The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself

Terror, according to the dictionary, is defined as extreme fear, dread,
alarm, or panic.  Terrorism is defined as the systemic use of terror
as a means of coercion. And a terrorist is a person who uses or
advocates terrorism; a person who frightens other.  Tell me are
you frightened?  Then the terrorists have succeeded.

America has collectively hid under its bed covers since September
11, 2001, and it is time we came out into the sunshine again.  On
that fateful day 2763 persons were killed; they were from 78
different countries.  It was the first attack on American soil since
Pearl Harbor it changed us a nation, but instead of making us
resolute it made us fearful.  The president, then George W. Bush,
said something that he was widely ridiculed for.  I didn't understand
it myself when I first heard it, it made me angry, but now I would
like to echo it, loudly and clearly.  President Bush said, Go shopping!

The man who holds the presidency now has a different idea for
America.  He would like to keep us in fear, dread, alarm, and panic.
Fear of people who don't look or speak like us, dread that our jobs
are leaving the country and are going to foreign lands, alarm that
thousands of thieves, murderers, and drug addicts are storming
our borders, and panic that if we do not isolate ourselves, we are
all doomed.    Hmmm...

We, as a nation are becoming more and more insular and isolated
and it is becoming so at an earlier and earlier age.  Parents who fear
sending their precious progeny out into the world filled with unknown
dangers lurking around every corner, now either home-school or
enroll them in one of the many internet schools available.  Thus,
insuring their child will never learn to assimilate into society.  They
will never benefit from the feeling of belonging to something
greater than themselves; to a school, a city, a state, a nation a world.

There are things that bind us together, to insure the common good,
and to fight the common enemy.  We cannot relate to another
without going outside of ourselves.  You may have 756 Facebook
'friends', but if you cannot call up three people to join you for lunch,
to look across the table from you, and share sustenance and the other
most basic need, human contact, you are truly lost. And we are lost
as a country.

What is driving this isolation?  Fear!  Newly hatched chicks are
contained in a small area with heat, food and water, usually until
they are fledged.  That small space must be a circle because those
chicks will panic at nothing and run amok, and if the container
were to have corners, they would crush one another to death in
the corners.  Have we become like those chickens, afraid of the
smallest hint of danger?  Fearful of going out of our safety
container, we think twice about going to the theatre, the mall, our
places of worship for god's sake.  The last refuge of peace and
tranquility has become; bring your gun to church, armed guards,
and metal detectors.  I'm glad I am no longer filled with that
need, for to see what has become of worshiping would surely
break my spirit and my heart.

Instead of reaching out across the oceans to connect with others
who share our humanity we use these oceans as barriers, but they
can easily be breached as September 11th proved.  Instead of
experiencing the new and different by touch and smell and
taste, we sit in our self-contained world and view life through
virtual reality glasses. Fly to a foreign land?  No way!  It would
mean leaving the safety of our self-built refuge.  It would mean
mingling with people who don't speak like us, think like us, who
dress differently, eat strange food, and yet in their own way they
are the same as us.

In 1933, president Franklin Roosevelt gave a speech at his
inauguration, he talked about facing a situation that was
different than what we face today, but his words can be
applied just the same:

         ...this great nation will endure, will revive and
         prosper, So first of all, let me assert my firm
         belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear
         itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror
         which paralyzes the needed efforts to convert
         retreat into advance.

If we let fear rule our lives, those people who took down the
World Trade Center, and those home-grown ideologues have
won without firing another shot.  So shut down that computer,
close your Amazon account, turn off the TV, open your front
door and walk outside.  Living in fear is not living!
Go Shopping!

                                  I'm just sayin'.

Let Us Be Grateful...

Let us be grateful the year isn't any longer than it is.  I don't
know about you but I barely survived the past 364 days.  And
now, a new year, and a new decade is almost here.  I know
the purists among you will say that the decade doesn't begin
until 2021, but this is my blog, go get your own.

