I have 6 fans: Become a Fan. You'll get emails whenever I post articles on OpEdNews
E.T.SIMON ... Keeping the Bio Real and Transparent ...
E. T. SIMON is more often like a transplanted palm tree from the land of Santiago de Cuba where she was born to a Cuban, Tulane University, lawyer educated father and, a Mississippi, mother, great-granddaughter of American Revolutionary War hero, Brigadier General Andrew Pickens who is credited with the victory against the British in the Battle of the Cowpens. Although at times, E.T. Simon is more like, the fruit of the pecan of her Mississippi grandparents pecan farm of long ago, or even like the Sycamore so firmly rooted in the Florida Peninsula. As such, the daughter of bi-cultural, bi-lingual parents, E.T. Simon navigated the bi-cultural ties, bi-lingual shores of her birth, while learning to appreciate Cuban and Southern cuisine and cultures, from a very early age.
At the age of 15, two years after her mother's death, she dreamt about running away from her home to join the , "Bohemians" of the 1950s in New York's Greenwich Village and become a writer. She did not. In 1961, at the age of 18 her father sent her across the pond to her mother's family in Mississippi in an effort to keep her from falling prey to Fidel Castro's repressive agents who were on her trail for her opposition to Fidel Castro.
Bumpy rides, or not, In 1976, E.T. Simon, after twelve years of part time studies, with in-between times-off for parenting, obtained her B.A. in English with a Major in Literature and a double minor in Psychology and Philosophy. In 1985 she obtained her Master's Degree in Counseling and in 1987 her License in Marriage and Family Therapy.
Her quest to pursue a MFA in Creative Writing was derailed when a stuffed shirt Chaucer Literature Professor graded her paper on The Prioress Tale short of the A she needed to establish her credentials in the MFA Creative Writing Program, even while receiving the support of the Academic Dean who told her with a certain urgency, "don't stop writing. You'll find a way."
Prior to pursuing her graduate studies in counseling, Ms. E.T. Simon joined a Creative Writing Group where she honed in on some of the art and craft of writing and had the pleasure of attending poetry readings by Tess Gallagher, Denise Levertov, Rutabaga Rose and others.
Following her 1985 graduation, Ms. E.T. Simon proceeded to work as a counselor/family therapist until 1998 when, following surgery, she became a near recluse and has remained a near recluse for the last twelve years or so.
It was during those years that she worked as a counselor/family therapist that Ms. E.T. Simon learned that grief is a powerful agent which often contributes to the derailing of families; that human hearts can bury grief for generations and generations with the grief popping up unexpectedly as a symptom anywhere, sometimes even in someone else further along in the generations.
Ms. E.T. Simon also learned that when careful unearthing of buried grief happens and a person is enabled to truly grieve the pain of a loss they have been holding on to for years, then rebalancing of the derailment takes place and true healing occurs.
Writing is a lifelong love of E.T. Simon's, and whether she kept her writings buried in dusty drawers, or shared them with university professors, writers' groups, editors, or published them, the writer's flame burns undying in her. The flame of truth also burns in her along with the need to stand up for the underdog, of which, today, she finds herself to be one. This blended well in her throughout her years of computer activism for peace and social justice.
E.T. Simon's articles have been published under the name of TERESA SIMON-NOBLE, the pen name of ELENA DUMAS; and at times, under the additional pen name of SKYAGUNSTA, or SKYAGUNSTA PICKENS, both of which are a direct reference to her great-great-grandfather Brigadier General Andrew Pickens who was named "Skyagunsta," by Native Americans who came to appreciate him as a man of conscience. Please also know that whether the articles have been signed with one name, or another; with a pen name, or another, the writings have always come straight from my heart, my perception, and my core values.
In other words, it has always been me, and only me, writing the articles.
Friday, December 23, 2011 Pot Shots and Other Stories (3 comments)
Just trying to sort out the broken pieces brought to us courtesy of the BushObama Administrations.
Monday, October 3, 2011 The Mystery of a Trickle Down Economy (3 comments)
The mystery of a trickle down economy is that in addition to being a ruse, it turns into a poop party on the receiving end.
Tuesday, September 27, 2011 The Impudent Boldness of Barack Obama (11 comments)
Obama's Impudent Boldness in telling Congressional Black Caucus Leaders,"Stop Complaining. Stop Crying." Is a Clear Chastisement of Maxine Waters and Other Leaders who express concerns over Obama's alliance with the Republicans.
Saturday, September 24, 2011 If Only I Were A Quick Thinker On My Feet (2 comments)
My friend filled with right wing information believes the Muslims want to come and take over our country.
Monday, October 11, 2010 Catch 22: An Exercise in Powerlessness (3 comments)
In Florida these days you must prove beyond a doubt that you are the same licensed driver that you have been for years before the DMV will renew your current license. It is all an invasion of privacy. When did this lunacy begin?
Saturday, October 9, 2010 Write About What You Know. Keeping it Real. (1 comments)
This article is about life in this neighborhood which has, like many other neighborhoods in the United States, I am sure, been incredibly abused by a down turn economy.
Wednesday, December 23, 2009 The Shattered 2009 American Dream Or A Sack of Coal (2 comments)
"... all you have to do is contemplate a single grain of sand, and you will see in it the marvels of creation," Paulo Coelho - The Alchemist.
Our politicians have forgotten to contemplate the simple grain of sand. All they can see is greed.
