The Year of the Toddler-Adults

By Ruth A. Sheets

As the year 2022 comes to an end, I, like many others, think back over the many events that have punctuated this crazy year.  The thread that seems to tie those punctuating events together for me is the presence of the many toddlers who now hold positions of authority around the world.

Toddlers  are supposed to be 1 to 4-year-olds who are learning to get around, to observe everything, and react to what others do.  They are curious and want to learn, the wonderful part of toddlerhood.

However, toddlers can be willful, demanding they always get their way, moody, and trying to prove they are in charge.  Some toddlers can be “mean” to other kids since they have not yet developed empathy.  They throw tantrums when they don’t get what they want or if they think someone ELSE is getting something they want.  They often refuse to follow their routine and in short, can make life very challenging for parents and everyone else.

Parents who understand kids at this stage can help them get through it with a personal emphasis on the positives, helping the child work through the hard stuff.  Most toddlers do learn to share and take turns.  They learn not to hurt others and to try all kinds of new things.  Some parents are not able or willing to help their child to move past the negative toddlerisms. 

What happens to those who do not come through the toddler stage well and grow properly into the next stages of life?  They get stuck and retain the worst aspects of toddlerdom and just expand those bad behaviors as they grow physically, looking like kids and adults at the various stages, but unable to mature.  These are often the schoolyard bullies, the ones who threaten and blackmail the other kids, the ones who are not caught because their observation abilities have shown them who to target and how to suck up to the adults in their world.  Lying is not a problem for them, just as it isn’t for an uncorrected three-year-old.  

By the time these folks are of an adult age, they are sure they are superior to everyone else and tell it to the world, doing whatever they can get away with to rise among their families, “friends,” college mates, and co-workers(often getting into the “top” schools).  For many, their college and job victories are insufficient to feed the ego at the center of everything they do.  They always need more!

These folks get positions of power because of how well they can “play” the people around them.  If they want something, they may well take it.  If someone does not go along with their schemes, they will work to physically harm or undermine them.  These are mostly not courageous people.  They secure some sycophants, desperate to be in the presence of ”greatness,” and are willing to do their dirty work.

Toddlers in power are a problem.  I always wonder why people are drawn to these toddler-adults.  I think it may be they put out some kind of vibe that turns on some people’s parental instinct, the way one responds to little kids exhibiting their natural childish behavior.  These toddler-men and toddler-women often have no trouble getting followers who will vote them into just about anything.  It truly is a puzzle we need to solve sooner than later. 

Currently, we have a good number of these toddler-adults on stage.  Donald Trump is one of the best-known, but there are plenty more in Congress and in state legislatures, primarily among Republicans.  Kevin McCarthy, Jim Jordan, Marjory Greene, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio are just a few that quickly come to mind.  There are governors like DeSantis of Florida and Abbott of Texas who demonstrate their childish behaviors on a daily basis, while others, less often. 

The toddler-conservatives on the Supreme Court have decided that women are second-class citizens and don’t even have the right to decide what happens to their own bodies.  The 5 men and 1 woman who made that ruling to overturn Roe v. Wade after nearly 50 years had no real reason to make that decision so had to scrounge for Medieval and 17^th century laws made up by witch-hunting white men to back them up.  They knew before the hearing what they would decide and had to find some way to try to justify hurting a whole lot of women.  What they wanted was more important than what the American people want, very childish, but toddlers in power generally get away with their childishness.

Around the world, we are having to deal with a whole group of mostly toddler-men who just can’t figure out how to grow up.  Besides, why should they when their toddler antics get them so much attention and power.  Russia’s Putin attacked Ukraine just because he could, believing he could walk in and take over no matter what anyone there wanted.  He whines and lies that he has a right to do this and threatens his people who don’t go along with it.  They have been well-trained to fear the child-man and do whatever he wants, just like the bad parents who let their toddlers rule their home.

The Taliban in Afghanistan have decreed that women can no longer attend colleges and universities, now only allowed to attend school until 6^th grade.  Why?  They will come up with a reason they will state publicly, but the truth is they are scared of women and the fact that women will be far more effective at running a nation with their knowledge than the Taliban who know nothing but killing people will ever be.  Child-men can’t have that!  The Taliban want women at home serving the every desire of the man/men who like spoilt children, want to make their mommy do whatever they want. 

Xi of China, too, wants his people to do whatever he says.  He recently got a shock when the people decided they didn’t want to do his bidding when they had had enough.  They are willing to acquiesce to the child-man sometimes but within limits.  This toddler-man is now trying to teach his people a lesson that terrible things will happen to them if they don’t listen to him and go along with everything the toddler-ruler tells them to do, like endure appalling quarantines and no vaccines or boosters for most of the people, no matter how bad it is and that Xi can do and go wherever he wants.  A whole lot of people will die because of their disobedience to the toddler-emperor.

All over the world, child-men are gaining power.  However, some of the child-men are being challenged.  It will be interesting to see how long people will continue to be pushed around by toddlers who are far more devoted to what they want than to what the people want or to what is best for their country. 

Toddler-adults don’t just happen.  They are the product of poor parenting.  No manual comes with a child as it is born.  Therefore, every parent needs help  and support with the challenging task of raising children to be caring responsible adults.  No child has the wherewithal to rule anything or anyone.  They will be tyrants if permitted.  No child is perfect or superior to any other at being human.  Parents, your children are not here to fulfill your dreams.  They should have their own and grow up to live them.  

Then We the People need to stop coddling toddler-adults.  Because they do not have the maturity to govern well, they are more likely to make a mess than do the right thing.  We must stop voting for them.  How can we tell who they are? You ask.

You’ll know you are either under the control of a toddler-adult or about to be when:

• their words speak in absolutes and threats – all women must, if anyone does, those who don’t go along are enemies, etc.
• their actions are designed to harm people who might object to being ruled/controlled by a toddler-adult – instituting book bans of books that talk about the world, history, sex, people who are not like the guy in charge, etc.
• They have people arrested for minor “offenses” the toddler finds threatening; develop a special military group loyal only to the toddler – morality police, election overseers, a private security force, etc.
• questions are asked and the toddler avoids answering them, blames the person asking those questions for something, the toddler outright lies, the toddler pronounces some kind of conspiracy theory about people the toddler claims must be stopped, etc. (distraction)
• the toddler-leader lies as a matter of course – example, Donald Trump lied in public while in office over 30,000 times and a whole lot since leaving office.  He and the other toddlers lie about anything and everything and hate being called on the lies.  They don’t like to be called on their cheating either.
• The toddler can’t actually state the why’s of what he/she believes but forces people to comply with whatever those unstated beliefs are – the Supreme Court conservatives made up reasons to declare abortion rights unconstitutional and let mostly white male state legislatures decide women’s reproductive rights; women are dragged off the streets and killed in Iran because their hijab is not exactly what the toddler has decided it should be (I guess the toddler doesn’t want mommy to show her hair, leave the house without some male relative, or do anything the toddler doesn’t want mommy doing).
• Money comes in from questionable sources to keep the toddler in power (dark money), and the toddler doesn’t want anyone investigating where it came from or making laws that require all donations be disclosed.  Remember, a lot of donors like supporting toddler-adults because they can be outrageous and cause havoc when encouraged

It is possible to notice the childish speech and actions if one is willing to pay attention.  We the People need to ignore the “R” or “D” associated with a candidate and dig deeper to find out if the candidate being supported is a toddler-adult.  If so, move on to someone who thinks and acts as adults do and can be counted on to make adult decisions, at least most of the time.

This is meant to be a note of hope that we all can start spotting the toddler-adults in power and work to keep them from and get them out of power, starting now!  We all need to be in it for the long haul as they say. 

Happy New Year!  Make 2023 great and with fewer toddler-adults in charge.

BOOKS OF THE YEAR LIST Part I

By Ruth A. Sheets

Every year, at this time, all sorts of media are putting out their list of best books, movies, music, and other formats of the year.  I see few movies, listen to music of all kinds on occasion, and don’t listen to enough podcasts to select a few best (although one best this year was Rachel Maddow’s “Rachel Maddow Presents Ultra” a must-hear).  So, I will forego the above-categories for consideration. 

However, I do read a lot.   As of the first week in December, I have read somewhere around 300 books.  They were not all published this year, so I can’t claim they are “the best books of 2022,” but they are the best ones I read this year.  I include them here because each one is worth checking out, in my opinion, of course.  They are generally in no particular order except that I read them all in the first third of the year.   So, here goes, my “best books read in 2022 Part I.”  I hope you’ll check a few out and let me know what you think.