It is unimaginable that we could cram so much into such
a short amount of time, and the bad news folks is, 2020
will have an extra day to bedevil us.  That means 105 more
tweets, and at least 15 more lies. There are some folks who
actually keep track of these numbers, I happen to be one of
them, and I do it just for fun.

But if we can forget all the angst, anxiety, dread, distress,
fear, foreboding, and trepidation, the year did have some
real highlights.  Women made some great strides in 2019.

In January, a record 105 women were sworn into the US
House of Representatives; there was an increase of women
Democrats of 25 and, of course, a corresponding decrease
in women Republicans of 10.

The Virginia Governor's seat and most of the legislature
turned feminine and blue, and with their help it looks like
the Equal Rights Amendment may finally have enough
votes to pass after languishing for almost fifty years, and
fittingly a state named for a woman will be the one to pass it.

And who can forget the US women's soccer team: Dunn,
Lavelle, Lloyd, and Rapinoe, and the other twenty-two
wonderful women who showed young girls across the
nation what can be done if you try.  Those women won
the World Cup, not like the World Series, or the Super
Bowl.  These women beat the best teams in the world. 

The televised hearings on impeachment showed us not
all heroes wear capes, some are regular people just doing
their jobs; Fiona Hill, Marie Yovanovitch, Alexander
Vindman.  They stood up when it counted, risking their
careers, and quite possibly their safety to testify against
what they believed was injustice.

And what of the others across the globe who took a stand
to say enough, enough of tyranny and repression; in Puerto
Rico, Hong Kong, the Sudan, Algeria, Lebanon, Bolivia,
Chile, Iraq, and even Moscow Russia.  People took to the
streets to take back their countries.  One day, perhaps, enough
of those people who do not share in the wealth of America
will realize that they too have a voice.  And if we all put our
voices together, we can, and we will be heard.

And the best way to be heard is at the ballot box this
November.  We can send a message to those who would
disparage us, that we will no longer stand for it.  We will
no longer stand by while the rich get richer and their
employees work two and three jobs just to tread water.
Where only the wealthy can afford the best medical
insurance.  Where students graduate with unsustainable
debt.  We can make 2020 a better year and the start of a
better decade.  So join me.

A new year - A new president!

I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year.

    I'm just sayin'.

And so it Begins

I. like so many others have been following the impeachment proceedings,
I have listened intently to both sides.  I must say at the onset, I thoroughly
dislike Donald J. Trump.  Not always for the same reasons most people give,
but my reasons are more personal.  I disliked him before he even became
president.

Through-out my career I have dealt with men like him, arrogant, overbearing,
simple-minded fools who cover their ignorance by shouting.  Men who feel
that their money or position give them the right to do as they wish and to treat
those, who they consider underlings - insert women here - with total distain.
Perhaps it is not his fault, after all his father lied and cheated to garner his wealth,
and rather than pay the government money in taxes, he hid it by endowing it to
his half-wit of a son.  The son he had shuttered off to military school to get him
out of the house, hopefully to 'make a man out of him'. Unfortunately, the one
thing that junior learned wasn't his father's acumen for business, but his father's
disgusting behavior.

Donald Trump has lied and cheated just like his father, he has left a trail of
bankruptcies, ex-wives and half-wit sons in his wake.  The only difference is
Donald hides what little money he has managed to salvage from his inheritance
behind tax loopholes and in foreign banks.  His braggadocio has fooled many,
and many have paid the price, losing everything, their money, their pride, their
reputation.  And for all of this, some men still look up to him because they see
what they think is a smart, successful, powerful, man among men, and women see
a strong male figure.  The kind of figurehead they wish their man to be.  Lincoln
said it best, "...you can fool some of the people all of the time."

And with the support of this delusional 'basket of deplorables' and the indifference
of those voters who thought that a Hillary win was a foregone conclusion and the
whiny Sanders supporters who were too bereft to make  it to the polls, we now
have president Donald Trump.  And what did they think was going to happen when
he was elected?  Did they think that this man who hasn't the slightest shred of
human dignity, who shows no empathy, a man who all of his life bullied his way
to get what he wanted, they thought that some how he would grow into the office of
president?  This man who cannot distinguish between lies and the truth, who lacks
a moral compass, and cannot even understand that just because he wants something
he can take it, by force if necessary.  The same way he thought he could grab any
woman where and when he wanted.

