The "Other Guy" Has a Name!

I accidentally tuned in to Fox 11 tonight, which as always is followed by "were we fair and balanced?" In a word, no. In several dozen words. No way, not at all, absolutely not.... and I could and will go on. So I will write this as if addressed to them, but it's addressed to all readers.

As you may have noticed this community is divided about that "other guy" you mentioned at the end of your "news" cast. That you would not even mention it speaks volumes to the amount of pressure Packers management is placing on local media, and the fact that you are still following Ari Fleischer's (Bush's ex Press Secretary) playbook. Well, mentioned or not, that "other guy" has a name, one many of us here in Green Bay and elsewhere still hold in great esteem. The name is Brett Favre, of course. You know, the guy who brought us out of decades of mediocrity, to which we have quickly returned since the trio of traitors, Thompson, McCarthy and Murphy and their chosen "leader" Aaron Rodgers, took over. Make no mistake about it, they drove Favre out of town only in part by making him compete with someone so far beneath him in stature and talent that it could only be seen as a boot in the ...rear end. It was not in any way Favre's choice to leave Green Bay and any thinking person with even the most basic knowledge of what really happened behind the scenes knows it.

So in your purported "balanced" coverage, one hopes you remember us who honor Brett Favre as the man without whom there would be no Holmgren Way, no fancy improved stadium and training facility, no Reggie White in a Packers jersey, no return to Lambeau Field for the Lombardi Trophy, no return to glory at all for the Packers...too many of whom came here at all simply because of that "other guy" to mention here by name. Of course Ron Wolf deserves great credit in this regard too. If only he had stayed with the team a few more years; this all would have been avoided. Having read and seen many diplomatically worded interviews, I think he would have handled the situation FAR differently, and would have stayed had he known the carnage to come. All he worked to build is now gone mostly due to Thompson's ego and the cowardice of his sidekicks McCarthy and Murphy. Wolf being back in town shows some promise. We can only hope he stays and Thompson GO PACK GOES!

Make no mistake, we are no less "real" Packers fans for our continued support of Favre and our utter disdain for those who carelessly tarnish an image long cherished and maintained here since the early 20th century. Call it old fashioned, call it tough love, call it what you will. The team that plays out of Lambeau Field will not be "our" Packers, the REAL Packers, until we who allegedly own them drive the said trio of traitors out of town and demand better management for the team and for the players who play here. Who is going to trust this bunch of bozos after what they did to Favre? I had to cringe last weekend when Henderson so flippantly said he intends to end his career in Green Bay. I know he makes tons more money than I ever will as a mere RN with the life and death of critically ill and/or extremely premature infants in my hands 12 hours a day, but my heart just went out to him when he said that. How naive! Is he deaf, dumb, blind? Have they also hired a full time brain washer? Are they making the players listen to subliminal messages in their sleep during training camp? Seriously! How could he say something so STUPID! I couldn't help but remember a younger and not yet disillusioned Brett Favre jubilantly saying the very same thing...so full of love for his team mates and so full of faith in the staff and US! ...and we see exactly how that turned out. Now a bunch of short sighted people with issues I cannot even begin to understand--want to let him down too after everyone else has, after everything he's done, after all he's given, after all the pain he will suffer for the rest of his life. Yes, he's rich and getting richer, but NO amount of money makes up for living in pain 24/7/365...BELIEVE IT. I am there. I know. Anyway, we see how far Favre's faith got him. These ***expletive deleted*** can try to spin their despicable treatment of Favre any way they want, but even with G. W. Bush's ex Press Secretary working for you, you can only spin so far before you just wind up running yourself around in tighter and tighter circles until you can't spin any longer. I'd say this bunch has reached that point. The truth is out. Only the purposely blind and bitter refuse to see it.