Information Hunters, When Librarians, Soldiers, and Spies Banded Together in World War II Europe by Kathy Peiss - The author’s uncle was one of the information collectors during and after WWII rescuing books and other written materials that had been stolen or hidden, trying to learn whose books they were. 

The Venice Sketchbook by Rhys Bowen - An English girl meets and falls in love with an Italian boy in Venice while on a trip.  She is an artist who gets caught up in the insanity of WWII Venice.  Her great grand-niece goes to Venice to look for her Great-aunt’s story and finds love. (fiction of course)

 Bridge of Scarlet Leaves by Christina McMorris - Friends in LA, one of whom was Japanese, and secretly married his best friend’s sister experience WWII.  The friends went to war.  Maggie went to the internment camp with her husband until they were relocated to Illinois. 

Vanderbilt, the Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper & Katherine Howe - An interesting look at an iconoclastic family and its many foibles, as well as its lack of empathy and appreciation for others except as they can use them, written by the son of the last Vanderbilt of her line, Gloria.

The Darling Dahlias and the Poinsettia Puzzle by Susan Wittig Albert -  The happenings of a small Alabama town during the Depression include corruption in a local prison, a child who could be a star, opening a bake shop when neither owner knows how to make bread, a romance, a newspaperman’s work, and more.  Fun and some recipes too.

An Irish Hostage, A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd – One of the last books in an excellent mystery series taking place during and just after WWI.  Bess attends a wedding in Ireland and gets caught up in the troubles.

The Paper Daughters of China Town by Heather B. Moore - An amazing woman fell into a job rescuing Chinese girls and women being trafficked in San Francisco.  She worked at and directed a rescue mission for these women for 39 years. 

The Dressmakers of Auschwitz, the True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive by Lucy Adlington - A life-changing book about women’s resilience in nearly impossible circumstances.  The women helped each other, shared, and resisted until they were able to get free.

 Wild Lives, Leading Conservationists on the Animals and Planet They Love by Lori Robinson & Janie Chodosh - I want to know more about the amazing work with wildlife most of them are doing.  One of them, though was OK with trophy hunting since lions reproduce so quickly.  I guess that’s one way to look at it.

 Forget the Alamo:  The Rise and Fall of an American Myth by Bryan Burrough, Jason Stanford, & Chris Tomlinson - The book moves through the lead up to and battle of the Alamo plus all the stuff that was hung on the event as time passed, none of it good, ignoring  The fact that defenders were trying to protect slavery, to drive out the Mexicans, and to dismiss the Tejanos who had also helped the Americans at the siege. 

 Straighten Up and Fly Right, The Life and Music of Nat King Cole by Will Freedwald - This was a terrific book about a singer hero of mine.  Just thinking of the book makes me want to listen to his music.  

MEMOIRS BY PEOPLE OF NOTE

Going There by Katie Couric - As much as I have liked listening to reports by this journalist, I knew very little about her.  This was an interesting well-written memoir

Just the Funny Parts and a Few Hard Truths About Sneaking Into the Hollywood Boys’ Club by Nell Scovell - A very funny comedy writer had to fight to get chances to prove her skills when a male writer would have had so much less trouble by just being male.  I like her humor.  

Unbound, My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke – She survived childhood sexual abuse and worked with women and girls who survived sexual abuse before getting the Me Too movement going to call men out for their bad behavior, no matter the race or financial status.

 My Broken Language, A Memoir by Quiara Alegria Hudes - A compelling memoir, strange, poetic, but a curious look at Hudes’ unique childhood in West and North Philly which led to her amazing career as a playwright.  I can’t wait till she writes the next chapter.

 The Boys, A Memoir of Hollywood and Family by Ron and Clint Howard - A fun look at the family that brought 2 child actors into the world and into the lives of people everywhere:  Ron in “The Andy Griffith Show” & “Happy Days” and as director of many films, and Clint in “Gentle Ben” and as a character actor in more than 200 films. 

All In, An Autobiography  by Billie Jean King - An interesting account of King’s tennis life and the many things she contributed to sports, women’s rights, and LGBTQ right\

Mr. Hockey, My Story by Gordy Howe - I really liked this memoir of one of Hockey’s greatest.  He played 32 years as a pro and had 2 sons to follow him into the NHL.\

Chasing History, A Kid in the Newsroom by Carl Bernstein - The co-author of “All the President’s Men” began his news career at “The Washington Star” with people like Mary McGrory and David Broder, people I have admired for years.  He began his career at age 16, right off the street and worked his way up to being a full reporter.

 The Dark Heart of Florence by Tasha Alexander - This is part of a mystery series.  Lady Emily and her husband Collen go to Florence for the Crown.  The book has a 15^th Century story and a 1903 part.  In the 1490s, a woman helps to save precious art and writings from those who would destroy them.  She left a message that Lady Emily helped to decipher while she helps solve 3 murders.

 When Can We Go Back to America, Voices of Japanese-American Internment During WWI  by Susan H. Kamei - writings by people , mostly American citizens who experienced the “internment,” rounding people up like animals and throwing them into barbed wire surrounded camps in the worst possible places to live in this country because of white trumped-up fear and racism.  Cruelty was the point.

 Valley Forge by Bob Drury & Tom Clavin - This was a revisiting of the events that led to, during, and after the army’s winter at Valley Forge.  Well-told. 

 The Hollywood Jim Crow, The Racial Politics of the Movie Industry by Maryann Erigha – A look at Hollywood movies of the past decades and the racist forces keeping movie-makers of color from success:  few directors of color, lack of wide distribution of films, less money for films by directors of color, no people of color in industry decision-making. 

 The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi - A girl in rural India escapes a bad marriage and runs off to the city where she becomes a henna artist for the rich women there.  Her previously unknown sister shows up and her life changes.

 The Arbornaut A Life Discovering the 8^th Continent in the Trees Above Us by Meg Lowman - A fascinating account of Meg’s adventures in studying the canopy of forests around the world and how critical that layer of the forests is to the well-being of the earth.  She helped design walkways that let people see the life in the trees.

 All That She Carried, the Journey of Ashley’s Sack, A Black Family’s Keepsake by Tiya Miles - Traces the probable history of a handmade sack a girl carried with her when she was sold away from her mother.  She passed the sack down to her granddaughter, ultimately passed on to the African-American History Museum.  An interesting way to learn history.

 Angel of Greenwood by Randi Pink - Angel is a high school junior in Tulsa, OK, who believes her task in life is to help everywhere she can.  She helps a boy figure out who he really is through her kindness and caring.  Their lives change drastically when the town is destroyed by white vigilantes in 1921.  Gr. High and older

 The Women’s History of the Modern World, How Radicals, Rebels, and Everywomen Revolutionized the Last 200 Years by Rosalind Miles - Some women I knew of and others I didn’t.  All of them made a difference in their own way from science to politics to discovery, to writing to media.

 The Happiest Man on Earth, The Beautiful Life of an Auschwitz Survivor by Eddie Jaku - His experiences were horrific, yet he made a deal with God that if he survived, he would treasure every day and be happy to have each day.  He said it took a while to get to that but he created an amazing life for himself.

 4,000 Days, Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman - This is a practical but fun guide to get us to stop trying to do everything while accomplishing  almost nothing and trying to be perfect when it’s impossible.

 Calling Bullshit, The Art of Skepticism in a Data-driven World Carl T. Bergstrom & Jevin D. West – A no-nonsense dissection of bullshit, who uses it, when and where, and how to identify it.

 Swing Shift, All-Girl Bands of the 1940s by Sherrie Tucker -I knew there were lots of great female musicians, but not that there had been dozens of “all-girl” jazz bands all over the country throughout the 30s and 40s.  And, despite the biases against them, they could do anything the male bands could do.  I wish there were recordings.  

 The Christmas Pig by J.K. Rowling - This is an allegory in which a young boy goes into the Land of the Lost to find his toy pig. 

 54 Things Wrong With Gwendolyn Rogers by Caela Carter - Gwendolyn reads an IEP report about her and finds it lists 54 things wrong with her.  She goes on a quest to find out why she gets so angry, can’t be still, forgets things all the time, and more.  Really good to help kids develop empathy and appreciation for others. Gr.3-7

 Chemistry for breakfast, the Amazing Science of Everyday Life by Mai Thi Nguyen-Kim - chemistry is part of all we do.   The author goes through a day discussing the chemistry of things from waking up to going to bed.  

 Mary McGrory, The First Queen of Journalism by John Norris -Great columns over the years, smart, relevant, and pulled no punches when dealing with the Washington crowd.  A true liberal, but not partisan.