And yet in spite of this aberrant behavior, there are still those who support him, why,
because they want something from him.  Quid pro quo?  You bettcha!  "I will give
you my support as long as you continue to do my bidding". No wonder they could
not recognize what Trump did was wrong, they have been doing it for the past three
years themselves.  But the greatest of these hypocrites are the leaders of the Christian
Fundamentalists, those bible bellowing, psalm singing, salvation sellers.  Those who
preach that heaven is for they who are pure in spirit, they who live a life of self-sacrifice,
who tithe and do good deeds.  It was those leaders who looked upon one of their own
and castigated him for having  consensual sex in the oval office, yet hold up Donald
Trump as a shining beacon, and demand fealty from their flocks to follow them in
voting for this despot.  A man who has brazenly broken everyone of god's
commandments,  a man who couldn't find a church with a GPS signal.  But there are
cracks beginning to show in the wall of belief.

Last week, the magazine founded by Billy Graham, Christianity Today, ran an article
calling for Trumps removal from office, "...to the many evangelicals who continue to
support Mr. Trump in spite of his blackened moral record, we might say this: Remember
who you are and whom you serve.  Consider how your justification of Mr. Trump
influences your witness to your Lord and saviour.  Consider what an unbelieving world
will say if you continue to brush off Mr. Trump's immoral words and behavior in the
cause of political expediency."

Infuriated, Trump said he will never read that magazine again, I'll bet they are worried.
The  magazine is a very popular periodical with the conservative right, and though the
article may not make a huge impact on the general believing population, it might cause
some of them to think.  Still the message from the pulpit remains; god, guns and gays.
The Democrats will lead the country down the road to perdition right after they take away
your religious freedom, your guns and allow perverts to reach 'yer youngins'.  No matter
that you have to shield them youngins from the profanity laced speeches the president
makes daily.  It begs the question; what are those preachers getting out of the Trump
administration?  The answer; containing a free-thinking congregation that may at one
at one time in the future find that perhaps these men of god(?) may not have all the answers
and there goes the meal ticket.  But fear won't work forever and one day reason will take over.

The house of Representatives has voted for Articles of Impeachment and Speaker Pelosi
will at some time refer them to the Senate for trial.  To find the president guilty and remove
him from office, twenty Republican Senators must cross over and vote with the Democrats.
Impossible you say, maybe or maybe not. The Senate is not like the House.  Where the
House represents the people, the Senate represents the State.  If I may use an analogy, the
House is much like the House of Commons in the British Parliament and the Senate is
more attuned to the House of Lords.  The raucous debates and shouting matches in the
House are but showbiz for the folks back home, one hopefully will find quiet deliberation
in the senate.  A Senator four years away from reelection may find he doesn't have to
walk in lock-step with the leadership.  He may even seek out others who he feels think
the same way he does.  What is there to gain?  A place in the history books forever, the
gang that took down the president!

We know there are Senators who find Trump repulsive, there are Senators who think
that Trump has coopted the Republican party and they feel it will take years to right
the ship of state again.  The whole story of what Trump and his sidekick Giuliani have,
and are, presently doing will come out slowly but surely, and with each revelation the
picture looks worse for those trying to defend the president's actions.  A Senator who
stands too close will be tarred by the same brush.  The Senate can see the slow but
inexorable shift in public opinion.  With each passing week, the polls are leaning
more and more against Trump.  A lot can be revealed before Congress returns on
January 6th.  And with Senators scattered to the wind it will be harder for Trump's
henchmen, McConnel and Graham to exert pressure on them.  And Lindsay has an
opponent closing in on him.

If I were Trump, I would be just a bit worried.  Nothing is a foregone conclusion,
not when men of good will and integrity look into their conscience.