And as you choose to cover the booers (boors) and haters ad nauseam rather than those of us welcoming Favre home as a returning hero, focusing only on them as they scream bleeped out obscenity and invective and insult the man they purported to admire a couple years ago in some lame "what have you done for me lately" mentality, remember there are just as many of us, probably more, who know better. We will not welcome Brett Favre back to Lambeau Field with boos and cat calls but with cheers and RESPECT and with the gratitude we all owe this man for all he brought us for all the years he played his body, heart and soul out for us and for the game, for his team mates, and to return Green Bay to glory it had not seen since the 1960's. That's not the dramatically salacious and insulting spin I'm sure the Packers organization is pressing HARD on local media "for the good of the team" but it's the truth, and I think the truth has a role to play here, even on Fox 11 "newsertainment". So as you look for the negatives, remember Favre fans will be at Lambeau Field and gathered in our homes and other venues cheering him on for as long as our voices last, rejoicing in each touchdown pass and every time "Bulletin Board" Barnett or anyone else blows a chance to "lay a hit" on #4. We'll be remembering, always and forever, when we didn't have to cheer for the VIKINGS to do what's best for the Packers and mourning what was never more richly deserved but will now never be. Down deep we'll all, boo birds in denial, and those of us with the intestinal fortitude to cheer Favre as he deserves, be wishing Packers management had had the decency and wisdom to keep Favre here where he belongs, where he could have shared his talent as player, mentor and maybe someday coach, because he loves this game and he is a natural leader and an example to anyone who really loves the game of football. The rest is just media being media, doing their best to sell their product at any cost, even if that cost is the reputation of someone they love, or love to hate because they will never be him.

Family Note

To 94 and 97 if you're seeing this, next week we'll finally be scattering Daddy's ashes on the Hill/Mountain where he can be watching over you as he wished. I'm sorry it took me so long to let him go, but where he really lives on is in our hearts and memories anyway, right? We are then going to Door County to scatter Grandma and Grampa's ashes from the ferry that goes to Washington Island. We'll be sending along some cosmos flowers, ones carried forward year to year from the seeds from Grampa's garden, at both places and Cousin Ben will play Taps for Grampa because he was in the Korean war. I'll carry Daddy's drum sticks along on the ferry too, but we won't be throwing those anywhere because we want to keep them for you girls. We all love you and miss you so much and wish we could see you. Please remember Daddy's love is always surrounding you, every minute of every day and night and the magic he gave you; the music and silly times and all the fun is still inside you to share with the people in your lives.
Lots of love and hugs until you can come see us again!
Michelle, Dillon, Ben & Abby

Multiple Motives for Childress?

PS to the post below (yes, I know that's backward) regarding the apparent confusion among some (bitter cynics) in the media: Could it possibly be, just perhaps, that since Childress had coached in Wisconsin (UW Madison) when Favre was with the Packers in the 90's, and knew his CHARACTER and WORK ETHIC, and LEADERSHIP ABILITY...maybe just maybe could it be that he knew that was the exact combination, the last piece of the puzzle the Vikings needed to complete their team? Could it not also be that there was something personal at stake for the coach on behalf of the player he came to admire, man to man...a man who DESERVED BETTER than what he got from the new (mis)management in Green Bay? Is decency so out of date and completely so out of the realm of reality that it cannot even be considered a part of the equation here? Is it really SO hard to believe that no one will even give it a single thought, a whisper, a half-laughing mumbled humorous aside as the camera and mic fade even? Ugh... What a world.

Real Packers Fans Know Who to Blame

Watching ESPN at 1AM Central time early August 19, I am thinking of the commentator's inability to understand Brett Favre's statement that "true Packers fans will understand my decision". WE DO! Seriously, they (ESPN and the media in general) think we're all a bunch of yokels up here who don't understand the game (despite the fact that the local NBC poll showed 87% of us are certain the Vikings will win both games against the Packers this season). They actually believe we think Brett had some SAY about whether he got to stay in Green Bay or not, as if they hadn't decided in the off season to go with "wonder boy" Rodgers who took the Packers from a playoff contending team with Favre to a mediocre one without him. That boy needs to stop worrying LESS about his "beard" of the moment (and you may apply to that any meaning you wish) and start worrying more about playing football. Actually, I couldn't be happier with Boy Rodgers' consistently average play...because the better Favre does now in Minnesota and the more average Rodgers remains, AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS AS UNDERSTUDY TO THE BEST OF THE BEST no less, the sooner the powers that be (whoever they are are...it's certainly not the people of Green Bay, as so often referred to in romanticized versions of "Title Town") are gonna WAKE UP!!! Look, I surely can't speak for Favre, but I think what he's getting at is that he loves the game, and if he is able to play, he has every right to. It's that simple. HE WANTED TO STAY HERE and was UNCEREMONIOUSLY ushered out of town like some training camp washout, not the HERO he is to Green Bay, and believe me, I do NOT use that term loosely--in fact I use that word for exactly TWO people in the world and that other is a long time Marine. I have bled green and gold for more years than I care to admit, yet cannot help but hope Favre's deserved success in Minnesota proves that Ted Thompson, Mike McCarthy and Mark Murphy are a trio of traitors who brought dishonor and disgrace to Green Bay and OUR WAY of doing things in this city--a way we "older" people (some a bit older than Favre even) hold dear. We are not fair weather fans. We are not boo birds. WE REMEMBER. We are not "but what have you done for me lately" people. We do not quickly forget our heroes, or worse, plot their downfall behind their backs in behind-the-scenes machinations, one smiling in his face as the other stealthily stabs him in the back. Ted Thompson has undone what Ron Wolf took YEARS and Brett Favre spent his youth, energy, and trite as it may sound, blood sweat and tears to build. Brett should still be HERE, playing as long as he can, then coaching and sharing the knowledge of his long and illustrious career...sharing all he has learned, not with a rival, but with US! It is not HE who robbed us of that chance, it is Ted Thompson! It is Mike McCarthy! It is Mark Murphy! Blame them! Blame them!