 South to America, A journey Below the Mason-Dixon To Understand the Soul of a Nation by Imani Perry - A scholar travels around the South to try to figure out how much of who we are as a nation is dependent upon the presence of Black Americans. 

 Profit and Punishment, How America Criminalizes the Poor in the Name of Justice by Tony Messenger - At every turn, our justice system goes after the poor to pay for the rich and middle income through court costs, bail, and so much more, debt most take a lifetime to get out of when it started with a small infraction or no crime at all.  

 Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson - This book should be read by all Americans, particularly white ones.  It discusses the caste system in the US, how it works to keep members of various groups in their place with white males at the top and everyone else at sorted places below them. 

 Her Hidden Genius by Marie Benedict - A novel of the last 11 years or so of the life of Rosalind Franklin, discoverer of the DNA molecule.

 Joan is OK by Weike Wang (This is the story of a Chinese-American doctor who navigates the death of her father, learning to relate to her mother, and the arrival of COVID at her hospital.  It ended abruptly but was really good.

 Harpo Speaks by Harpo Marx and Roland Barber - A hilarious book that sort of describes Harpo’s life as a comedian, harpist, and all-around good guy.  It is hard to know which stories are true, but who cares.  I was totally entertained!

 Atlas of the Heart, Mapping Meaningful Connection, and the Language of Human experience by Brene Brown – An account of the range of human emotions and their potential impacts. 

 All Standing, The Remarkable Story of the Jeanie Johnston, the Legendary Irish Famine Ship by Kathryn Miles - A ship built to bring timber and supplies from Canada to Ireland, picked up potato famine survivors and took them to Canada and the US between 1847 and 1856 when the ship sank.  It carried about 2,000 immigrants and lost none of them unlike most of the “coffin ships” on the same route. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

By Ruth A. Sheets

I recently completed my first year of retirement and find myself in a peculiar position where I am remembering, living in the present of all the things I am doing to contribute to the Thanksgiving gathering, and looking into the future to imagine what I would like to do in coming months as 2023 is drawing closer.

There have only been a few times in my life when past, present, and future sat down together with me and challenged me to make meaningful decisions.  I was too excited going off to college for such an internal discussion, besides, I think I was too young. 

The day I left a job I really disliked and moved to another state was my first experience of the big three coming together.  I had always planned to teach but that was not happening and I was hoping it would in the new location I had chosen for myself.  Looking back now, I realize I had absolutely no idea what I was getting into as my brother-in-law drove the UHaul away from my apartment.

The second time came only 4 years later when I chose to leave a job I loved, to return to school to follow a calling.  Again, looking back, I had no clue what was ahead despite my intense conversation with those three voices, this time chiding me a bit that perhaps I was making a wrong move.  It turned out, I wasn’t.

The most recent time previous to this when I felt the full weight of the before, now, and to come forcing me to assess what I really wanted in my life and that I might be able to have it.  The phone call from the Chester Upland School District offering me an interview, then a job brought past and future together and in the present, I cried because I had nearly given up on my dream of teaching in a school setting.

So, here I am.  I know where I have been.  I am thinking about what from that past can carry me through this immediate time, then into the future.  And, that’s where Thanksgiving comes into it.  I realize I am truly thankful for so many things, large and small.  Maybe after I experience the gratitude for my life, I can be prepared for the something that can bring an unexpected future as has happened before.

Maybe we all should try this gratitude thing now and then, and let our past, present, and future mull things over a bit.  Such a pause may provide direction or possibly, some resolutions or goals for the coming year, perhaps something even more profound.

Here is what I came up with.  I am thankful:

• For an amazing family who even with our ups and downs has made life possible and helped to shape the person I am,
• For unforgettable friends who brought joy, challenge, and lifelong connections that have made my life bright.  I am hopeful I have done half as much for them,  
• That music has been such an important part of my life from learning  pretty sophisticated songs before entering kindergarten to singing with amazing choirs and directors, performing in Philadelphia Revels, singing with Colonial Revelers, and best of all, singing with my family in many configurations. 
• For the ability to teach, to convey ideas to people of all ages from teaching neighborhood kids at age 10 to serving as a Girl Scout Leader, to earning money as a “teaching babysitter, to working as a volunteer kindergarten aide, to teaching cooking and other skills to blind youth and adults, to serving as an AIDS educator, to teaching Sunday School, to teaching computer-based document design, to substitute teaching, to tutoring, to the ultimate – teaching Gifted Support students.  How lucky!   
• For The chance to live in numerous places in this country and meet extraordinary people,
• For The blessing of leading worship and supply preaching in many different faith communities,

-For Access to a world of books that have opened my mind in a myriad of ways,

• For my enjoyment of all kinds of foods and for not being a picky eater.  I’m also glad I like to cook,
• For skill at writing that enables me to say clearly what I am thinking, well most of the time,
• For an awesome apartment in a really special part of Pennsylvania, 27 years in one home,
• For family, friends, colleagues, even strangers who have enabled me, as a disabled person to go where I needed to go and do what I wanted to do, and with companionship along the way.

There are so many more things I feel true gratitude for, but I think those are the biggies.  Those are the memories, the past.  The present is about Thanksgiving Day and the gathering of most of the Philadelphia area family while we devour air-fried turkey and the fixings.  Before the end of December, there are presents to prepare, shows to sing, a tree to decorate, and some goals for 2023 to set.  I think I am now ready to seriously contemplate the future, grateful for my past and present.    

So, let us all have a terrific Thanksgiving.  May we be grateful for this precious life with all its blessings, wonders, griefs, and glories.  May the rest of 2022 and all of 2023 be a treasure chest filled with joy, personal challenge, and satisfaction as well as opportunities to pay forward the many gifts we have been given.

ELECTION 2022

By Ruth A. Sheets

As Election Day is near and the polls open just under 60 hours from now, I thought I would reflect on some things I have noticed.  Unfortunately, it hasn’t been pretty.

I don’t remember an election in which so many candidates felt so free to display their racism, misogyny, homo/trans-phobia, ableism, and antisemitism.  Candidates said out loud what we have known they were thinking, but usually kept to themselves.  There may be a Democrat somewhere who has done this but I have not heard or read about them yet. 

1. Republicans put out ads showing images of Black characters while they claim Democrats are the cause of increased crime everywhere across the country.  They are tapping into the Willy Horton variety of ad that I first remember seeing used by Bush Sr. during the 1988 presidential campaign.  The goal seems to be, scare white people with those Black men who are going to come after them.  Dr. Mehmet Oz has PAC ads that accuse John Fetterman of releasing desperate criminals to terrorize the people (white people of course).  The truth of the matter is that the crime rates in cities and states with Republicans in charge are higher than in the “blue states and cities.  I admit I was surprised about that, so I had to look it up.  I guess the ads are OK, though since the terrified voices only imply that Black or Latinx people are committing the crimes.  Republicans claim to be the “law and order” party but we have learned that they don’t like the law much and only want order they can impose on the people they don’t like (consider January 6th and their attack on the police).

2. In primaries, many Republican candidates proudly stated their full approval of laws that make abortion illegal in all cases no exceptions, even calling for women who have had abortions given the death penalty (Missouri).  For the general election, they have either scrubbed their websites clean of any mention of abortion or just won’t talk about it or say “I’m pro-life” and naturally, no interviewers push for clarification of what that means.  Dr. Oz said who can get an abortion should be decided by a woman, her doctor, and local politicians.  During the primary he said there should be no exceptions to abortion bans.  In which case was he lying?  Doug Mastriano, running for Governor of Pennsylvania said “Women’s bodily autonomy is a joke.”  At least he said the same thing in both elections.  In general, the abuse female candidates are getting from male as well as female opponents is appalling and should not be permitted on the air, but . . . .

3. LGBTQ persons are targets of many Republican candidates who proclaim loudly that they should never have the right to marry.  The candidates can’t or won’t say why, but, who’s asking, no one I have heard.  The parents of trans children are being threatened with losing their children, jail, and more depending on the state.  Where is the why?

4. John Fetterman had a stroke just before the May primary in Pennsylvania and has been recovering well and on schedule according to his doctors and other doctors who work with people who have had strokes (including 2 sitting senators).  However, there are ads out implying he is incapable of doing the job of Senator because for now, his speech is impacted as is his auditory reception, very typical at this stage of recovery.  Fetterman agreed to “debate” Dr. Oz but the debate was clearly set up to maximize Oz’s glib talking skill and speed.  I am not sure why Fetterman agreed to the format unless he thought Oz would use a change of rules as Fetterman’s declaration of incompetence.  One would think a Doctor as Oz was, would know and do better, but alas, no.