I'm just sayin'.

Lite is for Beer

If I might explain something to you, President Donald
John Trump, there is nothing light about impeachment.
Your distain for all that is sacred in the Constitution of
the United States is appalling.  You sir, are being
impeached! It will forever be a stain on your presidency,
in the history of the United States you will only be the
third president to bear this shame.  And as long as there
is a Republic it will there on your family name.  Your
children and your children's children will carry your
mark of shame.

You can joke about it, and laugh about it, but I guarantee
you, anyone with a modicum of sense is not laughing with
you, they are laughing at you, sir.  You are a disgrace to
this country and all its citizens.  And now it is there for
the entire world to see.

So, continue to hold your rallies and try to undermine
what the elected members of the House of Representatives
have charged you with.  I'm sure those thousands in your
audience, whom you hire to cheer you on, will continue
to cheer.  I know you need that constant reaffirmation;
without it you cannot function.  You surround yourself
with sycophants who massage your ego, they live in
fear of hearing the words "You're Fired".  But once they
are free from your tyranny, they regain their voice, and
recount the days of total disarray in your administration.
Soon there will be more of them on the outside than on
the inside.  What then Mr. Trump?

What I despise most about your presidency is the
contagion of prevarication that is spreading throughout
the Republican Party.  Senators, who once were held in
high regard are now seen for what they truly are; sniveling
cowards who shrink in fear of your angry tweets, as though
they were shouts of 'off with their heads'.  Do you not see,
you in the Senate, if you were to stand together and expose
this charlatan for whom he is, your constituents would see it
also?  And even if they didn't, if they reject you at the ballot
box, at least you can go out with your honor intact.

I fear, like sheep to the slaughter you follow the traitor goat,
you will be judged by history, and it won't be kindly.  If you
cannot see what will happen when this man is returned to
power, you are blind fools.  You understand what damage he
has already done to our country's image in the world.  And now
Donald Trump is being charged with acts against the
Constitution of the United States, that same document that you
swore to protect and defend from enemies foreign and domestic,
when you took your oath of office.  You trade your sacred honor
for what?   Trump's disgrace is your disgrace, when you lowered
yourself to his level you took on his ignominy and you will wear
it forever.

So, next week when the Articles of Impeachment arrive in the Senate,
think about your vote.  Your leader, Mitch McConnel, has already
said he may not call any witnesses.  Of course he won't.  There is
no defense for what the president has done, and McConnel fears
that not everyone he could call would risk perjury for the
president.  After all, they also remember what happened to those
who did perjure themselves in the Nixon hearing.  And not
everyone looks good in prison orange.  Let me ask you this, if
you cannot call one member of the president's council to offer
a defense for him, why are you?

I' just sayin'.
   

Get 'er Done

And so, it comes to this, tomorrow the United States House
of Representatives will begin drafting the Articles of'
Impeachment against the president of the United States,
Donald J. Trump.  They will pass along party lines, Democrats
close to unanimous, will vote for impeachment and the
Republicans, most probably unanimously, will vote against
them. From there they will go onto the Senate where the
Republicans hold the majority, and after a sham trial, Donald
Trump will be found not guilty of all charges.

I said not guilty, I did not say innocent, because Trump is
not innocent.  he committed all those things he stands accused
of.  That is not what is on trial here, what is on trial is whether
the Republican Senators put their loyalty to a flawed president
above their country, and the oath of office they took when they
were sworn in as a Senator.  And I sincerely hope that they vote
to acquit Trump, and let me explain my reasoning.

This all began as the result of the Mueller Report, when Robert
Mueller found there was no proof of overt collusion between
the Trump Campaign and the Russian government Trump felt
exonerated.  The report as presented by the Attorney General,
William Barr, appeared to find no wrong doings, but in fact
that is not what the report said.  The report said that since a
sitting president cannot be indicted, the Mueller Commission
did not look into the charges of obstruction of justice.  They
left that to the House of representative to examine.

