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Sure we should!  It would be a prestigious draw to get tourists to visit our city and to possibly start or relocate a business here.  It would definitely be a big boost to our burg, which Obama has visited a few times over the past decade.   Those interested in being considered for the honor need let their intentions be known to the Foundation by May; then formal, detailed propositions follow.  Hawaii and New York will be in the contending, and several sites in Chicago will be vying to be “in the running” for the Barack H. Obama Library and Museum and the half a billion dollars that will come with the designation to build and endow the library with presidential records and artifacts.  Some presidential libraries “have an accompanying center as a vehicle for ex-presidents to promote policies and coordinate humanitarian efforts”.  Some groups have proposed that a center or institute be built in one location and the library in another.  So maybe Galesburg could be considered for one or the other.

How could the teens talking in the red SUV so readily hear Dunn “politely” asking them to turn their music down, when it was so loud the windows of the SUV and windows of Dunn’s vehicle were rattling?  He didn’t need to get out of his car and pound on their windows to get them to hear him?  He’s a liar and a racist, and was probably drunk!

Yes, I agree with Mayor Pritchard’s proposal for a 2 percent increase on the city’s hotel tax to fund the Galesburg Promise scholarship program, which will assist District 205 students in attending Carl Sandburg College.  This tax increase monies, private contributions and other fund-raising efforts will fund the project; the monies to be invested and disbursed with oversight of a governing city board, District 205 and CSC.  This seems like a good plan to help some of our area youth to realize their education goals.

If there’s such a thing anymore as moderate Republicans “in the House”, they’ve lost their minds, racing like lemmings over the cliff following their Tea Party cohorts to political suicide.  The tactics of the House Republicans are causing devastating results in our economy and “a default would be a catastrophe of nuclear proportion”, according to former Presidential candidate, Republican, Jon Huntsman.  Even though the House has a Republican majority,  it is only one-third of our legislative government; the Democrat-controlled Senate and the Presidency comprise the other two-thirds of that equation.  So the Tea Partiers are a minority within a minority, and they say they want to negotiate the reopening of the federal government and the raising of the debt ceiling, calling for cuts in Medicare and Medicaid.  Barack Obama cannot allow the House of Representatives to hold his administration and the functions of our government hostage with their extortionistic tactics.  The GOP message is befuddled.  The House seems to be under the direction and momentum of “Cruz control” and is entirely faulty!  As is the reasoning of the extreme right wing of the GOP Tea Partiers who are bringing down the House with them.  A House divided cannot stand!

Hold on to your seats!  Turbulence ahead!  The first week of October, with new moon in Libra adversely aspected by Uranus and Pluto, “is a time of change and upheaval”.  The new moon’s purpose is to “cast out the old and bring a sense of revolution” to areas of our lives that cry out for change.  Yeah, it sure looks like this prediction is coming true when we look to the political stage! Look at our lives; where do we feel the need to REVOLT?  What do we want to change?  What situations and relationships do we want to change up the power structure in; what needs revamping?    “The new moon on October 5th will ensure that we need to face up to any structures and relationships that are no longer working for us.  For the past two years, Uranus (in Aries) has been squaring up to Pluto (in Capricorn) periodically causing major shifts in the world — from riots, rebellions, conflicts, and uprisings to dramatic changes in our lives.  These two planets are seeking to destroy the old power bases that have been oppressing individual freedoms for too long.”  This month’s new moon offers fresh new beginnings and helps us to release that which no longer serves us, by “giving us strength and courage to stand up to the old balance of power”.  The tide is starting to turn; this is an appropriate time to break free and assert ourselves!

Things begin to settle down after the first volatile week and allows us to regroup and “go with the flow” for a short time before the drama picks up again in the third week, as a lunar eclipse in Aries, quickly followed by a retrograding Mercury, urges us to confront situations we’ve neglected.  “Lunar eclipses bring things to a head” and brings clarity to confusion.  This eclipse urges us to be brave, take risks, initiate contacts, and boldly seize the opportunities presented to us.  Mercury retrogrades are known for delays and miscommunications, but if we shift our focus inward, making time for reflection, contemplation, and inner work, we may take a lot of angst out of this transit.  Address the things we’ve left undone, go through closets and release, slow down, and spend some time in nature. This is “one of the most imaginative and creatively magical times of the astrological year”.   It is a great time for writers, artists, and anyone of a creative nature.  So take some time to open up to inspiration and new ideas.  This particular transit is a great time for sorting and releasing all manner of baggage, dealing with unexpressed emotions, journal writing, and catching up with people we’ve neglected.  “Acknowledge and deal with your emotional angst and set yourself free”; this is a splendid time for practicing forgiveness.  “The end of October may feel quite heavy, since most of the planets are in emotional water signs.”  Turn within and “access your inner realms through art, writing, dreams, dance/movement, counseling or therapy”.  Trust in the universe and listen for it’s messages.  Slow down and open to joy and inspiration!

