Rusty

The Beagle Problem

                                              By William M. McCurrach

 

Back when you’re a child, and you’re lonely, a parent might get you a pet, well I was given a beagle, cute little guy when he came to me. My step-father brought him home one day I don’t remember his name or what exactly I called that beagle but, I grew attached to him over time. I named him Rusty.

Well, dad may have given me that puppy but he definitely wasn’t in love with him, like I was. Dad fed the dog of course and let me keep him as long as I walked him. It was me and my little beagle against everyone and everything, until the poor dog messed up and caused dad a problem.

It was a day we were going fishing, and dad loaded the fishing poles and equipment in the trunk and then the cooler filled with cold drinks and snacks. He smiled at me and said let’s go fishing! Of course I wanted to go and jumped in the car, taking my beagle along. Dad looked and smiled, and said I hope he behaves, the dog he meant of course, not me.

Dad had a problem with my beagle, he didn’t like the fact the dog liked to dig. My beagle dug holes in the back yard and dad had to fix them. He wasn’t happy about that one for sure.

We drove to that lake to fish in dad’s Cadillac, bright yellow with green cloth interior and in great shape. As, we drove along, my beagle, started to scratch at the backseat, and dad told the dog no, in a harsh tone. The dog never understood of course and thought it was playing, dad didn’t take it that way when we got to the lake.

When we arrived at the lake, I got out of the car with my beagle and waited on dad to unload everything we needed of course, I was still young. Dad unloaded the cooler and snacks, and set them down, then the fishing poles and tackle box and bait. Then as I watched, dad, unload a piece of chain, duct tape and an item that looked like a lead doughnut. I was puzzled, what that was for? Dad looked at my beagle and then at his backseat of his Cadillac, and his face changed to anger. He looked at the dog, then at the seat and back and forth he went, dad was mad, the beagle had dug a hole in his backseat. That was it for my poor beagle.

Dad turned and grabbed my beagle by the back of its neck and held him high helpless. The poor dog yelped and cried but, that didn’t bother dad, the dog ruined his Cadillac.

I watched in terror as dad, took the duct tape and taped my beagles mouth shut, and then taped his front paws together and his back ones too. Then he looked at me and said damn dog will never ruin another thing for me. He reached out and grabbed the chain and weight and wrapped the chain around my beagle, the next thing I know, my beagle was heaved by him into the lake. I watched as my beagle struggled against the weight, but he never came back up, just bubbles. Dad had solved the problem of the beagle, it was his solution. The dog ripped his seat up and that was the end of it. Dad said, well the hell with that dog!  Never again did I have a dog or pet, and if I ever thought of one, my mind would replay dad’s solution to his torn seat by my beagle and I forgot any thoughts of having a pet. As Dad put it damn dog gave me a problem so I got rid of it. Sadly, he never mentioned it again, and I knew then, my dad was a cold hard bastard.

Dad’s way of handling things was through violence and threats. Because when I spoke up, asked him about my beagle and why he did it, dad, didn’t explain a thing, but he did get angry at me. What he said was, I pay for you to eat, sleep, drink, dress and go to school, and if you think I am going to let you ruin my life, well, I will shoot you and bury you in the backyard and it won’t affect me one bit.

Because of my beagle, Rusty and how dad handled it earlier, and what he said to me after, when I was a grown man and dad was dying, I refused to go anywhere with him. I didn’t want to be anywhere near, never mind alone with him due to his cold ways.

  Family traditions seem to hang with people for many years after their parents are gone. Ever notice how, if a mother screamed and ranted and raved, their daughters do too. Ever notice how if one parent or the other beat their children for whatever reason, that child tends to too, to their own children. These are endless cycles in lives and families that keep repeating, sad as it may seem, it looks and acts like it is hereditary or genetic right, wrong!. It can be overcome and to do so is not easy. It takes a  concentrated effort on the survivors part to not make the same errors the parents before did.

       The second thing is mankind and medicine and knowledge is expanded concerning these things and errors humans make. We have learned that 1) If you are repeating your parents traditions and mistakes someone will say something to you. 2) Once they are brought to your attention you can seek mental help to prevent the next generation, which is your own children from carrying it forward. 3) The biggest thing to do is to realize what is being done and stop doing it yourself, for mankind is a creature of habits, and we are what we are taught. Yet everything we are taught is not socially, and humanly normal in society and the world. For all human beings have faults no one is perfect and never will be.

