Br. David Steindl-Rast on gratitude -- 1 of 3

Gratitude, he said, "starts with surprise. We deprive ourselves so much by not allowing ourselves to be surprised."

After teaching my 9th grade students to draw "finger turkeys" and say "Gobble, gobble gobble!" during this morning's reading class, I was so very grateful for this surprise in my mailbox:

Giving Budget Thanks
Volume XIV No. 47: November 25, 2009

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, we thought we would pause to give thanks for a few budgetary blessings and push the hefty challenges off the table for just a few days. We know they will be there when the tryptophan haze has worn off, so in the interim, here are a few items for which we give thanks:

The Turkey – After a strong fight, Defense Secretary Gates, the White House and the duo of Senate Armed Services Chairman Levin (D-MI) and Ranking Member McCain (R-AZ) worked together to finally end the procurement of the F-22 Raptor jet fighter. Stopping the procurement of this pricey cold war relic saved taxpayers $369 million this year and billions more in the future.

The Stuffing – For years we have called on lawmakers to disclose all their earmark requests - the special-interest sausage (line items) they try to stuff into bills. This year, Appropriations Committee Chairmen Sen. Inouye (D-HI) and Rep. Obey (D-WI) decreed that in order to get an earmark included in a spending bill, each member’s web site must disclose these chestnuts. This is a positive step toward more transparency.

The Wine – The financial sector bailout passed before Thanksgiving last year, but two effective watchdogs have emerged since then to make it more accountable and transparent. Both Special Inspector General Barofsky and Congressional Oversight Panel chair Elizabeth Warren did more than just whine about the shortcomings and problems of TARP (bailout): They shone a light on waste and abuse and pushed to make TARP more accountable and transparent.

The Gravy –The Royalty-in-Kind (RIK) program operated by the Minerals Management Service has been a constant area of abuse over recent years. Under this program, the royalties owed to taxpayers for oil or gas extracted from public lands could be paid in oil or gas instead of cash. Last year, the FBI caught several MMS employees in bed with industry – literally. This year, the Administration decided enough was enough and scrapped the program entirely.

Dessert – The traditional Thanksgiving dessert is pumpkin pie. But we think of this initiative more like a fruitcake – it's the gesture, not the tastiness, that counts. Congress and the Administration promised that the billions spent under the economic stimulus package would be the most transparent spending in history, and so www.recovery.gov was unveiled. We’re all for transparency, but the tracking features are falling short of their promise. To begin with, the site is difficult to navigate. Worse, significant portions of the data are obviously wrong (reporting 15 congressional districts in Arizona, for instance), which makes you question more of the data. We recognize this initiative was an enormous and important undertaking, so we say thanks for trying and encourage the Administration to redouble efforts to make it more accurate and improve ease of use.

Obviously this isn’t a complete Thanksgiving feast. We’re missing the mashed potatoes and cranberry relish, just to list a few staples. So next year we hopefully will have even more to be thankful for, but until then we will work off any extra holiday pounds exposing and fighting wasteful spending. Happy Thanksgiving!

http://www.taxpayers.org/

practical simple idea to improve your life

THANK YOU NCR for this gracious touching home with this essential Benedictine patriarch, pastor, spiritual guide, prophet of profoundest peace and of our prayer.

I am deeply grateful to you, upon this day of gratitude, of Thanksgiving, writing as I do from Mexico, alone with you.

So good, strengthening, edifying, to see his great face once more, to see how time has passed from three or four decades ago . . .

This is in fact the 34th anniversary of my sad return from the happy cloister in Solesmes, and I truly needed today as every day this touch of home.

Thank you
with great gratitude
frère charles du désert OSB OBLAT (Congrégation de Subiaco)

We here in the Southern Cape of SA, are in the grip of the worst drought in living memory. The main dam of one of our biggest towns, with the most dwellers, is almost empty. Some nearby towns have no water, and water is trucked in from another almost empty dam.

So we are learning to be very frugal with our use of water.
We are also learning what it has been like for the poor in the country, all these years, with inadequate or no water.

It can become a life-changing experience for many of us, Bro David, is pointing the way, through gratefulness to joy and sharing of the gifts we have been so abundantly given in this beautiful land.