5.  Antisemitism is still ugly, just as it was throughout history, but some Republicans have dragged it out again hoping to grab some voters who have some kind of grudge against Jewish people.  It appears it is working because more than one candidate has made antisemitic comments and faced only cheers from their audiences.  It appears they have just another group to hate aloud.  I guess their base’s hatred of everyone who is not rich, white, straight, “Christian” and male had to specifically include Jews.

We are in a deadly global warming crisis yet I have heard nary a mention of it by anyone.  Inflation has been blamed by Republicans on Democrats despite the fact that we have one of the lowest inflation rates in the world.  Democrats are finally trying to report on large corporate price gouging as a factor in today’s inflation, but can’t seem to get any traction.  I suspect it is because most candidates are raking in fossil fuel and other corporate price-gouger campaign money. 

Then, there is the large number of candidates running for the Republican vote who won’t publicly admit that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.  They and he know he lost, but since the Republican Party has decided lying works so well for them, they endorse “the big lie” and go with the flow.

Republicans and some Democrats claim Democrats are lazy and just don’t like to vote.  I hope Dems will prove them wrong on Tuesday.  Those who make those claims, though forget to mention the voter suppression, gerrymandering, and other obstacles a lot of Democrats and even disadvantaged Republicans face too.  It is growing more and more evident that those white men in power will do and say almost anything to keep power.  They even support a few people of color and women whom they think they can control and get to do whatever they want, but whose presence is supposed to let We the People think they are trying to diversify.  Republican full embrace of Donald Trump and the downplaying of the January 6^th insurrection can let us all know about their desire for diversity.  It doesn’t exist.

There are a lot of good candidates out there who live by a set of principles that include justice for all, working to build a nation that truly values diversity not just as a talking point, consider a woman’s right to bodily autonomy as sacred, and care about our future, the future of our planet, and the children who will live that future, candidates with character.  Find those candidates and vote for them.

A MODEST PROPOSAL FOR 2022

By Ruth A. Sheets

Each week, Dr. Robert Reich former Department of Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton and Economics Professor, asks a challenging question for members of his Substack thread to answer.  On September 14, 2022, he asked why we thought Republicans had decided to push for a nation-wide abortion ban so close to the November election.   He posed a few possible answers for us to consider:  to respond to evangelical voters, to deflect attention from Trump, because GOP leaders are clueless, and because GOP leaders are misogynists.  One would have thought Lindsay Graham and his crew would have waited until after the upcoming election to push their national abortion ban bill, but they didn’t.  They are now saying aloud what was only implied before. They want our federal government to control women’s bodies. 

The following is my response to Dr. Reich’s question.  Note, Dr. Reich “liked” my comment and I hope you will too.

“My answer is, ‘ALL OF THE ABOVE’ plus, those Republicans are trying to look more powerful to their fundamentalist and Catholic male base. Those guys are so scared of women they will agree to just about anything to keep women out of their colleges and workplaces. They want women pregnant, barefoot, and silent in the home ready to take care of every need of their child-man husband/partner who wants to pretend we are still living in the Medieval days when men could rule at home, if nowhere else and could do whatever he wanted to do to his wife (woman) and kids.” 

“I recently heard a whine by Doug Mastriano running for Governor of PA. He said ‘bodily autonomy was a joke.’ He meant, and so does Lindsay Graham (the biggest misogynist in the Senate, well, maybe not the biggest) women’s bodily autonomy is a joke.” 

I continued, “I say it is time for equality. If men can control women's bodily autonomy, women should be able to control men's. Therefore, I have a modest proposal. 

1. After the birth of a man's 3rd child, he has 2 weeks to get to a doctor for a vasectomy. We are in a climate crisis which includes overpopulation. Women can go in hired groups to pick up the men who don't show up. The child's births can be DNA tested and the males identified. 

2. An honestly convicted rapist (proven by DNA and a reliable witness, not by his race, will be taken to a hospital or clinic and castrated immediately after the sentencing. His actual sentence might be reduced if his behavior and attitude are improved by the surgery. That would include men who rape other prisoners in jail. 

If men actually had some skin in the game and stopped putting the blame for their own bad behavior on women or trying to get people to ignore it altogether (Kavanaugh), bodily autonomy for all would be the law of the land and no Supreme Court conservative majority  could mess with it. Until then, we the people need to act. Scared white conservative men should not be able to control anyone's body but their own.” 

I heard from a few members of the thread that my “modest proposal” was a bit harsh.  Hmmm!  My response to them was  that women were potentially sacrificing more than those men would due to male anti-abortion laws,   even death.  I have never heard of a man dying of vasectomy or castration, but of many women dying due to pregnancy, childbirth, and postpartum complications.  I do believe my “modest proposal” is reasonable and fair.  

Now how do I get my proposal into law as quickly as Republican white men (and the women who love them) got their woman-hating laws passed in the Confederacy and confederate wannabee states after our Supreme Court overturned Roe V. Wade?  The Catholic conservative majority gave them a giant push, than they often reached back more than 150 years to scrape up laws that forbid abortions, from a time when men were so desperate to keep women/midwives out of medicine they passed laws they couldn’t     actually prosecute because most abortions were performed in secret and men, even doctors had no idea what women were doing for each other.  

The Arizona law they are chasing was passed before Arizona was even a state.  How is that even allowed?  So, white male misogynistic racists today will go after the women they fear and hate with ancient laws that were misogynistic at the time they were passed and are still.  They threaten violence for women who don’t submit to keeping a pregnancy they either don’t want or is dangerous to their health or the survival of the fetus.  They imprison pregnant women claiming “for the benefit of the ‘child.’”  They care nothing for the fetuses except that they can use them as a whining point supposedly showing their “love of life” while every other action of those folks’ lives points to anything but love and life, and no new laws have been passed in those states to help the host, the fetus, or the forced-birth baby.

Yep, we need my “modest proposal” to let those particular ignorant hateful white men who think they should be able to control women, feel something of what is like to have someone, not yourself, forcibly mess with your body and your reproduction.  Come on women and men who care, let’s get this done.

TRUMP’S “MAKE AMERICA GAG AGAIN” TOUR

By Ruth A. Sheets

I recently heard someone reconfigure MAGA from Trump’s words to “Make America Gag Again” ( and now, I just can’t hear MAGA any other way.  Donald Trump and his cult love being referred to as MAGAs but might not if we the people started publicly calling it “Make America Gag Again.”  And gag is what so many of us do when we recall Donald Trump’s speeches and tweets. 

Last week, I received a list of some of Trump’s best-known contributions to the collection of American quotes, and have decided to comment on them with what comes to my mind when I read them, remembering the past 7 years of the torture we have endured with him in the news every day whether he had something of value to contribute to our society or not, and it is usually not. 

"I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." – This is probably Trump’s best known quote which is funny since he is a coward and wouldn’t have the nerve to shoot anyone.  He prefers insulting people and setting his sycophantic doggies on the people he doesn’t like and getting them to do the “shooting.”.

“I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will have Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words."  What a joke!  He would have a hard time even finding the southern border on a map and has no idea what is involved in building a wall.  And, there is no way a country poorer than ours would be able to afford it if they even wanted a wall.  I marked his words and dismissed them as ignorance.

When asked if he believed in punishment for abortion, he responded incoherently, of course.  By the way, he just couldn’t give a yes or no answer.  “The answer is there has to be some form of punishment.” (for the woman?) “Yeah, there has to be some form.”  He clearly had no idea what he was talking about, but that was and is his modus operandi.

“Kim Jong-Un speaks and his people sit up at attention. I want my people to do the same.”  And who are “my people” for Trump?  His cult already does that.  If you are not sure, look at Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz.  The rest of us will never do that.

“In life you have to rely on the past, and that’s called history.”  One can marvel at Trump’s brilliance, but shouldn’t!

“I won’t do anything to take care of them. I’ll supply funds and she’ll take care of the kids. It’s not like I’m gonna be walking the kids down Central Park.”  Of course Trump won’t be taking care of the kids or taking them anywhere.  He is too self-absorbed for that.  Besides they were too young to be used effectively.  Thirty-five years old or so works much better.  Besides responsibility just isn’t Trump’s thing.

“Why are we having all these people from shithole countries coming here?”  Oh my, Donnie, your racism is showing, but you don’t care, do you!  You know there are enough racists in your cult that they will love you no matter what you call those countries and their people.

“All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me - consciously or unconsciously. That's to be expected."  Like so many men, Trump thinks he is god’s gift to womankind.  I have news for you Donnie, if they flirted with you at all and that is not likely, they were hoping to get some of your money and influence that can come from them knowing you. 