Trump was so emboldened by this report, that the very next
day he propositioned the Ukrainian government, to, as he said,
"do us a favor".  He wanted the Ukrainians to announce, publicly,
that they were investigating wrong doing by Hunter Biden, the
son of Joe Biden, who was supposed to be Trumps leading rival
for the 2020 presidential election.  To insure the favor, Trump was
withholding $400 thousand in military aide already approved.
However, also listening on the phone conversation, were several
State Department employees, one of whom found this so disturbing
that he reported it to his superior.  This started the ball in motion,
resulting in where we find ourselves now.

If the president was so reckless because he felt the Mueller Report
was, 'so much ado about nothing', how do you suppose he will take
the Republican's blatant lock-step approval of what he did as a result?
As it stands, Trump feels that as president he can do no wrong, because
as he stated, he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not lose a vote.
And that is pretty close to right, he has shredded the Constitution and
not lost a vote, instead he has Republican Senators extolling his
greatness.  I fear what Trump has on his agenda after taking his victory
lap.

I hope one thing, when the House gets together to draft the Articles of
Impeachment, they include everything, every wrong doing by the
president.  I hope they go back to the Mueller Report and list the
incidences of obstruction of justice, I hope the list every incident of
obstruction of Congress stemming from his ignoring subpoenas and
directing his minions not to testify.  I hope they list every incident of
bribery, and withholding funds which have been approved by
Congress.  List them all, and lay them all out for the voters to see.

And then I hope the Senate makes quick work of the impeachment trial.
In-out, one and done, Not Guilty!  I hope every Republican Senator must
stand and pronounce Donald J. Trump not guilty of every illegal act
perpetrated against the Constitution, in front of god and country.  Then
let us get back to governing again.  And let the Senators, who are running
for president on the democratic ticket in 2020, get back to campaigning.
And let them repeat the charges against the president, over and over again.

It is well known that the voting public has an attention span of a three-year
old.  They will soon forget the impeachment trial, heck, most of them won't
have watched it.  But they will remember what Trump did, and what he will
still be doing.  You can bet he will be pushing the envelope at home and
abroad, charging like the bull elephant that he is.  The let us see if the
Republicans can control him, if they couldn't before, good luck now that
he is sure of their undivided support.

It is true you will remember a bad meal much longer than an excellent
dinner.  And you will be less likely to return to a place where you were
treated badly.  And even though Trump's base will still stand behind him,
it is the voters in the middle ground that will be wondering if they want
to entrust the government to those who allowed Trump to get away with
so many shady activities.  To say nothing of what he will be doing in the
interim.  Those middle of the ground voters will not be inclined to give
Trump another bite of the apple either.

I firmly believe this impeachment move by the Democrats will work in
their favor, and that  is why Nancy Pelosi is hurrying it along.  She can
see the same thing, and Trump is playing right into her hand.  But then
she knew that would happen also, Trump's ego would have it no other way.

I'm just sayin'.

Once There Was a Spot Called Camelot

Once upon a time, not that long ago, there was a country that
was the envy of the world.  Where people were proud to say
"I am an American" when they traveled the world.  But
something happened to change all that.  In the past three
years I have been to five different countries, and in each
of these countries, I was approached by natives who asked
me, in perfect English I might add, "What happened?" I
had no answer.

I had no answer, because I don't understand it  myself.  In
September of 2016, you could probably get good odds
betting that Donald Trump would be the next president.
Ask me, I had to pay handily in November.  I would have
given fifty times that to have Hillary Clinton as president
now, nay a hundred times what I had lost.  But there is no
sense wishing for what we cannot change.

When Trump was running he said over and over again that
the United States was the butt of jokes through-out the
world, and the world was laughing at us.  Russia was
laughing at us, Japan was laughing at us, the European
Union was laughing at us.  But Donald told his adoring
crowds, when he is president, he and he alone, would make
America great again.  He had little red hats, made in China,
that were emblazoned with MAGA, 'make America great
again'.  And there were people in the crowd who believed,
for some reason, that America had lost her greatness, that her
image was tarnished, that she was no longer the beacon of
democracy that the world looked to.