Friday, October 30, 2009 The bestiarii (gladiators) vs. Greed (1 comments)
Insurance companies are the new beast,the United States Congress is the new Roman Coliseum, Greed is the new faith, Dr. Margaret Flowers, Dennis Kucinich and every voice raised in favor of Universal Healthcare are the new bestiarii a/k/a Gladiators
Friday, October 16, 2009 Ripple Effects Travel Far and Wide (1 comments)
As congress and the president refuse to pass or even to listen to the need for Universal Health Care for All, will Barack Obama contribute any of his Nobel Peace Prize money to the care of Florida's latest burn victim who family is facing a walloping mount of health care bills?
Friday, October 9, 2009 The politicians have forgotten. The people have not (1 comments)
Love flows people to people, person to person.Perhaps LOVE will touch a politician who will then touch other politicians. Congress has forgotten. The people have not.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009 Health Care Reform? INSURANCE BAIL OUT is more like it. (3 comments)
What the politicians who spew out words like "affordable health care" mean, is insurance bail outs, from our pockets to theirs.
Monday, April 13, 2009 Obama's Unlimited Travel to Cuba for Cuban-Americans (7 comments)
Obama's open policy of travel to Cuba opens up a floodgate of memories. This one is connected to my departure from Cuba and to the bay which nurtured me for 18 years.
Friday, March 2, 2007 Immigrant Daughter (2 comments)
There was no CNN out there, then. There was no LOU DOBBS This Week Program, then.
There were no immigration laws here, then, when William Pickens and his wife Margaret stepped on the shores of this country ... which 'for much of its history ... allowed unrestricted immigration ...'"
Monday, February 19, 2007 Two Funerals and a Baby Shower: Reflections on the Changing Face of America
On the way to a baby shower, I was reminded that Bush has turned the words, Federal Police, into unfriendly shadowy words which give rise to a reminder of the derailing of our country, as perpetrated by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice et al ...
Wednesday, February 7, 2007 George W. Bush: War Generating Force
What will the United States look like after George W. Bush leaves or is forced out of office?
Sunday, February 4, 2007 The Insertion of Homeland Security into Super Bowl XLI
The Insertion of Homeland Security Measures into Super Bowl XLI is a Bush ploy to instill fear and a dress rehearsal for the police state Bush is unleashing on this country.
Monday, January 22, 2007 Always Suited in Black
Unlike Benito Juarez who labored to protect the rights of people, Alberto Gonzalez labors instead to take away the rights of others.
Monday, January 8, 2007 Cindy Sheehan's arrival in Cuba... (7 comments)
A woman of humble heart and high stature, Cindy Sheehan has vowed to pursue an agenda of peace and of holding the Bush administration accountable for their crimes against humanity.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007 A neighborhood in the America nobody wants
This is a neighborhood in the New America where many of the neighbors are no longer welcome aboard.
Monday, December 11, 2006 O, the Billy Gloat was out bleating again! (3 comments)
The Bush Family knows that if truth is allowed to stand they would never get to hold power power in their hands--therefore, they serve us a long list of rescuers and deleterious charaters who serve us a constant disfigurement of truth in their efforts to enhance the Bushes, their dynastic empire, and their power grabs.
Monday, October 30, 2006 Showdown at the Early Voting Place (12 comments)
I want to vote but I want my vote to count the way I intend for it to count!
Sunday, October 29, 2006 This Was Never Supposed to Happen Here. (4 comments)
This was never supposed to happen here, that a bilogical father and former president would one day support and endorse with "every fiber of his being" the lying, cheating, stealing, murdering of innocent people his son has seen fit to commit.
Sunday, August 6, 2006 Connections
Connections, like the roots which nurture trees, are the roots which nurture people.
Sunday, July 30, 2006 The Bush White House Piano Player (4 comments)
The Bush White House Piano Player keeps playing her score to an audience that refuses her applause.
Saturday, July 22, 2006 A Mournful Mood This Morning (2 comments)
My thoughts drift out to those under siege by the firepower of bombs, rockets, missiles, gunship-deadly force of any kind raining in on any of the warring sides. Armaments built to kill life and line the pockets of the military/industrial complex men and women with money. With the serene notes of the Chopin music playing inside my house, I wonder who soothes the dying...
Friday, July 14, 2006 No Sage Advice or Calming Words from Bush the Warmonger (4 comments)
Saying that, "Every country has the right to defend itself from the killing of innocent life and terrorists who want to stop the progress of peace," George Walker Bush-stokes the fires of war.
Tuesday, July 4, 2006 How Does One Fight a Liar?
"...I think of us in a prison cell built by an invisible wall of lies..."
Tuesday, June 27, 2006 Feeding Fire To Bush's Furnace of Fear
Is Chairman King governed by the use of reason, or by the panic process? Or is he just stoking the fires to Bush's furnace of fear?
Saturday, May 20, 2006 When everything else goes (3 comments)
Where will you be when Bush takes the last drop of liberty away
Thursday, May 11, 2006 The WOW Syndrome of the Bush White House (1 comments)
How interesting, and yet, how not at all surprising, that George Herbert Walker Bush happened to be in Washington, enjoying the perks of the White House, which he often does, as if to fulfill some megalomaniacal dream of power and control of his, on the same weekend that the Kafkaesque Bush White House kicked Porter Goss out of the CIA
Wednesday, February 22, 2006 The Revolution Has Begun! (3 comments)
Senators and Representatives of all stripes in each party realize that they can, and must, say, NO, to Bush.
Monday, February 20, 2006 Not Everything Must Be Okay With Mr. Whittington (1 comments)
God speaks in mysterious language some friend told me long ago, and even Pope John Paul II, on his travel to Cuba in l998, wondered out loud if the misty rain befalling the island on his departure, may, in any way, be connected to MaryÂ’s sadness over his departure from the communist island.