“Sorry losers and haters, but my IQ is one of the highest - and you all know it! Please don't feel so stupid or insecure, it's not your fault."  OK, one can tell when a person has gone off the deep end when he feels he has to boast of intelligence he doesn’t actually have.  The “gift” he does have is the ability to lie about anything, including intelligence.  The media claimed that Trump lied in public more than 30,000 times while in office.  Not everyone can lie that often and still have people believe him, and he does have a strong cult following. 

“Just tried watching Modern Family - written by a moron, really boring. Writer has the mind of a very dumb and backward child. Sorry Danny!"  Wow!  It takes one to know one, right, Donnie!  It seems you can recognize a fellow childish guy.  Sorry Donnie!

“While @BetteMidler is an extremely unattractive woman, I refuse to say that because I always insist on being politically correct."  OK, Politically correct is something Donald Trump will never be.  Hey Donald, your misogyny is showing.  You don’t know what that means?  Get one of your lawyers to look it up for you.  Isn’t that what you pay them for, or one of the things?

"@arianahuff is unattractive both inside and out. I fully understand why her former husband left her for a man - he made a good decision."  And you would know anything about relationships Donnie?

“[John McCain is]... not a war hero. He's a war hero - he's a war hero 'cause he was captured. I Like people that weren't captured, OK, I hate to tell you."  It is interesting that a coward would have the nerve to criticize someone who survived years as a POW in Vietnam when Trump didn’t serve due to bone spurs or some other rich man’s condition.  No shame?

“I'm the most successful person ever to run for the presidency, by far. Nobody's ever been more successful than me. I'm the most successful person ever to run. Ross Perot isn't successful like me. Romney - I have a Gucci store that's worth more than Romney."  Can we say oblivious?  Naturally, Trump can’t name what he is actually successful with – bankruptcy, marriages, gold toilets, what?  He is comparing himself to Perot and Romney, not exactly the best presidential candidates, and they didn’t win the popular vote either. 

“If Hillary Clinton can't satisfy her husband what makes her think she can satisfy America?"  Oh Donnie, you think satisfying one’s partner makes one able to satisfy the nation.  That definitely explains why you were not reelected.

“The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive."  No comment here would do Trump’s ignorant statement justice.

“Stand back and stand by (to the Proud Boys and other insurrectionists).  Yes an insurrectionist who needs to be indicted for it.  Republicans in the Senate were too cowardly to convict Trump, but the courts should do better.

“Crazy Joe Biden is trying to act like a tough guy. Actually, he is weak, both mentally and physically, and yet he threatens me, for the second time, with physical assault. He doesn’t know me, but he would go down fast and hard, crying all the way."  Oh Donnie, you think just because you weigh more than Biden, you could take him down?  You definitely lie better than he does, though, and remember, Donnie, courage is not your best thing.

These are only a few of the appalling statements made by a president of the United States.  He received around 74 million votes in the 2020 election.  He incited an insurrection, stole documents that belong to the American people, tried to steal elections and claimed other people were committing fraud, and is simply, a despicable person.

After reading the above quotes how could anyone believe this guy? It takes a lot of dodging reality to continue supporting a man who is so unaware of everyone but himself, and I suspect his self-awareness isn’t strong either.  The man who gave me the quotes wrote he would go on an Apology Tour if he had voted for Trump.  There are a lot of Republicans who should be on such an apology tour for putting that amoral man, Donald Trump in the most prestigious job in our country.

NOTE:  Quotes compiled by Keith Olson, Thank you!

WHO ARE THE HEROES?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Last evening, I finished reading a book called Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown.  The book was filled with heroes who would have been heroes had they just suffered the imprisonment and insults done to them by the American government and people all over this country, but they did far more.  Who are these particular heroes?  They are the between 110 and 120thousand Japanese-Americans who after Pearl Harbor, were imprisoned in “internment camps” (really concentration camps) in the most god-awful places that could be found in the United States.

Why were they “interned,” you might ask?  A couple of military guys decided it would be a way to get rid of Japanese men, women, and children from the West Coast because the Japanese had attacked our naval base in Hawaii.  With absolutely no evidence whatsoever, they accused people of Japanese descent of being a threat to our nation’s security, working for Japan to bring down our country.  In short, they made it up and even got President Roosevelt and Governor Earl Warren of California to go along with the ruse.  In 1944, even the Supreme Court shamefully agreed the “internment” was OK.

Men, women, and children, even disabled orphans, were forced from their homes into holding pens (race tracks and other public places) until the camps could be readied.  They were forced to sell what they could to white neighbors who offered pennies for valuable household items, even homes and businesses were sold cheap.  The people were permitted to take only what they could carry and were sent by bus and train to deserts, mountainous wastelands, swamps, and other nasty places those military guys located as quickly as possible. 

When the people, most of whom were American citizens, arrived, they were met with barbed wire enclosing rows of hastily constructed barracks with tar paper roofs that barely kept out the weather.  Each family had a number and was forced to live in a small section of one of those barracks, to wait hours in line for almost inedible food, shower and use the bathroom with no privacy, and have machine guns pointed at them 24 hours a day, every day as though they were criminals.  A couple of men who couldn’t take it anymore, tried to leave one of the camps and were shot down.

I describe this because I knew nothing about these concentration camps in my own country until I was out of college.  Somehow, even my class on World War II never covered the “internment.”  I learned about it through a movie.  I thought it was fiction.  My country as bad as it could be would never have done that to citizens!  I had been told the reason they wouldn’t allow Black people to be citizens was because then they couldn’t be enslaved.  That’s what I thought until I read an article about one family’s experience of the camps, around 1977. 

I knew about the Japanese-American troops that fought in Italy.  There was even a “McHale’s Navy” episode about them.  I thought they were Japanese-American soldiers who just happened to make up a unit.  When I finally found out that many of them were from the camps, I was shocked!  Why would anyone treated so badly even consider fighting for the country that did it?  Well, that’s what I mean about doing more.  Many of the imprisoned Japanese men volunteered to join the army when the opportunity came.  They usually said they wanted a chance to prove they were truly Americans.  Japanese Hawaiians had not been interned for the most part, so didn’t know what their mainland brothers had suffered until they met in basic training.  Some men from the camps who did not agree to join were imprisoned in jails or at the worst of the camps for refusing.

Training took place in Mississippi, an environment very different from anything the recruits had experienced previously.  They put up with the bugs, mud, alligators, and racism of Mississippi and developed into an incredible fighting force.  When they got to Italy, they experienced some of the worst fighting of the war.  They famously saved a Texas regiment, used stealth to sneak up on entrenched German soldiers, climbed mountains in the dark to destroy artillery placements, helped liberate German concentration camps, and far more.  Their casualties were high.

Despite all that, their actions were only fully recognized in 2012 when President Obama gave 20 additional Congressional Medals of Honor to members of the 442nd regiment (one such medal had been awarded during the war).  They were the most highly decorated unit in US history.  The men who had been treated like criminals, who saw their families, even parents treated like animals, how were they able to have experienced all this, yet put their lives on the line for the United States? 

The men’s families were not idle at the camps.  They created gardens to grow fresh food; set up baseball diamonds, football fields, basketball courts, and formed teams; opened schools for the children and held classes for adults who wanted to add to their skills; produced all kinds of art; taught dancing; worked on farms miles away just to get out of the camps for a while; in short, created community where there had been nothing.  They were heroes who made a life for themselves and their children under appalling conditions.    

I know a bunch of scared white folks would like this part of our history forgotten just as they want their ancestors’ treatment of Black Americans, our indigenous peoples, Hispanic citizens, and immigrants wiped from the history books.  I suspect that if they knew about it, they would want Mr. Brown’s book banned along with the many others that cover aspects of those shameful years.  Well, they can ban all they want, but their “precious” not so fragile kids will learn about these things because whether the parents want to acknowledge it or not, they are part of the larger community that is the United States of America, not the white states of America.  Maybe, it is time the children should lead them.  Hey kids, we need some heroes.  You could be the ones we need, the ones who will lead your scared parents into the light of knowledge and freedom from conservatives who would prefer them to remain ignorant.  Help them to see that you are not fragile and want to know about the many different people who make up this country.  Girls and boys, you’ve got this!

THE RELIGIOUS WHITE RIGHT

By Ruth A. Sheets

Republicans today want power!  They want money too, and they want whiteness to be supreme (Jesus was white, you know, or so they believe). 