And yet, when I was in Great Britain in 2015, there were
several people who told me that they loved president Obama,
that he and Michelle were an 'elegant couple', I think that
was the most often used phase I heard.  In one pub I had to
turn down several pints offered to me by folks who learned
I was a 'yank'. I didn't hear anyone laughing.  In China in
2014, when I told people I was an American, they all wanted
me to take a picture so they could show the friends and family
their 'American friend'. There was no one laughing at me in
China either.  It was the same in 2013 in Italy and Turkey, when
people found out you were American,  they smiled and gave up
their seat on the tram or offered to show you the way to a good
restaurant.  I don't recall anyone laughing at me.

Quite on the contrary, people were still lining up and waiting
all day to get a visa to visit America.  Students from the far east
and the UK were vying for entrance into the American universities.
Immigrants were filling the quotas for the chance to migrate to
this land where the streets were paved with gold.  Little did we
know that America was slipping down the rungs to oblivion, and
only one man could stop the downward slide; Donald J. Trump.

The same Donald Trump who bragged about assaulting women,
who made fun of the disabled, who threatened hecklers with physical
harm.  The Donald Trump who drew huge crowds, half of whom
were bought and paid for, to cheer him on.  And while the press
and the TV/radio media - including Fox News - scoffed at the
idea that this buffoon could be a serious contender for the
Republican nomination, Trump was winning the hearts and minds
of the great unwashed, the 'basket of deplorables'.

But you can fool some of the people all of the time, and that is
what Trump did.  But he didn't fool the rest of the world, which
was aghast when the electoral college voted Trump into the
presidency, and the most surprised was The Donald himself.
The dog had caught the car he was chasing and now what to
do with it?

The first time I recall laughing at the president was when he
declared that there were more people at his inauguration than
ever before in history, even more people then showed up for
Obama's inauguration.  That was funny, in a sad sort of way.
Then there were the political cartoons in the London Times 
and the Globe and Mail some were pretty funny.  But that
meant that people were laughing at us, not with us, at us.
The comments on his ill-fitting 'off-the-rack' suits, and that
hair, what was it with that hair?  The op-eds in The Times 
that called him the 'orange orangutan'.  More laughter.

And talk about the whole world laughing, his speech at the
United Nations in September of 2018, when he said he had
accomplished more than any other president in the history
of the United States, the UN body laughed, to a man, they
laughed.  What started as a snicker burst forth as laughter.
And the G7 members laughed when Trump left early, in a
snit over some perceived insult.  One columnist at the Globe
said Trump's skin was so thin he didn't know why his bones
didn't fall out when he stood up, hee-hee. More laughter.

At the seventieth anniversary of NATO this week, poor Boris
Johnson, who is running to retain the Prime Ministry, was
hiding in the potted palms to keep from bumping into the
our president.  Trump is so unpopular in Great Britain, BoJo
was sure that being seen with Trump would hurt him in the
election.  That inspite of the fact that Trump gave Johnson a
glowing recommendation, being seen with him would be the
kiss of death.  But the crowning insult was when Justin Trudeau,
Emmanuel Macron, BoJo, and several other dignitaries were
caught on tape making fun of and laughing at Trump, yup,
our president.  I guess he was right the world is laughing at
us.  Trump was so upset he, once again, went home from the
dance early.

I am not laughing though.  If I really sat down and thought about
it, I would be crying.  How did this happen?  There are congressional
hearings going on right now as to whether Donald Trump used the
power of the presidency to try and influence the outcome of the 2020
election.  And, once again it came to light, that he has been trying to
obstruct the inquiry into what he did.  And you know the really funny
thing is?   People still think that  Trump should not be impeached.
 That's the real joke !

I'm just sayin'.

