I called mom today to tell her I was coming over soon. She told me not to rush, that she was fine. I went to the house to find out that she spilt orange juice on the Alert machine and the alarm was going off every 10 seconds. Mom's leg was swollen but she was going from room to room putting stuff away. I asked her if she missed Elaine. She told me, "No" that Elaine would not let her go from room to room, that Peggy yesterday kept following her so she finally sent her to the store. I said, "Mom, how can you say that you don't need anyone when you should be resting your leg and the alarm is going off every ten seconds. I asked where the directions were and ended up calling the company. They put me on hold for 20 minutes but felt the water damaged the system and it was an old unit anyway. I feel that machine is not worth it.(they are sending a new one in a few days) It takes up all of mom's table and I then find stuff missing under the bed. She tells me the bed is too big for her. The guy tells me to disconnect the machine, that it should not be on a power strip. Mom has the lamp on the power strip. I tell her it doesn't work. We finally realize the bulb it gone.I tell mom how can she have 10 things all plugged in to one strip and then to find the plug it is under the bed that no way can mom reach. She tells me she hates the weather, it is so dreary for her and her plants, when is the sun going to come out. I tell her it was lovely up the River, she should take a ride. Someday, she tells me. I know John Tyler has stuff under his bed also that falls under it. Mom's house is not set up for a senior. I finally convince her to rest her leg and stop puttering around. She tells me she will sleep for an hour. She wishes she had a robot, she tells me, that she can tell to move the clock or get things for her. I tell her in a 100 years there will probably be a robot to do that stuff. (Email A to JAH, May 29, 2007)

Gerald Patrick O'Driscoll died unexpectedly May 12, 2007. He was 50 years old. Born in SF June 18, 1956, Gerry was the oldest of four children of Irish immigrants: Mike and Rose (Lennon) O'Driscoll. He was a generous host whose heart and home were always open. Fond of loud Hawaiian shirts, a master at steel darts and barbecuing, Gerry was the life of every party - always with a smile on his face. Gerry grew up in the Sunnyside district, and began working at a young age as a paper carrier and vendor at Candlestick Park. He paid for his college education by working at the Carpenter's Trust Fund. He went on to earn an engineering degree at UC Berkeley, after which he went to work as an engineer for Boeing. He was an engineer in the Prudhoe Bay oil fields in Alaska. He is one of the few people that have swum in the Artic Ocean. Gerry worked most recently at Mayta & Jensen. Gerry was an estimator and project manager managing complex large-scale construction projects. Gerry and Maureen met and fell in love as teenagers 33 years ago and enjoyed a storybook romance. At their wedding, the Claddagh, an ancient Irish symbol that represents the three values he exemplified so well: friendship, love and loyalty was prominent - it was on their cake, toasting glasses, as well as Gerry's wedding ring. When Sean came along, Gerry threw himself into his new role: World's Best Dad. Funeral services, with a celebration of his life, will be held Saturday at St. Brendan, with burial following afterwards at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma. You would honor Gerry's life by wearing your loudest hawaiian shirts to the funeral.

Evil doesn’t wear a snarl
It doesn’t advertise
It charms and soothes
And dons a mask
Innocuous and so benign.
It roots itself in religion
And hides behind bureaucracy
It sleeps within a conglomerate
And waves its flag for all to see. (jah 5/10/07)

Dr. Cazen: I just want you to know that I am going to the gym and I am eating healthier. I am no longer working in that awful job I had which brought me to you in the first place. I will always remember your wonderful smile and that you tried to help me during the worst time in my life. John

(Richard Alan Cazen 08/20/1948-04/26/2007, deceased/brain tumor)