Many Republican leaders who still claim to be Christian, have bought into a "prosperity gospel" which tells them if they are rich and powerful, they deserve it; god did it for them.  They aren’t concerned with how they got there, because they believe they are truly in God’s favor, God was guiding them through their business life, their legal duties, their use of family riches, etc., so if they “sneaked” a bit from someone or didn’t pay employees what they earned a few times, or skipped taxes, or lied about an opponent, God knew and it was OK because God had forgiven them, right?  Isn’t it interesting that with this kind of “prosperity gospel,” God seems to only forgive them for their deeds, not others involved in the same practices?  And, whatever they don’t like is disliked by God, and therefore, a sin to be opposed at every opportunity. 

The new prosperity gospelers don’t really care what traditional Christianity believes or does because they regularly get revelations from God and anyone who gets in their way is a sinner, the enemy.  Not in the Bible?  Of course it is, you just have to read it right! 

The “Christian” white right’s efforts are moving toward making sure their beliefs become the law of the land.  That’s what they want to believe is God’s will, and they will get to be in charge of “god’s will.” 

Currently, we have at least 4 members of the Supreme Court and numerous members of Congress and even more members of state legislatures on board with this effort.  Theirs is a fanatical religious evolution that took about 45 years to fully develop.  Republicans and conservatives were having trouble getting traction for their message after Watergate, so needed something to motivate themselves and others of their kind:  white, straight, male, “Christians.”  The one issue that had potential was the Supreme Court’s decision on Roe v. Wade.  Abortion!  What a great idea!  Claim abortion was a horrific sin, murdering a baby in the womb.  How dare those sluts do something so terrible.  I bet God doesn’t like that.  They also knew they had to get some loud-mouthed women on board or a lot of women would have ignored the men.  Phyllis Schlafly was perfect for the job.  And, as a power-obsessed lawyer, she knew just how to reach and manipulate vulnerable women who were scared of the changes feminism was bringing about.  All these years later, the pieces were in place.  

The Conservatives on the Supreme Court this year just knew this was the time to dump Roe v. Wade despite precedent, despite a majority of Americans not wanting it overturned, despite having no real argument to support the decision, they said “OK states, do your best,” and they did.  There is now chaos throughout the Confederacy and the confederate wannabee states.  The most the conservative court under the pen of Justice Alito  could do was claim abortion wasn’t in the Constitution, so it wasn’t protected by it.  That, of course is nonsense, especially when the only sources for Alito’s argument were Medieval white men who were misogynists, just like the Court’s conservatives.  Neat, huh! 

The prosperity gospelers claim the 1^st Amendment gives them the right to force their Christian beliefs on this country because the founders wanted it to be a Christian nation.  These folks have no idea, nor care, what the founders intended regarding religion.  Even if they knew that many of the founders were Deists or held religious beliefs they didn't share publicly is irrelevant to them.  The Bill of Rights declares no establishment of religion in the first amendment, but folks like Justice Barrett see all that as just words she doesn't have to follow because she has god's ear (or some other irrelevance) and her super-Catholic cult lets her know what God wants for this country, prosperity gospel Christianity where the haves have because God likes them better than God likes the have-nots.  Conservative Christian faith does not include folks who don't believe what they do, rather childish, but just what one might expect.  One’s personal religion shouldn’t be involved in any decision-making by our courts, but alas, the conservative justices don’t care about the oath they swore, it was just their way into a lucrative job for life.

I just read an article by Dennis Prager in “townhall.com, (a very right-wing site), called “Why Are So Many Young Americans Irreligious?  The Secular Brainwashing is the First Reason.”  As you can imagine, the article is full of the usual anti-left stuff regularly pumped out by conservatives:  “can’t say ‘Merry Christmas (happy holidays), can’t have Christmas parties or Christmas break” (holiday party, winter break).  Young people have abandoned religion because of the anti-religion stance “the power of the dominant secular culture, the failure of faithful Christians (and Jews) to properly explain their religion to the young, and every public institution has been made ‘god-free.’”  Ridiculous! 

The author whines on that schools don’t refer to god and the Bible and actually hold both in contempt.  (I must have mist that one.)  He claims also with no evidence that religion is held by public schools to be an impediment to children’s learning.  The article continues on in that vein claiming it is brainwashing on the left that has turned young people from religion.  In schools mentioning other faiths is permitted, but not Christianity (of course, not true).  He whines that inside and outside home, religion is disparaged, again with no evidence, just his personal feeling or the claim of his church.

He wraps the article up saying that this “post-Christian age” has been “the bloodiest” in history.  This man has no clue.  Most Nazis were Christian and Stalin and Mao were Communists.  Together they were responsible for more deaths than anything since.  Unfortunately, Prager has folks out there who believe his manufactured “truths,” and will try to use them to push religious fundamentalism on our country.  Prager said young people aren’t religious, so in his new order, are they supposed to be forced into religion?  If so, who is going to do that?  And, what about the people who are Christian or not Christian who don’t want religion thrown in their faces every day?

Besides, young people from all backgrounds have been witness lately, to a whole lot of bad behavior on the part of conservative Christians in power.  They have seen women losing bodily autonomy, just because.  They have seen LGBTQ persons threatened with the loss of their human rights.  They saw an insurgency by white Christians who tried to take over our government on behalf of a non-religious man.  They have seen hospitals refuse to treat women in crisis because a fetus is seen as more valuable than the woman carrying it.  They have seen white Christian police officers shoot down or suffocate Black men.  They have experienced the presidency of a man those conservative Christians revere who cheats, lied over 30,000 times in public while in office, then stole secret documents from the White House while he was leaving.  In short, if that is Christianity, what would entice young people to want a part of it? 

I am a person of faith and do believe the Christianity of the social gospel has something to offer young people, but it is not my role to force anyone to choose or reject Christianity or any other religion. 

People of faith need to stand more forcefully for church and state being separate strands in life, maybe, each supporting but not dominating the other.  We need to talk about it more and why the separation is essential. 

There is a move in some more liberal churches to go back to some kind of heavier embrace of scripture, I guess to prove our faith is as real as Justice Barrett’s seems to be.  I do not approve.  The scriptures of any religion can give guidance, but they have definite limitations, particularly when they are nit-picked to glean pearls to “cast before swine.”  

I and many others are  advocates for a social gospel that is inclusive, accepting, and requires us to increase people's rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of opportunity.  What I believe guides my life but I don't need other people to believe what I do as Justice Barrett, the other conservatives on the Supreme Court, and their ilk do.  We who are for separation need to speak up often and clearly that we don’t want public religious demonstrations when they are coercive and just for show as that school coach’s 50 yard line BS was.  When we see that nonsense, we need to interrupt with more positive activities, like maybe a drum circle or a quick concert of love songs that will drown out their stuff.  They will still be able to do their thing as Justice Barrett and her kin want, but it will be positively challenged by the much larger coalition of people who value religious freedom, that is freedom to believe or not believe and even more important, freedom not to be dictated to by an extreme Supreme Court or anyone else. 

DO WE HAVE COURAGE?

By Ruth A. Sheets

I was just watching a program on MSNBC that brought up an issue related to banned abortion states that I had not thought of before, and I am sure the ignorant state legislators who voted so quickly to ban abortions didn’t either.  

Many women have chronic medical conditions that require drugs that could either cause miscarriage or birth defects.  Doctors are now telling women on these drugs they have to be on birth control because if they get pregnant, the doctor couldn’t help them for fear of losing their job or being arrested.  What!

Yep, we’ve entered the age when ignorant, mostly white men, can decide if people live or die due to laws Republican legislators passed and were signed by Republican governors with no consideration for what that would do to real women, not the fantasy women they imagine controlling through their laws.  

I suggest that the doctors of those states, and there are a bunch of those states now, should refuse to treat any member of the state legislature and governor who voted for those laws, and their families too.  Make them have to go elsewhere for care.  Tell them “you wouldn’t want a potential criminal treating you, so you will have to move on.  Maybe when you vote to give women back their bodily autonomy and stop seeing me as a potential criminal, you can come back.  Until then, someone somewhere else can help you.”  Hey, a kind of “strike!”  Oh yes, the “strike” would have to be all doctors even in hospitals and urgent care places unless it is a life-or-death emergency, just like the situation they are consigning the women of their state to.

Some doctors just love these anti-woman laws, so those legislators, et al can find those guys. I suspect it won’t be long before some misogynists who claim to love fetuses more than the women who host them will start making some changes to their laws.  They may pass laws to force doctors to treat everyone, but then, they will have to treat folks who can’t afford their services and the state will have to provide the funds.  Can’t have that!  Maybe they’ll pass laws to arrest any doctor who won’t treat them.  I’m sure ALEC and Republican lawyers will come up with something despicable.  One thing I know, you can’t force someone to care, e.g. the Republican legislators.  