Information above is quoted and paraphrased from: Donna Taylor, Predictions, October magazine issue of: Sedona, Journal of Emergence.

The first week of September could be full of roadblocks and delays as there is a frustrating square from Saturn to Mars.  It’s best not to try to force things, but just to “allow” a slower pace.  Try to work creatively around the barriers and practice patience.  Focus on BEING rather than on DOING.  On September 11th Venus enters Scorpio, creating intense moods as far as relationships go.  This second week is a good time for making commitments, deepening our relationships, and fostering greater intimacy.  Let’s show our appreciation for those in our lives and be grateful for all the acts of kindness shown us, no matter how small.  Saying thank you means a lot.  Difficult relationships are hard to avoid now; try to right the wrongs!  Really listen to others; try to hear their truths and how things feel from their point of view.  Allow forgiveness and understanding to occur.  Tense configurations between Mercury, Jupiter and Uranus occur as we go deeper into September, creating feelings of stress and impatience.  We may feel burdened with too much to do and little time to accomplish it all; but work on being patient, take some vitamin B, get plenty of rest, and nourish yourselves with relaxing activities.  Take nature walks and find creative outlets for your frustrations instead of reacting with anger and impatience. Try journal writing or  meditating to go within and connect to your source.   The tension may feel increased around Sept 18-19 when the Moon is full in Pisces.  It could feel like we’re “losing our grip”, but slow down and BREATHE.  Avoid taking on more than you can handle.   Under a Mercury-Jupiter-Uranus aspect we could make rash decisions or agree to fool-hardy plans, so don’t be hasty.  Over optimism could be a problem; so take things slow and easy.   Engage your mind in things that deeply interest you.  Now is the time to awaken yourself from some kind of illusion; take an honest look at your life.  Have you been drifting in a relationship or immersing yourself in negative habits?  The planets will be activating the areas of your life that need your attention, offering you the opportunity to WAKE UP!  Make empowering changes in your life NOW and begin the HEALIN process.   Wake up to the illusions you’ve been harboring about your life and take the steps to begin living up to your full potential.   The full moon will bring clarity to the fog, and will help you bring enlightening changes.  September is a month for seeing the truth.  “Can you be true to yourself — not just to others?”  Honor your own needs and voice them accordingly; that may help you avoid much of the frustrations and irritations inherent in this month’s energies.   “Adopt an attitude of kindness” toward others and appreciation for all the good in your lives.

The above information is quoted or paraphrased from Donna Taylor, PREDICTIONS article, in September 2013: Sedona, Journal of Emergence!

According to the Huff Post Green, “Climate scientists have warned that the global temperature rise could have catastrophic consequences such as flooding of coastal cities and island nations, disruptions to agriculture and drinking water, and the spread of diseases and the extinction of the species”.  Do we think we should worry about that?  Some of this we have already witnessed in the last decade, and  the problem is increasing, not decreasing.  We won’t have enough money to fix the desolation from all the typhoons and Hurricane Katrinas and Sandys to come.   The International Energy Agency’s report, presented in London said, “Emissions could be reduced significantly by 2020 by improving energy efficiency in the building  industry and transport, limiting the use of coal-fired power plants, halving the oil and gas industry’s release of methane, and phasing out fossil fuel subsidies”.  Global climate talks are aimed at keeping the temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6F)”.      We must do what we can now, or else!  “The U.S. emissions dropped by 3.8%, due in part to a switch in power generation from coal to gas, while Europe’s emissions declined by 1.4%.  China, the top carbon polluter, “had the largest emissions growth last year, up 300 million tons or 3.8% from 2011, but that was the lowest in China in a decade, as China continues to invest in renewable energy efficiency”.  “Climate negotiators meeting in Bonn, Germany, this week are haggling over a global climate pact that is supposed to be adopted by 2015.   The main sticking point is how to divide the burden of emissions cuts between developed and developing countries.   Industrialized countries want emerging economies like China, India and Brazil to take on bigger responsibilities while developing countries stress the historical responsibilities of long-time carbon polluters like Europe and the U.S.   The IEA report stated, “Developing countries now account for 60% of global emissions from energy, up from 45% in 2000”.  Tea partiers don’t believe the statistics or the science behind global warming, but the results are ever-increasingly upon us.  Are you concerned?

