Surely it can't get much worse!

(Public Domain)

As we approach the November election, so many events are happening that it is difficult to keep from thinking we are certainly nearing the Apocalypse. Record-breaking temperatures throughout the country, wildfires destroying millions of acres of our beautiful forests as well as those throughout the Amazon, melting polar ice caps that are causing warmer ocean temperatures which are creating a record number of tropical storms and hurricanes this year, are only a few of the troubling headlines. And then there is what appears to be the "Antichrist". Fumbling his way through interviews where he speaks of something he knows nothing about, he is advocating a method of dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic that would result in the deaths of millions of people in the United States.."herd immunity", or as he calls it, "herd mentality". Something so many of his supporters appear to suffer from.

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The current administration has decimated so many of the federal government agencies that we no longer can count on getting truthful information or even assistance as was available in the past. Experienced, reliable heads of agencies have been fired only to be replaced by inexperienced, sometimes very unstable persons such as the one who just had a supposed "meltdown" online, Michael Caputo. Not only did he not have any health experience relating to running such an important agency as the Health and Human Services, but he also had been a paid "image consultant" of Vladimir Putin before he became president. As Trump's campaign adviser was his only qualification. We are still uncovering the damage he incurred through the CDC.  

"The United States leads the First World in the following categories: prison population, drug use, child hunger, poverty, illiteracy, teen pregnancies, firearms death, obesity, diabetes, recorded rapes, use of antidepressants, income disparity, military spending, production of hazardous waste, and the poor quality of its schools (Paul Hawken, who published this list in Blessed Unrest, also points out that the U.S. is the only country in the world besides Iraq with metal detectors in its schools)." What Happens When We Teach Peace

The current administration has done nothing to alleviate any of these problems in our society. If anything, the vacancies created by dismissing heads of departments and agencies working towards solving some of them have only made things worse. Money spent on building the "Wall" that was to be Trump's legacy would have gone a long way towards ending child hunger in the U.S. The appointment of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education was almost laughable. How can someone of her wealth and again, no relatable experience for the position, someone who never attended a public school, be of help to our "poor quality" public school system? We could go on and on listing the holes in our democracy that Trump and his collaborators have created. So many of the cuts made have been behind the scenes and done quietly. The regulations they have done away with in the Environmental Protection Agency is almost criminal when we view the damage being done to our air pollution, groundwater, and wildlife. The only solution Trump has come up with lately in regards to the wildfires is those states should be "raking their forests".  (Image from Punch Line)

Some political pundit recently said that we should be prepared for anything from Trump to upset the election -- even starting a war! So far there isn't a sign of that happening. He's too excited about being "nominated" for a Nobel Peace Prize! 

I know who I'm voting to be our next president. Maybe our next First Lady will consent to be Secretary of Education. 

Peace,

Marilyn

MAY WE "WALK WITH THE WIND"

A story that was sent to me not long after the death of  U.S. Rep. John Robert Lewis stuck with me.  Lewis told this story about his childhood that I feel is important to be told to the youth of today.  There was great wisdom shown by his Aunt Seneva as the storm raged around them.

"About fifteen of us children were outside my aunt Seneva’s house, playing in her dirt yard. The sky began clouding over, the wind started picking up, lightning flashed far off in the distance, and suddenly I wasn’t thinking about playing anymore; I was terrified… Aunt Seneva was the only adult around, and as the sky blackened and the wind grew stronger, she herded us all inside. "Her house was not the biggest place around, and it seemed even smaller with so many children squeezed inside. Small and surprisingly quiet. All of the shouting and laughter that had been going on earlier, outside, had stopped. The wind was howling now, and the house was starting to shake. We were scared. Even Aunt Seneva was scared.                     John Lewis Age 11 "And then it got worse. Now the house was beginning to sway. The wood plank flooring beneath us began to bend. And then, a corner of the room started lifting up. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. None of us could. This storm was actually pulling the house toward the sky. With us inside it.  "That was when Aunt Seneva told us to clasp hands. Line up and hold hands, she said, and we did as we were told. Then she had us walk as a group toward the corner of the room that was rising. From the kitchen to the front of the house we walked, the wind screaming outside, sheets of rain beating on the tin roof. Then we walked back in the other direction, as another end of the house began to lift. And so it went, back and forth, fifteen children walking with the wind, holding that trembling house down with the weight of our small bodies. "More than half a century has passed since that day, and it has struck me more than once over those many years that our society is not unlike the children in that house, rocked again and again by the winds of one storm or another, the walls around us seeming at times as if they might fly apart. "It seemed that way in the 1960s, at the height of the civil rights movement, when America itself felt as if it might burst at the seams—so much tension, so many storms. But the people of conscience never left the house. They never ran away. They stayed, they came together and they did the best they could, clasping hands and moving toward the corner of the house that was the weakest. And then another corner would lift, and we would go there. "And eventually, inevitably, the storm would settle, and the house would still stand. But we knew another storm would come, and we would have to do it all over again. And we did. And we still do, all of us. You and I. Children holding hands, walking with the wind…"            By John Lewis ******************************* Sadly, due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, we are unable to "hold hands" -- at least we should not! However, many of our citizens (some of our "children" and grandchildren) are showing solidarity in the peaceful protests being carried out all over our land while most are wearing their masks to show how much they care. And today it is not only African-Americans who are protesting and being punished by law enforcement. Look carefully. All races are now "walking with the wind".  RIP John Lewis. Thank you for your service. Peace and Love, Marilyn