife and their daughter, son-in-law and grandson...along with another friend.  So fun to see little ones grow up and start to talk.

I am looking forward to tomorrow, holding our friend in my arms again for the brief hug we're allowed (and keeping my face averted due to low white blood cell counts).

Not to mention the new swine flu.  That would be ALL we need, eh?  Everyone be sure to wash your hands after shaking hands...avert your faces when hugging, too!  Kissing?  Well, that's up to you.

Updates perhaps tomorrow but I will for sure have a Sunday question.  See you then!

I know I promised something to y'all on the California propositions...and I did intend to do my reading and writing today.  But as with the entire week, things did not turn out as planned!

I took a nice 3.5 mile run/walk with Charlie this morning.  Saw my gorgeous and talented therapist for a tune-up of my thinking.  Came home after errands and ate lunch with Dan.  Then my energy level went swirling downward and since Anne and I had just talked about listening to my body...well, a nap intervened.

I'll be making dinner in a few and then finishing up the laundry...but I promise to take pc and articles with me for our road trip this weekend to visit our friend in prison.

It's odd not to write a blog every day.  I hope folks understand I needed a couple days off to get my mind wrapped around this week's postponed chemo...and I do appreciate you checking in to see what's what.

On the road tomorrow!  Lots of breaks and so looking forward to see our friend.

I only logged 9 holes this morning...which is a good thing for two reasons.  1.  It's already about 90 degrees outside and it was over 80 degrees when I left the course.

2.  I'm headed to the Getty Villa this afternoon (Yaaay!).  I haven't been there in over 20 years and I'm headed there with Steve and Kevin, which should make for a delightful experience.  (Along with dinner later in Santa Monica with Dan joining us.

I am pleased to report that I tied my best score ever on the front 9.  Shot a 46, having been 7 over par through 8 holes.  Unfortunately on the 9th, I ended up in the fescue, then in the sand (plugged just beneath the ginormous lip of the trap) then onto the green in 7 with a 2 putt for a 9.  So 46.  Very fun round with Renee'.

I AM actually doing research on the props for May 15th's election.  So far, I'm leaning "No" on all but the last one,but I need to read the actual propositions now that I've gotten everyone's opinions on them straight.

Sounds like good chemo activity to me!  Let's hear it for Golf on Monday!

I've had an interesting dialog this week with a friend on the nature of sin and the source of absolution.  Much of what we (at least he and I) spend a portion of our day obsessing about are things you wouldn't find in the 10 commandments...or even in the moral codes that follow in the old Testament.

Which leads to today's question:

What's your concept of sin?

We went to see a movie today (Duplicity) with Julia Roberts and Clive Owen.  And while I'll watch almost anything with Clive Owen in it, and although I really like Julia Roberts...and although the LA Times recently called it smart adult fare--well, I mostly just thought it was a good romance messed up by too much intrigue.  However, I confess I loved the ending and, if eye candy is something you're into, seeing the movie will be a fun event.

After the movie, we ate some mediocre snacks at a local restaurant to tide us over to dinner.  Now it's feet up time and I feel my pledge to do a bit of walking and running being won over by napping.  If I'm really refreshed by the nap...maybe both.

So what's up with you this fine, sunny, So-cal weekend?

Dan and Steven have headed south to Legoland.  Kevin and I are off to Laguna beach...blogging forecast?  Unlikely today.  Hugs all around.

Dan's brother, Steven, and his partner, Kevin, are safely arrived from North Carolina.  We have a variety of activities lined up...movies, possibly a Legoland venture for the two Morefields-by-birth, a jaunt to the beach and Monday we are headed to the Getty Villa and a festive dinner in Santa Monica.

All in all, a good excuse to hang out and relax with people we love.  Nice, eh?

The other "visitors from North Carolina" that I want to blog about is a wonderful independent film called Junebug.  We saw it the other night and while the film was not to Dan's taste, it was right up my alley.

The film is about many things: culture clash in America between blue states and red states, "elites" and "just plain folks;" stifled histories in an emotionally constipated family; the definitions of art; hope and loss.  The extremely engaging aspect of the movie to me was that one had to participate actively in viewing the movie--I found myself concentrating on the ways that the characters illuminated different themes in the movie without the director or writer once telling us what we should think, what the movie was "about," or how we should feel about the characters in their different moments of extremis.

There was a saying back in the screenwriting classes I was privileged to take with David Gerrold and D.C. Fontana:  Show, don't tell.  (I realize David and Dorothy were not the only ones to say this, nor the first ones to say this--I think, but they said it often enough with my scenes that I hear it in their voices.)

This movie does exactly that.  It shows us what it's like to take the risk of escaping a stifling environment while loving the people you left behind.  It shows us the cost of staying behind.  It shows us the cost of hope in the face of crushing loss.  It shows us how differently people define family and what being part of a family requires.

And not once did the film lecture...no characters waxed philosophical.  The movie just evolved naturally from the interplay of characters.  Sort of like life.  And better than reality t.v. ever dreamed.

If you like independent films, if you are content to let story unwind from character, then I urge you to rent or buy Junebug.  Exceptional performances, too, by Amy Adams and Embeth Davidtz, among others.