      Holiday times are a good time to talk and converse with people regarding traditions. Some have religious traditions of attending churches for holidays, some have traditions of going to families and friends, and others host on Holidays. Then there are the few who have a totally different version in mind for the Holidays, like Peace and Quiet, they prefer being alone and are happy that way. So, individuals choose how they celebrate, families set traditions and societies make traditions. It’s all a matter of what one feels is right for themselves.

Traditions also extend to how families are buried upon death. Many have bought burial plots side by side and are laid to rest that way. Many are cremated to save money of course and buried that way. Other get cremated and spread across places they love and some end up partly broken apart by families in Urns. Sadly once you are gone the tradition you choose is no longer yours to say or do, if you didn’t write it down somehow.

      Families have traditions of pets, homes, cars, games and sports. They have traditions of marriages that last decades and years or short periods. It is funny how if you look at families with high rates of divorce or separations between parents, how the same happens to their children too. Hand-me downs come in more than clothes ,ladies and gentlemen they come in mental actions and reactions too. We pass on our faults because our children learn from us and do as we do, not because we purposely hand it down, it is unintended but happens.

So as our Holiday Season of giving and receiving begins and people fight for positions in lines and shop for things to give, remember the examples we set for our children and grandchildren will be carried on in family traditions, so try to make them pleasant and nice.

 

    

       

Black Friday-Rushes/Injuries.

      Ladies and Gentlemen, Black Friday now starts on Thanksgiving night and people line up to race and fight, for items put on sale for a short time, the facts that the stores do it, should be a crime. People line up around the store building all in a row, waiting for security and police officer to say it’s ok to go. They stampede one another to grab certain things and give no care of who they hurt as items fly and fling!.

        This year Black Friday brought out people who cut lines. fought with others for positions in malls and stores lines, and some in each side of our great and grand nation, who even decided to bring pepper spray and spray their fellow customers and human beings to get the items first!. Why must people go to these lengths to hurt each other over items that will come back to the stores shortly after the Black Friday Sales end, beats me. I don’t go to stores on Black Friday Weekend just because of these things happening.

      Black Friday started the Christmas Season along with ending Thanksgiving day, talk about commercialization of American Holidays!. The Christmas rush now starts Thanksgiving night before Thanksgiving ends silly huh. People first fill themselves with food and place all the dirty dishes in their sinks, and rush to a store to start Christmas Shopping and fighting with each other to buy presents. Sad isn’t, how greed to save a few bucks causes man and woman to attack one another over an item that is only a few bucks cheaper them it would be regularly?

      The Television news channels are full of people who decided I will take pepper spray with me and spray anyone who stops me from getting what I want, first. Sadly people were injured,tasered, and pepper sprayed so Americans can attempt to save a few bucks on toys and such. Wake up people, you may have to pay a few bucks more later, but at least no one gets hospitalized or injured. It’s a  sad statement on America, when grown adults go to sales at stores and actually attack one another, but it’s a sadder statement on the American people when they bring weapons and assault one another over it all. The American legal system needs to get involved and do something to calm this scene down and control this. And State, Cities and Federal laws need to be corrected or created to prevent this kind of damage to people over sales.

Personally I believe to read the stories of what happened at the start of Black Friday, on Thanksgiving Night, where customers acted like animals and fought each other to save a few bucks, reflects badly on the American people and society as a whole. This is the land of the free, then land for all, but it is not a land where you should do as you please to get what you want. Wake up, Folks!.

 

 

Holidays are meant to be peaceful, with children laughing, parents talking and family and friends. But as we all know this is not true for all in the world and the way the world is going this can indeed be a rare occurrence for many families. Arguments, fights and more are traditions in some homes for the holidays as weird as that sounds. People love to gather around and argue politics, religion,books, films, history and in their own way to them it is fun. For others arguing in any manner on a holiday is just plain wrong, but you can’t change what is ingrained into a family no matter what, for you are indeed what you are taught. It take a conscious effort on people’s parts to change their ways, to fully understand one another and make it all work.

       Yesterday, Thanksgiving 2011, brought together families who watched football, or cooked together and many who ate together and socialized. That is what the holiday is meant to be. Most families on such a holiday will go out of their way to make ends meet and make it right for family and loved ones.

