Source https://www.dpcc.senate.gov/

In the sixty-eight years since the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee (DPCC) (formerly known as the Democratic Policy Committee (DPC)) was established in January 1947, it has served as an advisory board to the Democratic Leadership and as a research, policy-formulating, and communications arm of Senate Democrats. While the DPCC’s role has evolved through the years, the thread that unifies its long history is the key role it has played in facilitating communication among Senate Democrats and enhancing their ability to formulate and advance their agenda.

Under President Obama’s leadership, the economy has added private sector jobs for 74 straight months. During this span, 14.6 million private sector jobs have been created. In the Senate, Democrats are fighting to continue this positive trend and help speed along the economic recovery.

Job creation and retention has been a central element of the debate in choosing the president in the 2016 election. President Barack Obama has not received clear recognition of the jobs growth rate during his administration. As President Donald Trump begins his presidency it is appropriate to look at where the jobs growth rate is at the start of his term of office. If the rate falls during his tenure than the bashing that has been tossed about to President Obama is not fair. Furthermore, if President Trump, who claims job creation is his specialty, can’t continue the rate set under President Obama then he truly does not deserve re-election should he decide to run for office in 2020.

Today Donald Trump took the Oath of Office for President of the USA. The image above shows him using 2 Bibles. One he received as a child. The other belonged to former President Abraham Lincoln. Bibles are used when taking oaths to signify the importance of truthfully meaning the statements that are spoken.

I must disclose that I was not in favor of Donald Trump in the election. But with the election being concluded he is our president. I will reserve judgement on the way he handles the office for the first 100 days. By then most of us will know if the president we elected is the president we needed.

This image is of Betty White when she played Sue Ann Niven on the Mary Tyler Moore Show

This is a more current picture of Betty White who tured age 95 this week

Who is the real Betty White?

I grew up as a child knowing Betty White as Sue Ann Niven as a part of the cast of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. In that character as script called for she displayed:

• A crush she had on Lou Grant the News Manager
  
• An obvious dislike for Mary because of the time she spent with Lou Grant as his assistant producer
  
• Many displays of jealousy manifested in rude behavior.
  

Then came “The Golden Girls” and saw this same lady become a different person because she followed the scripts produced for the show.

Now Betty is 95 and when she speaks she is not following a script but being who she is! She was asked how she felt about being 95. While I can’t quote her reply it contained these components:

• Laughter is what makes me feel the happiest. We all need to be able to laugh.
  
• My goal was not to be a certain age. My goal was to enjoy the days I had to live.
  
• I consider this age and all the things I can still do as a gift, a gift not to be wasted.
  

Her answer to the question was very good. It is good advice for all of us no matter what age we are at this time. So join me in wishing Betty White a Happy Birthday this week!

Everyone knows we are in the final week of the presidency of Barack Obama. As most presidents do, in his last week Obama is commuting sentences and issuing pardons.

• I watch NCIS weekly.
  
• I love the show!
  
• The cast live tweet during the show which is awesome.
  
• Some weeks the number of tweets for the show put the show in the top 5 topics being tweeted at that time.
  

I watched the news last night and knew about the commutation of the Manning sentence. I was surprised to see that during NCIS was list right below Manning in the list of topics with the most tweets. It impressed me that something fictional came so close to outpacing tweets on a topic that is real current event.

I have concluded that Twitter does offer a service to the world. It allows people to comment on their own initiative instead of waiting to be polled to voice their preferences. This is one was growing up today is so different than the culture I experienced when I was a teenager.

This image came from the Internet and is not taken at our facility. It is used for illustrative purposes.

I love my work as a chaplain to cardiovascular patients in the CVU unit. Most of our patients go directly home from the unit at discharge. A smaller number need additional physical therapy before they can function safely at home. Our facility has an Inpatient Comprehensive Rehab Unit. Two of my CVU patients from last week are now on the rehab unit this week. It was such a joy to see them on the rehab unit and observe how much stronger they look after just 1 weekend!

