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Vintage

8/9/2015

The word vintage, as defined by Merriam Webster dictionaries, means:

a season's yield of grapes or wine from a vineyard (2) : wine especially : a usually superior wine all or most of which comes from a single year
a. a period of origin or manufacture <a piano of 1845 vintage>
b. length of existence: as in age

I have decided that I am of an age now that I might be considered “vintage.” First, I think I might be a superior person as a superior wine is. I could be called a 1946 vintage (my year of origin) or my years on this earth could be considered vintage years. Time will tell on that last one.

You might be wondering “why on earth?” have I begun to think this way. I do not usually think such lofty thoughts. Well, this all started with my clothes.

Not too long ago someone commented on what a beautiful top I was wearing. I thanked her and said I had owned it for quite some time. I realized that I not seen this particular label in a while so I looked it up online. There it was – it was a “vintage” label. I looked up other clothing labels and found the same thing. These quality labels are no longer manufactured. And I can buy these “vintage” items on Amazon. These particular vintage brands must be very well made, since they are standing up to the times and still can be purchased from vintage stores and online. How many new labels can make that promise?

I wear my “vintage” clothes with pride, knowing that others have to purchase them for prices that are usually more than I paid. I am not embarrassed about being older because I was born in a “vintage” year – 1946 was the first year of the baby boomers, the largest population group in the US thus far. Kind of makes me and my vintage year celebrities.

I do wonder about all the “newbies,” though, both people and clothing; will they make it long enough to become “vintage?” Will our youngsters burn out from drinking, partying, drugs, etc. in excess? Will all of these expensively designed clothes made abroad in sweat shops hold up long enough to be “classic vintage?” I probably will not be around to see what happens because I am a “vintage” age now. I REALLY like that term. I feel so special.

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What Lives Matter?

8/1/2015

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After the horrible massacres of black people by policemen, crazy white supremacy nuts, and the like, black people started marching recently in protest with signs that said “Black Lives Matter.” When gun men senselessly shot down policemen for no reason, new signs appeared that said, “Blue Lives Matter.” I think we are getting too hung up on color, as usual. All lives matter no matter what the color. It is true that black people are still suffering at the hands of other races, but there are other lives that are being singled out and no one is protesting their destruction. No one carries signs in protest. Very few seem to care.

First, let’s talk about all the children who are abused, tortured, neglected, and even killed. Don’t these young lives matter? No one marches in support of these precious little ones who belong to all colors. Don’t “Young Lives Matter?”

Why aren’t people marching for women who are still discriminated against in the workplace, on the streets, in their homes, and just about every aspect of their lives? We have women killed for no other reason than some sexual predator “uses” them and throws them away. We have husbands who beat their wives and girlfriends just because they can. We have qualified women being passed over for promotion just because of their sex. Don’t “Female Lives Matter?”

Although the nation has accepted that gay individuals’ lives matter, there are so many people who abuse them at every turn. They cannot get past their sexual orientation and see the individual person. Again, people kill them, beat them, and discriminate against them because they do not fit the “normal” view of white, heterosexual, male. Few of the people I mention here fit this particular “norm.” And this “norm” is so passé and not accepted in most of the world. So I say, Don’t “Gay Lives Matter?”

Now, for my pet peeve - what about senior citizens? So many of these people have accomplished much in their lives and deserve a little peace in their golden years. Too many are not protected from “elder abuse” by their families, their government, and sometimes absolute strangers. Society assumes that all seniors who have worked 40+ years have some sort of “golden parachute” when they retire. Most of them live on Social Security and a small pension if the places where they worked offered one. Many have had to spend their “retirement money” and “life savings” on illness costs. So I ask again the question again. Don’t "Senior Lives Matter?”

The point I am trying to make is that “All Lives Matter” and we should not divide our efforts to correct wrong doing by color or anything else. Abusing a group of people for any reason should be banished from our great country. We should try to address the problems of everyone and protest for all of them. Many of the people abused are black; many are “blue”; many are “brown;” many are “white;” and many are “gray.” I matter and you matter. Let’s get over the colors and the discrimination, OK, and say “ALL LIVES MATTER.”

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Vintage

What Lives Matter?

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