Local Cousins-in-law

Ok--there is no official family title as cousin-in-law, but I have a lot of them around this metro area.

Cousins are often those people who little kids first make friends with outside of their siblings. First cousins are children of siblings so family get-togethers among brothers and sisters often involve cousins. So there is often a kinship among first cousins, at least.

Well just in this metro area alone, I have 14 cousins in law. And I saw almost all of them on Christmas Day for the big annual family dinner gatherin'.

I jotted down their local occupations (or other location) and here is the list:

5 are in retail sales or in corporate sales
2 are at home mommies
2 are registered nurses (RN)
1 is a police officer
1 is a firefighter
1 works at the VW plant
1 is retired and traveling to different state parks
and
1 is in prison.

My cousins in law within this area are for the most part contributors to this city/area with their own families, marriages, schools, churches, and work. 

 

Is She Really Going Out With Him

Joe Jackson came out with a song in the early 80s titled "Is She Really Going Out With Him."  Man, how many poems about love did I write influenced by this song? A lot. A lot.

Here is a video with lyrics from YouTube:

The nine senators should channel Mary Ellen Lease

So, the Republicans have won a supermajority in each of the Tennessee state houses.  Nothing can stop a supermajority imparting its will.  And there are 9 Democratic senators. In the Tennessee State Senate. Being a Democrat in the state senate is a lonely place to be.

My advice for the nine? I would take a page from the Kansan Mary Ellen Lease and shout. "Raise hell and not corn!"  If it were me as one of the nine, I would become an angry, jaded senator.

I would stage walkouts, refuse to vote, be irreverent, ridicule, accuse, burn bridges, and scorch the Earth. What is there to lose? Be redistricted? Not until 2021!

These nine shouldn't be quiet to play the game of statemanship. If they have the cojones, they need to be a pain, to be defiant, to be a dissident. That is the only power game they have left.