With a Grateul Heart

The holiday season is upon us once again, a time of good
cheer and celebrating with friends and family. Thanksgiving
is literally right around the corner, and once again I try to
look forward as well as looking back.  As usual I have a
lot to be thankful for this past year.  There were some sad
times, but on balance the year has been a good one.  I have
a circle of dear friends around me, though I lost too many
 this year, I shall remember them all when I sit down to dinner
this Thursday.  I am grateful every day that I live in a country
that, though I don't always agree with the policies, I have the
right to say so without fear of reprisal.  My small family didn't
get any smaller this year, a remarkable feat considering our
ages.  My health has been good and my mental acuity doesn't
seem to be losing it's edge.  I can still participate in my senior
learning classes and manage to keep up.  Physically, I challenge
myself daily, and though I am a step slower every year I still
love my sports.  I play often and my knees are still working, as so
many of my friends have new ones.   I have met some interesting
new faces this year, I hope I can add them to my circle of friends,
there are some opening I would like to fill.  Sadly, some friends
have drifted away, I miss them, but things change and I must
change with them.  Love doesn't die because someone has
moved on, it is always there in a small secret spot in your heart.

Looking at the world today, I wonder what is to become of us.
I won't live to see many of the dire predictions modern day
Cassandras are warning about.  I guess that is a good thing.  I
see things happening in my country that worry me, and I feel
powerless to change them.  But then again, I cannot change the
world, I can only change myself.  And so I try, in small ways;
I think about where and how far I drive, I gave up on single-use
coffee pods, plastic straws, plastic bags, I recycle everything, and
I put on a sweater instead of turning up the heat.  But am I fooling
myself?  I am blessed where I live; when I turn on the tap clean
water flows, both hot and cold, five-minutes from my house is
a grocery store with fresh fruits and vegetables of every variety,
the schools rank among the highest in the county, and there are
parks with playgrounds and soccer pitches, baseball diamonds
and open spaces green and clean.  Our library offers so much
more than just books and magazines, films and concerts, lectures
and classes, all pro gratis.

But that is not how it is everywhere in the country.  There, children
go to bed hungry, there, water is tainted with lead, there, grocery
stores are miles away by bus, how many bags of groceries can
you carry home on the bus?  There, schools are in disrepair with
books, if they have books, outdated by five to ten years. There,
playgrounds are vacant lots with bare ground, broken bottles,
and used needles.  Nothing is free there but despair.  There, but
for the luck of the draw go I.  I was lucky, I was born into a
white, working class family, with both a mother and a father, and
that has made all the difference.

The political climate in America, today, has turned decidedly more
partisan then I have ever seen, and I have been in politics for a very
long time.  Even during the 60's, through the Viet Nam war, and
the racial tensions, reasonable people could come together to reason.
The optimal word here is reasonable, there was a time when people
could agree to disagree, I might not have agreed with you, but I
could see why you believed the way you did.  But when one side
engages in obfuscation and, dare I say, doublespeak, how does one
counter with a reasonable, intelligent argument?  How can you
watch the sun come up in the morning and deny it's existence in
the afternoon? Tell me why is something bad, but not too bad, how
bad does bad have to be to be bad?

What is it that these good men and true are so afraid of, a bully, a
liar, a charlatan, so afraid that they can turn a blind eye to what is
happening to our beloved country?  Once, these good men could
see what the man in the presidency was, before he was elected.
They called him out for the evil man he was, and from then until
now things have only gotten worse.  And yet they turn a blind eye,
for what - a few more judicial seats, the chance to overturn abortion
rights or is it power, the power to be on top, to make the rules.
History will judge you for what you did and how you did it, the
legacy you are leaving your children and grandchildren.  A world
that is getting warmer, no clean water to drink or clean air to
breathe, a massive debt that will cripple them and leave no option
for them but to work until they die to pay it off.  You are stealing
their future for your present glory.  Shame on you all!

But still I am thankful for the chance to change what  is happening,
and I will work everyday from now until November 2020, because
I believe in this country.  And, I am grateful that you took the time
to read my poor pitiful attempts at writing this.

I'm just sayin'.