         Traditions are hard to break as it is also hard to change someone. You can’t force change, but you can guide it, you can teach it and make people believe and know it is the way to go.Leaders of Nations, movements,organizations and businesses, make changes as needed for financial reasons, operating reasons, or because of poor employees. America is built on change, advancements, and the need to socialize in my eyes. Again though I am just one opinion among billions in the world.

Here is the vital question after a Holiday such as America’s Thanksgiving, where so many gave thanks for what they have, Are we really able to accept where we are politically, financially and stability wise here in America? And is there a peaceful way to make the changes necessary to bring back our jobs, our homes, and more? Is there a peaceful way to get our politicians in Washington, we voted in, to get off their asses and help the American People instead of deadlocking the system and going no- where? We need to find it if we can, for each day America goes further and further down the tubes.

       

Political madness runs wild in America these days! should be the headline in every newspaper in the world and this country too. Are these politicians in Washington for real, do they honestly believe by not trimming the budget, they did a good thing or got something done? We wasted our votes on these politicians folks, if six members of  each party of elected officials we put in office can’t agree on what to trim from the budget and save our asses from debt and default on loans, well then, they don’t need their jobs in Washington, DC, if you ask me!. Vote them out next November for failure to do their jobs and compromise on the biggest thing to set in front of them in decades!.

        That said and done and my rant over on Super Committees, lets talk Republican Candidates for President. So far as I see it, we have an Ex-Speaker of the house out front in a race that was originally led by a woman candidate, then led by an African-American Candidate right? Am I correct so far, I think so, indeed. So someone please go down the Republican list of candidates for me and see if you can find one who knows what they are talking about and two one who is trustworthy, intelligent and financially motivated to help the American People? Can you name one please?

      Each and every debate we see Republicans who try very hard to look Presidential and to look intelligent and we get silly, stupid answers to questions, bickering and fighting between all eight of them, and in the end, no straight answers that are real, why is that?. I watched when this bunch of Republicans entered the race one by one and started out and the leader was initially Bachman the woman, then she fell by the wayside and became an also ran at one stage  and Cain took over, now Gingrich is the man right and in the mean time, the four others are not even noticed really. Mitt Romney has run so many times people know what he will say at these debates before he says it. Yet he is always in the second position of Republican Candidates, why? Sadly, the American people, and the Republican Party would rather not give a nomination to a man who ran more than once for the Presidency nor do they trust Romney to beat or oppose Obama and win. It really is one sad political mess you ask me.

Talking Obama now our fine President. What can he brag about that he has accomplished that helped the American People really? Did he give you tax breaks, did he fix the job market, did he get us out of debt, did he produce any programs that help the seniors, or anything worthwhile?. I really don’t know anymore, it’s sad when you can honestly look back, and say, we are no better off really than when he began his term!. Yet he may be the only choice left that can run the country, sad huh?.

     Obama’s biggest thing is Health Care, which the Republicans will knock every chance they can and call worthless. Instead they want to attack Social Security and Medicaid, why?. Oh lets cut back people’s doughnut holes so they can’t get their necessary medications to survive, or lets cut Social Security so many disabled and unable to work and elderly people can’t live right, wrong!. Leave it alone politicians, Social Security was paid into by Americans for decades in their lives and they deserve the funds back they put in, they counted on it as a security blanket for old age and health problems and they paid it.  Medicaid is another thing you people want to mess with why? You think it is wrong to help the elderly, the disabled pay for medical bills and prescriptions they seriously need? Stop it and get smart, going after this stuff is gonna sink you all, if you think the elderly and disabled can’t get to the voting booths, next November to stop you watch out they are coming and they have a large voting block too.

       The baby boomers are now becoming the elderly, the disabled the ones needing Medicaid and Social Security and you politicians want to shut them down or cut them back, are you crazy?  When November 2012 comes flying around on the calendar, and your jobs are at stake, I hope you will remember what I am saying here, as each one of you gets voted out of office and removed because you messed with what the baby boomers depended on. Sadly politics is not about what can be done to improve and protect the American people and the country anymore, but it is about whose ass you people can kiss to get elected? Stop kissing the rich people’s asses and start thinking about how they got rich, not paying their fair share of taxes!. Make them pay more to reduce our debt and help out. Then stop paying for our forces to fight wars and police nations we have no damn business in!. Bring our troops home and save the billions we spend helping others on helping our own!. Lets talk straight talk and honesty instead of bullshit!.