OMG!  For past 3 weeks I have been going through the process to get my new blog site up and running, and hope I am finally there.  It should not look any different to my readers and should be accessed by same online address, but it has been a real hassle!  Go Daddy folks are very helpful and patient, but still — the process has been long.  So I did not write on last week’s Community Roundtable issue; hope to “get-er-done” this week!  For those folks who were wondering what I was going to do with my time since I retired 12/31/12, here is what I’m up to.  Today is my first meditation group meeting.  On Tuesdays I do yoga with a small group and later in evening, when my husband gets off work, we attend our group for the “Course in Miracles” study.  I am still a reader in my Christian Science Society, study the weekly lesson, and select hymns each week for church service (and meet on the 2nd & 4th Weds evening of each month for service).  I am expanding my study of Christian Science as I had intended to do after retiring, to enhance my prayerful treatments.  I am a contributing writer to the weekly (Friday) Community Roundtable discussion in the Galesburg Register-Mail, and am trying to blog at least once a week on a variety of topics.  I am also writing short stories, poetry, and am working on ideas for children’s books.  I have just begun writing my memoirs and plan to juggle that writing with fiction writing; hoping to start my first novel this fall.  I also begin this month serving my elected position as Copley Township Clerk (one Saturday morning meeting per month).   I plan to entertain my 8 year-old grandson most of the summer, and hope to get at least a couple of fun, educational mini-trips in, before school starts back up for him.  There’s boy scout day camp for a week in July, and plan to get down to the fishing hole at least weekly this summer.  I have a 4 month-old german-shepherd puppy, that I am trying to train.  That’s challenging!   We also have 3 cats and 8 Bard-rock chicks.  I have many areas of study that I lightly juggle, and many things I want to learn to do.  I plan to join the previous Knox Co, state retirees for lunch once a month.   We have a vegetable garden to tend.  Thank God I’m not a person who needs to have a clean house, or I’d never get anything done, but that.  I  have an apple plaque, hanging in my kitchen that reads:  “An immaculate house is the sign of a mis-spent life”.  So true, in my book!  I’d rather be exploring the barn or our five acres with my grandson than cleaning the house, although we do try to pick things up enough to have dinner guests once or twice a month!  My path for now is to allow and follow my creativity!  Follow your dreams is my motto and advise to all……..thanks for following my blog…..y’all.       Love and Light and Peace to All.    Trish Forsyth Voss