The problem, is there courage to actually do anything?  Without a public push, doctors just won’t.  Their fear in some ways is legitimate because right- wingers are scary, running around with guns and words like “murderer,” shouted into a huge megaphone.  Maybe a well-publicized doctors’ strike would be powerful and not what the Right expects.  Doctors are supposed to follow any law to the letter, aren’t they?  I’m thinking one or two states to start with, then . . . .

I have been thinking about the recent US visit of Victor Orban, Hungary’s autocratic leader and remember the lack of courage of the Republicans at the big Texas gathering.  They did not stand up for this country and our freedom.  They spent time listening to, cheering for, and admiring a leader who has stolen power in his country by disrupting the judicial system and slyly taking away people’s rights while telling them how wonderful they are and how awful the invaders are, tainting the blood of “real Europeans” by intermixing.  That sounds so much like the propaganda of the 1930s Nazis it made me shiver, and it should have made everyone in the room in Houston shiver too.  It didn’t.  They were caught up in the euphoria of imagining a “white America where they would rule and everyone else would either be gone or in some way enslaved to them.  I could tell by their cheering, almost screaming, they were practically orgasmic.  I have heard nothing since the event that indicated any Republican protest of having an autocrat getting more cheers than our own president (I mean Biden), a man who helped keep COVID from being even worse than losing well over a million people, financially supported families during the pandemic, got infrastructure passed that will help everyone, pushed Congress to pass some kind of sensible gun safety regulation, worked to get drug prices down for Medicare users (it would have been for more folks but too few Republicans cared enough to vote for it), pushed for measures to stop global warming, and more.  For them, Biden doesn’t deserve as much appreciation as a foreign dictator. 

Liz Cheyney has a lot of guts.  She identified Donald Trump for the con artist he is and refused to go along with Ted Cruz, Lindsay Graham, Ron DiSantis, and the rest of the Republican joy of dictatorship club, particularly since she took an oath to uphold and defend our Constitution (which those others did too).  I do not agree with her positions on most things, but I recognize courage when I see it, and she has it.  Yet, she is about to be voted off the island by Republicans in Wyoming.  She helped them to get stuff they need for their decaying infrastructure and older citizens, but she didn’t fawn and drool over Trump as she was supposed to.  The person likely to replace her is not nearly as strong and has little courage as far as I can tell, but “gotta get that traitor Cheyney out.”

I used to think we the people were living in “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”  Well, maybe not as much as we would like.  Our freedoms are gushing away each time our Supreme Court drops a decision and one political party can’t find courage to stand up to would-be dictators.  Fortunately, there are people who do want us to continue working to become “a more perfect union.”  

We all need to remember that we have a lot of courage floating around and all kinds of people have it.  However, a bunch of scared folks are fearmongering, threatening, and otherwise making life difficult for a lot of people, and it is time more of us locate our courage and stand up to it.

Here are some of the most courageous people I know about.  They put their values, even their lives on the line for others and take an ordinary salary home for it, or just have the knowledge they are making a difference. 

- the front-line workers who cared for people with COVID when Trump and Kump didn’t get protective gear to them.  They stuck with it until they got sick or burned out, then when they recovered, most went right back at it.  

- the firefighters all over the country who are trying to hold the line on the massive wildfires that global warming is igniting.  Those dealing with the massive floods are pretty brave too.

- teachers who did their best to be sure that children were able to learn what was required despite being at home while COVID raged.  Every day, they are working with our kids, but teaching online has challenges most teachers had not previously faced.

- workers who care for people who face mental illnesses of all kinds and the challenges of aging, despite being overworked and understaffed, show up for their shift every day and do their best.   

- people who live with serious chronic illnesses, yet just keep on moving, caring for others, raising their children or grandchildren, and keeping the world turning

- workers who accompany abortion-seekers through the angry protesters who have no clue what the women they are maligning are going through as they wrap themselves in some warped sense of righteousness.

- children who stand up to bullies on behalf of a classmate, friend, or stranger.

- And more!

See what I mean, there is a lot of courage, it’s just ignored when the fearful, the conservatives trying to conserve a time and conditions that never existed constantly have the spotlight on them and their bad behavior. 

Maybe each of us needs to pledge to be more courageous, make our voice heard when we see a wrong, even if it is a risk.  Think of the kids in Birmingham, AL who faced police dogs and fire hoses aimed at them.  Think of the students who protested until a terrible, unjust war was stopped.  Think of the people who came here to this country looking for a better, safer life who faced all kinds of struggles and discrimination.  Consider the Capitol police who held off January 6th insurrectionists until help could get to them, saving the lives of our elected officials.  Those were ordinary people like us.  Their efforts can show us the way.  

Letting poorly informed elected officials decide what our rights will be and who can have them is unacceptable and should be for every American.  We can start with courage in little things, like informed voting in every election, not accepting sexual or any other kind of harassment in the workplace, calling on our religious institutions to live their faith, etc., then branch out.  Let’s foster courage when our kids are young.  It’s a good habit, and we are going to need it throughout the next few decades.

TOO MUCH TESTOSTERONE OR SOMETHING

By Ruth A. Sheets

Wow!  2022 is turning out to be another year of mostly white male abuse of power.  This year we have men working really hard to take away our right to vote; to put women even more under male control by banning abortion, criminalizing miscarriages and crossing state borders for reproductive care, and planning to ban contraception; invading and preparing to invade neighboring countries (Ukraine by Russia and Taiwan by China); continuing and accelerating greenhouse gas emissions; pouring guns into our communities; and using religion (Christianity in particular) to justify their moves to take away our rights. 

We seem to have tacitly agreed to let men decide that when they want something it is OK for them to kill, cheat, steal, lie, and commit atrocities of all kinds to get it.  Why did we women and men do that?

I suspect it is some men's big mouths, big size (even if just in their heads), and strength that let them get away with so much.  The rest of us are so busy with family, career or just survival to notice their bad behavior until it is too late.  I think this group of power-hungry men is hoping that banning abortion, suppressing voting, etc. will keep us in this country distracted indefinitely so they can take over, then do what, that is unclear, perhaps make themselves even richer and the rest of us poorer?

Here and in other countries too, it is not enough to control women and decent men, they have to recruit often vulnerable women who will follow their actions hoping to get a piece of the testosterone pie, big fish in a small pond.  These women can be even more misogynistic, homophobic, transphobic, and racist than the mostly white men who direct them.  Their patriarchal intensity is their effort to prove their Bonafides.  After all, there were white women gazing in rapture at public lynchings too.

I believe there are some things we can and should do to end or move to end the patriarchal usurpation of power and violence that has scarred our world for millennia:

• We must raise our male children with less violence and less acceptance of pushy disrespectful behavior.  Significant community resources should be employed to help families and their boys who are struggling with their behavior and inability to be with other kids without bullying, before the problems get too bad.
• We need to raise our children to know their value and not accept coercive disrespectful male behavior from anyone.  Girls need to know that finding a man is not their primary goal in life.
• We must help our children grow into the gender (or lack of gender) that reflects who they are and rejoice with them when they truly know.
• We should finance research on safe medications for men that can tamp down or disperse the violent tendencies that keep getting people killed and women raped, just because, then administer it secretly if necessary to stop the violence.

-Seriously lower military budgets.  If the money and weapons aren’t there, war is made a bit harder.  This will be tough because war is like a team sport and we have a tendency to root for our team no matter what havoc it causes. 

- We will need to find safer ways for men to prove their manhood.  Sports work for some, but for those who need a more dangerous structure, the military has worked.  However, it is the military that caused a lot of the patriarchal problems over the years.  We need a different approach.

-Better regulations on corporations, their size, and practices and the amount CEOs can earn in relation to their median worker’s salary would help decrease the power the corporation and its usually male CEO holds. 

- Nationally requiring practices like automatic voter registration, vote by mail, ending gerrymandering, limiting financial donations to any candidate at all levels, a reasonable amount for the specific position would stop a lot of the male posturing and corruption. 

- Recommit ourselves to the First Amendment of our Constitution including freedom of religion, but also freedom from religion.  Men have ruled most religions of the world and religious power has given men all kinds of permission to act badly, often in the name of god.

- Reconfigure our understanding of police and law-enforcement in general:  what should it be and do, who should be employed in the work, what should they wear and how should they get around, what kind of training should they receive and how often?

It's time folks!  Efforts to stop global warming, to establish peace, to develop farming revolutions, to ensure educational opportunities will go only so far as long as men have too much control.  Too many men have never had to fully grow up, so these whining, lying, cheating, sneaking, bullying toddlers will keep us in constant conflict of all kinds.  Such bullies can't stand peace and people actually getting along, unless they are forcing it to happen and are sure there is no opposition to them and their power:  Myanmar, China, North Korea, and the other countries moving foolishly in their direction. 

