The 7 Deadly Sins are alive and well. . . .

In Washington DC.

On Tuesday, I started a draft of a letter to the President for my blog post.  As all writers do, I laid awake thinking about my post, what I had written and what I wanted to edit and change.

Then it struck me, the problem with Washington is that we have a ruling class of elites who are greedy  to protect their own power.  Their pride and arrogance makes them forget where they came from.  Their lust for power blinds them. Their loyalty to party overrides the needs and desires of their constituents.  They don't care about doing what the people elected them to do any more; they are beholden to their own self-interests.

My senators and congressman do not care that my husband's paycheck will be much less; they don't care that he is a victim of their inability to do what they were elected to do.  My President only wants to see me and mine suffer because his pride makes him think I am too stupid to place the blame where it squarely belongs: on HIS shoulders and his alone.

All of them are guilty of being slothful: avoiding their physical work in Washington, by the people and for the people.  Their anger is misplaced as they hurl insults at each other and probably laugh over brandy at their supposed good show.

The President is somehow envious of failed political systems and wants to punish his country through crazy wealth redistribution campaigns that only serve to further weaken our country.

I am a huge fan of Vince Flynn and his Mitch Rapp character.  What does that have to do with anything?  Well his first novel didn't have Rapp in it but it may be his best.  I hope it never comes down to something similar happening in our country but people are angry.  And when people get angry, revolutions happen.

Do you hear the people sing?Singing a song of angry men?It is the music of a peopleWho will not be slaves again!When the beating of your heartEchoes the beating of the drumsThere is a life about to startWhen tomorrow comes!

Friday Document Dump

Hello Dear Readers!

I have not forgotten about you, despite my lack of posting.  I celebrated my 46th birthday and the one year anniversary of my blog on February 22.  My Dear Husband's birthday is today and my youngest Dear Son's birthday is next week.  It's been quite busy.

I have finished some reading milestones, my first audiobook and my first digital book.  I will be blogging about those in the weeks to come.

The political situation with the sequester, which directly affects my Dear Husband's job, has me fuming and presents a wonderful topic for writing, which I'm sure you were expecting.

In our homeschool, we just finished a novel and I had the brilliant idea of reviewing those.  Better late than never, huh?

For today, I'd like to focus on a weekend field trip we recently took.  We were able to visit The Museum and White House of the Confederacy for the first time, followed the next day by a trip to Appomatox Court House National Historical Park. We had visited Appomatox once before, almost eleven years ago when I was pregnant with Youngest Son. In our homeschool, we had been reading about the Civil War and decided to visit these places since we were in Richmond for another event.

The Museum and White House of the Confederacy are two buildings, one very modern and one very old, right next to each other, nestled in between and overshadowed by stories and stories of two buildings of the VCU hospital complex. These two pictures give you an idea of how the Museum and White house are situated.

(Both images was taken from http://virginiaplantation.wordpress.com/2013/01/29/a-visit-to-the-white-house/.)

These two museums were wonderful treasures, chock full of amazing artifacts from the Civil War. The tour of the White House was lead by a very knowledgeable guide who did not seek to paint the Yankees in a bad light, which was kind of surprising to me.  The tour lasted about 45 minutes.  We got to see Jefferson Davis's office and bedroom, the dining room, parlors and the children's bedroom.  Many of the artifacts on display were owned by the Davises.  That is fascinating to me that so much survived.

Considering the size of ladies' hoop skirts back then, I did not expect the staircases to be so narrow!  The picture above is of the house's main staircase.  Mrs. Varina Davis, the First Lady of the Confederacy, seemed to be quite the character.  I would like to read more about her!

The next day, we traveled the almost two hours from Richmond to Appomatox Court House National Historical Park to see where Lee surrendered to Grant.  At one point, the McLean House, where the trading of letters and terms took place, had been dismantled so it could be rebuilt in another location.  We learned quite a bit of fascinating information.  The brief movie in the Visitor Center is not to be missed.

While we were at Appomatox, Caleb participated in the Junior Ranger Program.  He was given a booklet with several activities to do and things to watch for as he toured the site.  This booklet kept him throughly engaged in the exhibits and buildings.  He was quite busy filling in blanks and looking for things like the Silent Witness and the wagon.

While at Appomatox, I had to ask our tour guide, Mr. Brennan, about James McPherson's book, Battle Cry of Freedom (listed in the sidebar).  He thought it an excellent book and then recommended another, April 1865 by Jay Winik, which I, of course, purchased at the Bookstore.  I was pleased to see the bookstore did carry McPherson's book.

I highly recommend these two historical places. Reading about something in a book and then actually going and visiting those places truly does make history seem so much more real and alive.