On Saturday, March 2, 2013, on a beautiful winter afternoon in Galesburg, IL, a 7 year old boy, playing in the snow, was attacked by a vicious pit bull, was mauled, partially eaten, and killed.  At some point during this attack the police were called; they tried to disengage the dog from the boy, Ryan Maxwell, and had to shoot the beast.  Ryan was taken to the hospital, dying shortly thereafter.  He was buried on Thursday.  There was a visitation on Wednesday, which I attended with my youngest brother, Ben, who is a friend of Ryan’s grandfather, Tom Mead, to whom this boy was the joy of his life!  I have been obsessed this past week with the horror of this event, as has many others in our community.  My last post was on “To feel is to heal”, and the past week has been an opportunity for many of us to feel: grief, sadness, remorse, anger, compassion, and many other emotions.  You see, on that day, I was visiting my mother and two brothers who live with her, in a trailer court, about two blocks from where this horrendous event had just taken place, though I didn’t hear about it until a few hours later.  My second grade grandson, who is 8 years old,  had accompanied me on this visit and he played outside for about 2 hours, in his snow clothes, building an igloo fort.  This tragedy could just as easily have happened to the joy of my life, or another unsuspecting child in the neighborhood. Between visiting and helping my mother take a shower, I looked outside every now and then at my grandson to check on him, though I knew nothing about this dog at that time.  It’s rare for my grandson to be outside alone for any real length of time, even though most of us grew up doing just that: hanging out for hours, basically unafraid that we’d be snatched up by anything or anyone.
I did not know Ryan, but have read in the Galesburg Register Mail newspaper what a joy he was to all who knew him.  His second grade classmates from Nielson made cards for Ryan, which were displayed on a long table at the funeral home, and many of them attended the visitation.  I almost dreaded going to the service, but my brother and I left the service feeling really glad that we did attend, and felt like a heaviness was lifted from us.   The funeral services we hold for our loved ones really do provide us an opportunity for closure, which doesn’t end all our suffering or longing for our beloved, but it somehow helps when we gather together and rally around each other with tears and hugs to express our feelings of sadness and celebration for the life of our loved one who has just passed from physicality into the spirit world.  And therein lies our hope, to be reunited at some point with those special personalities which we grew to love in this earth life.  We must remember that each day with our loved ones is a blessing, and try not to take each other for granted.  Some folks we naturally “click with” and others take more effort to understand and appreciate, but we should welcome the opportunity to do so.  And now for more feelings on this event.  My brother Bill, has nearly had a nervous breakdown; he is overcome with guilt, and feeling grief-stricken, because he was attacked by this same dog once, and nearly attacked another time as he walked home from his second shift job at a nearby factory . On both encounters with this ferocious beast he stood his ground, telling the dog sternly to “go home”, and knowing that he could not turn his back on this dog.  He told us that his jacket was shredded on one occasion, but he was not bitten.  He is overcome with remorse that he did not report these incidents to the police earlier, for if he did, possibly the dog would have been destroyed, and this litte boy would not have died.  So get this: my  brother Ben reluctantly told his friend, the deceased boy’s grandfather, at the visitation, about our brother Bill having been attacked previously by this dog, and how our brother was suffering (and had taken to his bed).  Tom Mead told us that he would come see my brother Bill.  I thought he meant maybe after burying his grandson he might come see my brothers.  But Tom and his wife (I’m sorry that I forgot her first name) came to my mother’s trailer from the visitation to comfort and console my brother Bill, who missed four days of work because he is so guilt-ridden.  I took my brother Bill to work yesterday; he was moving really slow, barely able to function; and he told me that he had thought he didn’t have any support group, but he felt it was a miracle that the Meads came to see him and rally round him, and held him, and comforted him!   Can you imagine the love and  compassion that one must have for friends that the Meads in their own sleepless grief would take the time and effort to go console a person that could possibly have saved their precious little one from such a gruesome death, had he acted by informing authorities about this fierce canine who was running free.  And I do not purport to know the owners of this dog, but I assume that a dog who is treated lovingly and who is well-fed does not turn into the vicious animal that took this young boy’s life from him.  And I do know that some people purposefully make their canines mean, to protect them, their property, their drugs, or whatever.  I’m writing to the Mayor regarding the current city  “dangerous dog ordinance”, as I believe as many others do, that the rules need to be stricter and better enforced to protect our children from wild animals and the persons who keep such animals.  In the case of the dog in question: it was not even registered, which is the least of the responsibilities of a dog owner.  We must all learn from all we stand witness to in life, and do what we can individually and collectively to make our society a better, safer place to live and raise our children.  Ryan Aiden Maxwell was laid to rest on Thursday, March 7th.  There were 3 big picture boards full of snapshots of Ryan; and all who loved him gathered to celebrate his short life.  He will not be forgotten, even by some of us who never got a chance to know him!  Ryan loved knock-knock jokes and the television documentary series: Finding Bigfoot (on Animal Planet).  The production managers of that show were contacted and they plan to dedicate an upcoming episode to Ryan Maxell.  Ryan’s grandfather, Tom Mead, even bought a camper before losing Ryan, so that they could go camping and looking for Bigfoot.  That plan will never come to fruition.  Ryan’s mother, Sarah Mead, has a one year old son to raise, and she said that if she didn’t have him (Jay-jay) that she thinks she would have “committed suicide by now”.   She said, “I feel like my soul is gone. I feel like my life has been taken away from me”.  Our prayers are with the loved ones of Ryan Maxwell, and all who came to care for them.  Lord, help us heal this grief.