I encourage anyone to utilize rehab if it is offered. The positive effects of it as I have observed my patients is far more valuable that discomfort you experience as you begin the process!

Image of the MLK Memorial in Washington DC

There was a time not too many years ago, where I felt the mission ending racism had really progressed. In the last 3 years with events in Chicago, Ferguson, MO, and Baltimore; I have realized we have not gone as far in accomplishing Dr. King’s mission as I once thought we had. Today we celebrate another anniversary of his birthday. We mark our observance with these changes to our normal routine:

• Banks are closed.
  
• New York Stock Exchange is closed.
  
• Post Offices are closed and mail is not being delivered.
  
• Many schools have this as an official holiday and school is closed.
  

These things are all fine and well, but alone they will do nothing to move us toward Dr. King’s goal. Each us needs to do a careful and honest self-examination to determine which of our behaviors are racist in nature. Then we need to resolve to change. Finally, we must hold ourselves accountable to change. None of these three things is as easy as waiting 1 day for mail or using the automatic teller machine instead of being able to see a bank employee.

I had to admit I am sometimes more intimidated when I see a black person walking toward me on a side walk than I am when I see a white person approaching me. This action is racial profiling. I don’t intend to do, but I find myself doing automatically. I hope this anniversary in 2017 is more than a party. I hope people take significant steps to end their own acts of racism!

Today in Sunday School we examined passages from Scripture where the Jews were encouraged or instructed go to the Temple and pray. I was the only one in the class who has been at the Temple and described the scene as I thought it would look based on my 1 visit.

The picture above is from the Internet. It is the Western Wall. Men and women come to separate sections of the wall to pray. The sound of all the verbal prayers echoes off the stones of the wall and it creates a powerful sight to behold. Today’s lesson reminded me again of the necessity for praying daily.

This photo is used courtesy of Associated Press.

#FREE CHELSEA was the topic of many posts to my Twitter account today. For those of you who may need a reminder of who Chelsea is, the paragraph below gives a summary of the situation.

Chelsea Elizabeth Manning (born Bradley Edward Manning, December 17, 1987) is a United States Army soldier who was convicted by court-martial in July 2013 of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, after disclosing to WikiLeaks nearly three-quarters of a million classified or unclassified but sensitive military and diplomatic documents. Manning was sentenced in August 2013 to 35 years’ imprisonment, with the possibility of parole in the eighth year, and to be dishonorably discharged from the Army. Manning is a trans woman who, in a statement the day after sentencing, said she had felt female since childhood, wanted to be known as Chelsea, and desired to begin hormone replacement therapy. From early life and through much of her Army life, Manning was known as Bradley; she was diagnosed with gender identity disorder while in the Army.

As I see the current effort to have Chelsea freed is that people are assuming current President Obama would be more sympathetic to the situation than Present-Elect Trump would be when he assumes office. A pardon would free Manning from the conviction of espionage. To this day, Manning has not denied that the allegations that were filed are true. My question is if someone is guilty of espionage and does not deny it 4 years later why should a pardon be issued? Obviously, thousands of people feel a pardon is the right thing to do. I will need persuasive logic and evidence before I can agree that pardon is appropriate.

Recently there have been a collection of news stories based on leaks that have been attributed to our national security network. As I have listened to the news and have tried to sort out the wheat from the chaff, I have not been able get a clear picture in my mind of what is happening. The memo above was issued yesterday in an attempt make things clearer.

I feel it is unfortunate that as President-Elect Trump prepares to take office he must deal with this task when there are more important things he needs to be doing. If everyone, “told the truth and nothing but the truth”, our government would be held in higher esteem and perhaps the three branches of government would work more efficiently on their own and with each other. What nice picture of the future of government!

One of the joys of visiting patients is when we have deep conversations on topics of importance to them. When they let, me know the pressing topics on their mind and try offer them a way to look at it and feel better about the topic rather than continuing to have concerns. When people are in the hospital they often have time to reflect on life decisions they have made. Listening them state their question and look for an answer is a journey that can be live-giving.