Quakers were protesting the war outside the old Federal Building while old ladies and podgy businessmen sat at small tables in enduring cafes in Little Saigon. I scurried down Polk Street, passing a sign: Character, like a photo, develops in a dark place. It was then I ran into Bruce – who I have known for a long time but who I don’t know at all. Architecture affects up more profoundly than we might think, he stated, and referenced a book he had just read: The Architecture of Happiness. Nearby the Fox Plaza Building lunged at me reminding me of hardened stomachs, cancer, broken feet, germs, viruses and other monsters that lurk in the shadows waiting to attack me when I am again weak. Oh, thank goodness for people who don’t speak our language but try and make us laugh. Thank goodness for comfortable beds. (jah may 4, 2007)

"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men." Leonardo da Vinci, artist and scientist

"To a man whose mind is free there is something even more intolerable in the sufferings of animals than in the sufferings of man. For with the latter it is at least admitted that suffering is evil and that the man who causes it is a criminal. But thousands of animals are uselessly butchered every day without a shadow of remorse. If any man were to refer to it, he would be thought ridiculous. And that is the unpardonable crime." Romain Rolland, author, Nobel Prize 1915

"If a group of beings from another planet were to land on Earth -- beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals -- would you concede them the rights over you that you assume over other animals?" George Bernard Shaw, playwright, Nobel Prize 1925

"What is it that should trace the insuperable line? ...The question is not, Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?" Jeremy Bentham, philosopher

"In their behavior toward creatures, all men are Nazis. Human beings see oppression vividly when they're the victims. Otherwise they victimize blindly and without a thought." Isaac Bashevis Singer, author, Nobel Prize 1978

"Our task must be to free ourselves . . . by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty." "Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet." Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel Prize 1921

"I am in favor of animal rights as well as human rights. That is the way of a whole human being." Abraham Lincoln, 16th U.S. President

"You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity." Ralph Waldo Emerson, essayist

"I cannot fish without falling a little in self-respect...always when I have done I feel it would have been better if I had not fished." Henry David Thoreau, author

"While we ourselves are the living graves of murdered beasts, how can we expect any ideal conditions on this earth?" "Atrocities are not less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called medical research." George Bernard Shaw

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated." "To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being." Mahatma Gandhi, statesman and philosopher

Why should we even worry about illegal immigration? We’ve got a lot bigger problems now like mounting federal debt of over $8 trillion dollars, a rapidly declining dollar in relation to the major world currencies, and yet another endless, pointless war that will most certainly be dragged on for God knows how long. The social security system will be bankrupt in 20 years. Not that it will make much difference. We’re poisoning ourselves out of existence. Children don’t even feel safe in our schools anymore.

America used to be a great place. But the dream is over now. America is now one big homogenous mass of nauseating conformity where everyone wears the same clothes, watches the same shit TV, maxes out their credit cards, and drives their big fat SUV to the biggie mart to buy a bunch of crappy food that makes them fat and die an early death of heart disease.

Tell me again why this is worth defending? What is so great about all of this? Maybe it’s time to chalk the United States of America up as a failed social experiment and move on.

Hell, our #1 world power status is precarious at best anyway. China and a newly aligned European Union are already running circles around us economically. It’s only a matter of time before the Chinese call in the debts that we owe them which we’ll never be able to pay back. Then things will get interesting.

Back to illegal immigration, will refusing to accept the rest of the world’s “tired, poor, and huddled masses yearning to breath free,” really make us better off? Our strength as a nation has always come from our immigrants. But it seems to me that regular old Americans have done a fine job of fucking this place up. The Bush family has been here for over 200 years and look at the mess they’ve created for us in the last 7.

Our nation’s leaders had a chance to do something about this festering problem long before today. We could have killed this cancer 20 years ago but we were busy building nuclear weapons and smuggling arms from Iran to fund revolutions that have destabilized regions where many of these illegal immigrants come from.

America will suffer the same fate as all world superpowers and as far as I can tell, that day is not so far away. Our leadership has caused far more problems for us than any illegal immigrants have, and it is our failed leadership that is certainly assuring our demise. (May 1, Workers Day, 2007, Author Unknown)