I don’t have the video clip, but as I was getting dressed this morning, I heard on CNN that today (October 7, 2010) is the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Afghanistan (which would make that date October 7, 2000). Recall that 9/11, the event that precipitated our attack, happened in 2001.

Can CNN really be this incompetent? What’s on your mind tonight?

Fast on the heels of the revelations about Meg Whitman, The Nation exposes another hypocrite in the person of Lou Dobbs, who, it was found, employed undocumented immigrants even as he railed against them, even as he demanded jail time for the very act he committed.

The hypocrisy is rank, but surely not startling. We all know how deeply the undocumented permeate our society. Put simply, if you stay in a hotel, chances are that someone who served you in the hotel was undocumented. If you have work done on a home, or bought one new, chances are that someone who helped build it was undocumented. If you ate anything at all in the past ten years, chances are 100% that someone who touched the food before it got to your plate was undocumented. The undocumented are so ingrained in our society that we cannot eat without them.

This is the truth of how we live in America. Yet, somehow, we cannot allow ourselves to do the right thing by the people who feed us, take care of us and make us comfortable.

It makes you wonder why. How is it that we can live side by side with these folks, benefit from their misery, and do nothing to change it? Who benefits from this ugly status quo?  . . .

October is both Breast Cancer Awareness Month and Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Both of these issues resonate with me. I know why Breast Cancer Awareness does so since my wonderful sister (among many others) is at seven years survivor and counting. Just today I learned that my third grade teacher had died of breast cancer (through a Facebook post from her daughter). CNN has an article up on another Facebook campaign that is also being used to raise awareness of this issue.

While Breast Cancer Awareness is an issue most folks find easy to support, Domestic Violence Awareness is another story. I wrote a similar diary last October, concentrating on the Domestic Violence Awareness side of things. Neither issue involves contagious diseases or anything catching yet Domestic Violence still seems to be one of the "things that must not be spoken of." While both issues can happen to anyone most anywhere, Breast Cancer is a disease that can treated, although the treatment may cause a lot of side affects such as chemo-brain and hair loss, Domestic Violence is something that can stay in families and recur across generations, unfortunately. It is not just a spouse who suffers from Domestic Violence. Domestic Violence would have to include the potential for child abuse. Studies have shown that victims of child abuse often grow up to be abusers themselves. If the parents are involved in a domestic violence relationship then that is the example of relationship that the child sees and learns from.

Breast Cancer can happen to men as can Domestic Violence, although in both cases, the disease and the violence are far more likely to happen to women.  . . .