      The Catholic Church and it’s ways have always been a problem for me as a person to accept them. I never really believed first off that one has to go to a manmade constructed church to pray. First and foremost it says in the bible and even the Priests will tell you, God Hears All and Sees all, so why do I need a church to pray? Second thing I do not like the hypocritical bull churches pull on their members. They say one thing and do another and then tell you, Do as we say, not as we do! More bull indeed.

        But my biggest beef against organized religion such as the Catholic Church and any other church is simple, they are hypocrites. They sit and preach each Sunday or religious holiday to people about goodness, faith, love and more, then they as priests and Cardinals and more go sexually abuse children, sad indeed. The religious process is flawed no matter which way you look at it, but this is beyond being flawed this is men and women, preaching one thing and then doing another and doing it to children and ruining their mental and physical well-being for life. Very sad indeed, for we see it almost daily in newspapers, on the news on Television.  And I hate to say it, but no Pope, or Cardinal or structured religion can stop pedifiles, sexual predators from doing what they do.

        A good case in point happened in my life and sadly there is nothing I can do to help the ex-wife it happened to. The disguises, the acts people put on for public display, and then do in private is what makes it so unbelievable and damaging to their own children and others. I know a man who sexually abused and raped his own four children as they were growing up, and kept them silent by placing fear in them. It only started unravelling decades later when they grew up and got married on their own or left home. When they all broke down one by one the disaster that occurred is beyond belief. Marriages went by the wayside for all the females in the family, the mother, the sisters, one of which was my wife all ended their marriages within two years of each other. The father who did all this damage, damaged his wife, his children, their husbands and wifes and ultimately the grandchildren too, It goes down in family history as a shame a stain on the whole family not just one man. He damaged his daughters and sons by it all. His eldest daughter lost a husband and home because of him, his second daughter the same, one son is pot head and loser and the second runs around in women’s night gowns. Sad but true in all aspects, why because he was a religious hypocrite also, he attended catholic church each Sunday and Holiday, took communion and said his prayers, then when his wife went to work to help support the family he sexually abused and raped his own children. What kind of Church condones such things and what kind of man does such things to his own children? Sadly he was never arrested, because when I confronted my ex-wife about this, and she broke down she refused to turn him in, why, because he is her daddy!. No pressure, way of making her do anything like it at all, she just refused. So sadly due to his work and what he did, our children had to grow up without a father for 15 years. May God Bless and Change all of this is what I say.

        I promised a rant on religion and Catholics and I have now given one here. hypocrites live large each day and none is more hypicritical than the churches and it’s so-called members who sexually harass, molest and destroy children!.

       On a Separate note: totally different from my rant on churches and religion.

          A story I wrote will be published on Long Story Short, on December 7th 2011. It is called The Importance of Christmas!. I hope some will take the time to read it and enjoy it, us writers write to be read no matter what we say.

      Childhood traumas are not things we wish upon ourselves, nor do we elect to have the parents that cause them. We do suffer the problems from them , throughout our lives, plain and simple and we never escape what is imprinted on our mental patterns and minds. We are what we are taught is what they say, the matter of fact is we are actually souls within the vessels of a human body and whatever mental and physical abuse and a pain we suffer as children is carried through into our adulthood days.

       I know from personal experiences and from my own life, that mental and physical abuse on a child stays with a person all their life, I lived it. You live in fear, and run from pain and mental anguish as much as you can, I know I am a running man. I never slowed down in my life to smell the roses, cause the thorns that caused the pain and anguish that drive me, left so many scars and so much damage.

        I was not born a lucky son like my older brother or a wanted one like my youngest brother, nor was I born a female for special treatment. I was my mothers second son who was as she called me the problem child. The one child she couldn’t control or understand is what she said. The child who did so many things wrong by her standards, that I was labeled an emotionally disturbed child and put away in an institution for two years. But why was that so, oh she knew just as her husband knew, they told others they didn’t but they did. You don’t slap your child around, and pull them from bed and beat them in the middle of the night and expect them to be normal do you? Face the facts, what parents pull their children from bed each night and beat them then go to bed themselves as their children cry to sleep? . What mother tells a child their father is a piece of shit, grease monkey and hides the facts when they ask about it all?. What child has the bottom of their feet burned on a stove top for taking cookies, or gets thrown down stairs because a parent believes they stole something they didn’t? Are these normal actions in a normal family and household, no. So, you run and survive as soon as you can, you reach an age if your lucky enough and you run as hard and fast and far as you can. Thats called surviving and making life work for yourself. You find a surrogate family and a surrogate parent or two to help you through. Still you know you will never be normal no matter what.