We NEED Medical Care For All NOW!

The history of legislation is that the longer it lingers in committee the more faults are found, the more fear mongering can be done by the other side, and the more diluted the resulting legislation becomes...if it "becomes" at all. Reading blogs and news, comments and tweets on the internets (gotta love ol' GW--like HELL I do) I find myself repeatedly saying some version of the following, so I might as well say it here too.

As a nurse I am shamed and sickened to know we are the only supposedly civilized nation in the world not to provide health care to our citizens. Insurance and the pharmaceutical industry profiteers, who spend far more on lobby efforts and advertising than they do on research and patient care, the people entrusted with our health care, have stooped to paying people to agitate and confuse people at town hall meetings...using scare tactics to frighten people into thinking we cannot afford to provide health care to our people.

"I'm scared...how can we afford this...we're already in a depression," an overwrought woman cries out in fraudulent anguish. Political figures are LYNCHED in effigy, and the racial statement there is unmistakable. It is disgusting, disheartening and ultimately distracting.

"Why do we have to have less health care so y'all can have some," another elderly woman labors to say, apparently blind to the fact that her MEDICARE is that socialized medicine she is supposedly so soundly against, and she is not going to lose anything if insurance is better regulated. In some states one insurance company owns 80% of the Medicare pie, leaving seniors and the disabled with little in the way of true options.

Not only is Fox "news" (two words which in no universe belong together) convincing people that a public option equates with a single payer system, but the very providers and politicians who should be honor bound as well as legally bound to tell the truth to the American people are purposely muddying the waters and creating fear and insecurity in people who already function under the burden of too much of both already! It's so disheartening, personally and professionally.

The health care industry has become the death for profit industry as insurers delay care until people are dead or past hope of cure, or simply outright refuse to provide care paid for in good faith. I must take just a moment to pat myself on the back here, as I could be making a LOT more money, working far more humane hours, no weekends, no holidays and no nights if I worked for the enemy-the insurance industry, but I have refused their repeated attempts to lure me over to the dark side. Yay me, but let us continue.

WE (as in we the people) MUST (through pressuring our representatives and the White House) regulate the insurance industry and put the power back in the hands of the people and health care providers, not the greedy industries seeking to rake in more blood money. We can EASILY (okay, maybe not easily, but it's doable) pay for health care for all by cutting the insanely enormous profits these corporations make and by concentrating on health care rather than waging unnecessary wars of choice, like, say, Iraq for one example from the past (mis)administration.

That war not only cost us trillions of dollars and created monster mercenary companies like Blackwater (now named Xe, pronounced "z") members (no pun intended) of which raped, murdered and drugged their way through Iraq making the word "Crusades" sound tame in comparison. What we truly cannot afford are wars like Iraq, a war of choice which destabilized an entire region and which also tragically left an entire generation of walking wounded, our finest, our bravest, our most self-sacrificing in need of intensive and long term health care they are NOT getting even though they deserve it most. It IS all connected, and it is a subject I feel to the very marrow of my bones. THEY DESERVE BETTER THAN WE HAVE GIVEN THEM FOR WHAT THEY HAVE GIVEN FOR US! Health care is only the most basic of things they should be able to expect, not have to scrape and be forced to depend upon fund raisers for!

We must get our priorities in order. It is time for President Obama, whose wife was unfortunately a hospital administrator, which gives me great pause, to keep his promise and get us health care for all, NOW! The longer we put it off, the less likely we are to succeed. We can fine tune it later. Fear feeds upon itself, and no one is better at fear mongering than the republican party!

Now please, write, call, put a sign in your yard, send a letter to the editor of your local right wing rag...do something to counter this bought and paid for effort by the insurance and pharmaceutical industry and their toadies, the republicans and blue dog democrats. You'll feel so much better...I promise! I wouldn't lie to you, I'm a nurse.