       Me I ran and ran, starting at a young age, trying to escape the pain, the torture, the family that didn’t want me. Running released me from the mental and physical torture I lived through and gave me a place to hide. I ran everywhere in my younger days, hoping never to be caught by what chased me, bad dreams, nightmares, pain, anger, beatings, and I survived. We all have a way of surviving, each of us is different. Some children escape into music, some into sports, some into science or reading and make-believe worlds and writing.Many are not lucky enough to escape these bad family lives and end up suicides, in mental institutions, or in jails and prisons because they can’t control themselves and act out. All of it is actual and does happen, sadly it is a fact of life in the world.

       Children do not stand in line to be brought into this world folks.They are not in a line awaiting a descent to earth from heaven and praying they get a fine family, they don’t ask to be here. Children don’t control what color or race or nationality they are, who their parents are, where they will live once born or what atmosphere they will grow up in, but they are all affected by all of this. And whether parents and Doctors realize it, it is true, children are at the mercy of the people who have them.

        Parents need to remember if you have no parenting instinct, don’t have children. If you have no patience, understanding, don’t have children. If you do you will destroy them mentally and physically I am sure. Too many children grow up now a days, to be damaged adults. Some control it and live as close to normal lives as possible and no one notices the differences. Others are so physically and mentally damaged, and abused in so many ways, including sexual abuse, they can’t cope no more and end up in places they don’t really belong,

        I do not want to carry on this forever nor hurt anyone in any way. I just want to say, abuse to a child happens every few seconds of every day in America and the world. Don’t you think humankind should awaken to this problem and help the ones being hurt the worse? I do, children need nurturing, love, protection and caring, not beatings, mental put downs, abuse and sexually assaulted. Wake up world, wake up and realize these children are indeed the future of the planet and the human race. Lets not damage them, and make it bad, lets nurture and love them and make it right. Remember the childhood trauma you put upon your children, are the PTSD years of pain and nightmares they will live through later.

Today is Sunday and we are a total of five days away from Thanksgiving here in the USA. To many across the world, this holiday as we Americans call it, is a day of feasting, and family, gathering and in most homes laughter and joy. Not every American experiences this every year, for many are still homeless, hungry, and unable to afford a big meal to celebrate. Sadly it is true in America people are hungry, homeless, and willing to work for food, because there are no jobs left for them to work. What has become of the great American Dream? It seems that not even our leaders are doing anything to get it back either, sad huh?.

     As we close in slowly this week on this holiday, and give Thanks for what we have, we should think about the ones who have not. Our Representatives and Senators and even our President, should stop and take a few seconds to think about the ones without a Thanksgiving Dinner, without a roof over their heads and standing on the roads, holding up signs Will Work for Food!. Maybe they need to be the ones to replace these people and give them a break.

       The day after Thanksgiving will start Black Friday and shopping sprees right? Well, I think as Americans who have a Congress that won’t do a damn thing to help us, we need to boycott Black Friday. Surprisingly, what many stores and owner do not realize is you can’t keep building stores and Malls if no one has any money to buy things in them. Wake up, the retail market will not replace the blue-collar market for jobs. You can’t pay people who make items in factories, 8 to 10 dollars an hour and make them serve customers. It doesn’t work folks, stop building malls ok.

       For today, November 20th, 2011, is indeed a day we should think about before we sit down on Thursday and eat our Thanksgiving Dinners. The big committee in Congress The Super One is supposed to cut Trillions from the budget and make the hard decisions, soon. If they don’t make the cuts needed, they won’t suffer as much as the rest of us will they. Someone has to make the cuts needed in order for us to keep going, wake up Congress and Super Committee, get it done!.

        America is quickly becoming a country closely resembling the Blue-Collar Comedy acts of Larry The Cable Guy,Ron White and Jeff Foxworthy. The simple jokes about stupidity,economic woes and silly, stupid people reminds me of Congress, unable to accomplish anything with the exception of being laughed at. Sad isn’t it?

       The Super Committee needs to do its job and stay away from Social Security as it is now, leave Medicaid alone and remember people who are hurting and need these programs are not the ones to ask to make up the difference for your deficit. Things like taking medication from a depressed person because they can’t pay for it, in the end it will come back and bite ya in the ass!.

         The Super Committee wants to make cuts, then cut the salaries of the Senators and Representatives. Halve their salaries and make them work longer hours and then cut their medical benefits and social security and lets see what happens then. I bet there will be panic and pissed off people in Washington then!. Wake up folks, we all have to make sacrifices I agree, but be real where they should be mad. The rich should pay more they have more, as Warren Buffet said, I make it, so I should pay more taxes on it, period. Get the cash from the rich who have it and let them pay their fair share for a change.

      That is my rant for this Sunday November 20th,2011. The Thanksgiving holiday is now upon us, people are having a hard time getting a Turkey, because they can’t pay for one. Remember for each one who sits at a table on Thanksgiving Day with family, there are others who sit in soup kitchens and in boxes on streets for homes. Stop and say thanks for what you have and help an American who needs it too. God Bless.

 

 Recent conversations have led me to believe there is one huge and unbelievable differences between generations that were born in the 1940s and 1950s, and yes even the 1960s, and todays modern generations born in the 1980s  until today. It seems if you look around the kids are heavier, layzier, and less mannered too. They get rude to adults and peers and to anyone that doesn’t give them what they want. Sadly, this is from a lack of discipline. Now I am not saying beat your kids, or abuse them here I am saying discipline them and teach them manners and that they can’t get everything they want. Spoiling your child is just as bad as abusing your child in many cases, for they think they can have it all without working for it.

I see many instances of children being disrespectful to their parents in stores as I shop and look around. I also see parents who yank their children around and verbally abuse them too. Certain things changed over the decades that hurt the American society more than helped it.

They started allowing children to divorce their parents, why is that. It would never have happened in my parents world. Then they told parents by way of shows like The Bill Cosby Show in the 1980s, talk to your children, don’t hit them. A Psychological approach to raising children is one thing, but not to spank or slap a child at all is not right either. There is indeed a thin line between discipline and abuse. But you can also corrupt and damage your child by spoiling the hell out of them so be careful folks.

When I grew up in the 1960s, there were no such things as computers, PCS, Tablets, Game Consoles . We were given books to read, Erector sets to build with, doll houses for girls, and sleds, bikes, and skates were big for kids or balls for sports. No one gave us a X-Box 360/ a PlayStation 3, A Wii, or any other electronic toy. Sadly today too many children have all of them or at least one and are spoiled and hypnotised by video-games and the internet and can’t live without them. We did, why can’t our kids today do the same. 

My parents sent us outside to play, explore the world, check out mother nature, shovel your walkways, play 1,2,3 Red Light, Dodge Ball, climb a tree, play football or baseball, get exercise. Today too many kids are sitting in front of big screen flat panel TVs and monitors using only their fingers to play. So we now have a society of lazy,heavy-set children growing up, raising children. Sad isn’t it!.

 America always wants to know what to do to better the country and it’s people, well here is a little advise for you all. Stop spoiling the kids and giving them everything they want, break them away from the video games and consoles and PCs, and make them play ball, play with friends outside and exercise some. Feed them veggies and meats and make them do chores. Guess what world and America, we will then have a healthier and smarter society.

In the 1960s, parents gave us books, Erector sets, balls for sports, and made us respect them, for if you didn’t they would cuff you one and tell you. Today you slap a child or cuff them one they want to take the child from you, or the child cries abuse. That is crap America ask any country in the world, you have to discipline and not all is restricting, or talking, sometimes  you have to get a child’s attention so you yell or cuff them one. It didn’t kill anyone before and it won’t now. Now before someone comes back and says I am advocating abusing children, wrong, I am not. I am advocating disciplining and teaching a child right from wrong, how to respect each other and their parents. That is all I advocate ok, not talk to them and let them shit on you and spoiling them so they can’t even take the garbage out. Make them know the one thing the older generations know and America should know, we didn’t get this land by sitting on our asses, we worked to earn it all.