OMG!  What will those immature men do if we limit their power!  People might notice that those dictators have no more skill, talent, or intelligence than women and that white dictators have no more of those than any other men.  That will be scary for them and problematic for the rest of us for a while. 

Mr. Putin and his unwarranted attack on Ukraine is just the latest in a long string of men in the past 50 years from Nixon to Reagan to Baby Bush and Dick Cheyney, to ISIS, the Taliban,  et al, to the Trump and Kump cult, to Hungary’s autocratic Orban and his Republican fans, to China’s Xi who is throwing a tantrum because a powerful American woman visited Taiwan, to Israel abusing the Palestinians, to The Syrian and Saudi leaders who kill anyone whom they don’t like, and on and on, all men throwing their political and physical weight around harming others for their own benefit. 

We raise bullies and permit them to have power, so we should expect bullying and a big portion of insanity, and that is what we get.  The wonder is that it seems more autocracies are popping up, not because people want them, but because the practitioners have access to media which can amplify their lies, and they can get financial support from huge corporations whose male CEOs believe they can get even more money and power by hitching themselves to the autocrats’ wagon.

So, the patriarchy will continue with its wars, attacks on women and women’s rights to bodily autonomy, keeping girls from attaining education or anything else in society, permitting (even encouraging) sexual harassment in the workplace and on the street, and not prosecuting physical abuse within autocracies until the people stand up to it and get support to end the insanity.  We don’t want autocracy here, but we are going to have to actively work to stop it.  There are a lot of desperate scared men.

My life has been blest because most of the men I have known personally have been really good people.  I think that is the case for a majority of us.  I suspect power is not on their bucket list.  They care about people, including women.  I have worked with men at their lowest point and highest and they treated me well and mostly respected my abilities and contributions.  When they didn’t, all but one just stopped interacting with me more than necessary for both of us to do our jobs.  I left 2 jobs because of male harassment but it was only one man on each job who disrespected the women and some of the men there, and both were disabled white men.  I can’t help but wonder if disability for white men can create a drive to prove superiority even stronger than most men.

In ministry, I had the most difficulty.  I was an Associate Pastor in a large church for 16 months and came to be resented by the Senior Pastor as well as the choir director.  A male church leader got me fired for personal reasons. (I didn’t learn the whole story for many years after I left.)  I was that church’s first woman in ministry, so I guess it was hard for them, and they made it impossible for me.

Perhaps my good fortune in knowing such terrific men had to do with the careers I have held:  working with people related to AIDS, assisting in a library, working in a low-level government job, work-study on college campuses, and teaching.  Perhaps those fields don’t call to so many men who need to wield power over others.  In any case, it frustrates me that more men like those I have worked with aren’t the type people choose to represent them in government or to lead corporate boardrooms.  We’d be better off if they did.

LOOKING AT FREEDOM ON INDEPENDENCE DAY

By Ruth A. Sheets

On this Independence Day, 2022, I find that I am in a turmoil regarding what independence even means for our nation now.  I swing between hope and despair for our country and our people.  We just received from the Supreme Court of the United States rulings that do not represent independence or freedom for a whole lot of people.  

The first lets anyone who wants to carry a gun to do so because, well, the law shouldn’t keep anyone who wants to carry a gun from carrying a gun, pretty much wherever they want to carry it, or some other such BS, pulled out of nowhere claiming it is included in the 2nd amendment of the Constitution.  

The second overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision letting states decide whether or not women have the right to an abortion, even though there was no clear compelling reason to do so.

The third said it was OK for a football coach and his players to pray on the 50 yard line after each game even though the school doesn’t want them to because of the religious overtones.  My concern, what happens to a player who does not go along with this pseudo-religious crap.  Do they get less time on the field?  Do they get a less complimentary recommendation from Coach if they get one at all  The fourth claimed, for no obvious reason that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has no right to regulate carbon emissions despite the fact that the EPA was set up to regulate air, water, and land pollution and carbon pollution is the most serious of all.? 

In all four of these cases, personal and group freedoms are seriously impacted.  When anyone can carry guns, when is it OK to use it?  People who just happen to be near a person with a gun who decides using the gun against them is warranted gets to lose their life well, because the gun-toter “felt threatened.”  

In the second instance above, women are now slaves to their pregnancies whether they want to be or not.  Then they are slaves to a child if a live birth happens and they survive it.  People who help women to live their lives in freedom can be imprisoned for years because a bunch of scared white men are afraid women are getting too uppity.

In the third case above, coaches have more authority than the school community to do whatever religious thing they want and possibly to expect the same of the team members.  Those members will go along if they want to play the sport.  Where is their freedom while Coach gets to use and abuse his (in this case, his) freedom.

When corporations are allowed to set their own standards for pollution of whatever kind, the people who suffer most are those who have been determined to be of less value than other people, the ones whose homes, schools, and businesses are located in the  immediate vicinity of the polluter, mostly poor people of color.  Where is their right to clean air.  In this case, the whole world gets to suffer when carbon emissions are not regulated.  It is pretty clear Republicans in the Senate care too little for the American people to expand the EPA’s authority to meet the Supreme Court’s requirements, even though the Court is supposed to have no legislative ability. 

We the people have for generations allowed bad behavior on the part of mostly white men.  We have allowed and even enabled those white men to deny freedom from nearly everyone who was not rich, white, straight, Christian,  and male.  Consider the following: 

- Lynchings took place and very rarely was anyone even charged, let alone held accountable despite having postcards and other evidence of the crime sent all over the country.  The victims’ freedom and lives were taken from them and those in power either went along or actually participated.  

- Corporations, you know, the rich ones have perpetrated appalling destruction on communities causing massive live-altering health problems and unusable land and water.  Those corporations rarely met successful prosecution yet they stole freedom from the people who suffered from their actions.  Then, we the people had to pay to clean up their mess.  

- Separate but Equal was sneeringly Okayed by the 1896 Supreme Court and was NEVER even attempted.  Why?  It was clear Black Americans and other people of color were being abused and denied freedoms white folks had, but our courts just couldn’t bring themselves to do anything until 1954’s Brown v. Board of Education which is still being ignored, nearly 70 years later.  

- Women were not even considered in the smallest part when the Constitution was written.  In those days, women had no legal rights and very few freedoms of any kind.  Essentially, women belonged to their husbands or fathers.  They lived a separate life from men.  I suspect almost no men had a clue what women did every day except that he had clothes on his back, food in his belly, and a bunch of kids he could claim he fathered.  

For me, the overturn of Roe v. Wade is the most critical of the 4 cases taking away American’s freedoms.  Our current Court and its Republican managers are not only ignorant of women's lives today but beyond ignorant of women of the past, yet Roberts let Samuel Alito, one of the most ignorant misogynistic members (although Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Barrett are a close second), the right to define what was and was not happening in this country related to women at the time of the Constitution.  Alito knows nothing, so either he or one of his "clerks" found ridiculous misogynistic diatribes against abortion by medieval woman-hating asses, who actually believed in witches!  The other 4 of the worst on the Court went right along with the nonsense because they thought the ridiculous irrelevant quote was something they could use against women.  They surrounded the Medieval nonsense with a bunch of stuff that means nothing but must sound good and reasonable to those who are ignorant of women.  That doesn't say much for the Fantastic 5's intellectual or reasoning capacity, yet they made a ruling that will harm millions of women and girls and the people who support them.  I suspect as usually happens, we the people will permit it.  We will find work-arounds and do our best to get pregnant women the care they need, but not face head-on the real problem, white men and a few white women dictating what rights/freedoms they will permit women and people of color to have.  Those will be based on pseudo-religious beliefs that they morph regularly to suit their own behavior and conservative pressures. 

I can't help but wonder what Republicans get from this except more power over others on their way to some kind of warped insane autocracy they think they should be in charge of while they wave the American flag on July 4th and march in parades with the people they are harming, smiling and gloating that they won the victory over women’s right to bodily autonomy (probably toting their guns too).

Voting is probably our best option right now, but we need to do more.  I admit I am not sure what that more is.  Protesting is seen as just a quaint way to make some noise and police are usually free to stop them whenever they choose since they have all the weapons.  Vigils outside the homes of the people who are causing the harm are no longer legal (even Democrats went for that one to "protect" Brett Kavanaugh who would have protected no one).  Writing letters, signing petitions, and calling senators and representatives only have an impact on those who already agree with the letter-writer, petitioner, or caller.  In the hundreds of letters and petitions I have sent to my Senator, Pat Toomey, nothing I or anyone I know have said, changed his mind on anything or caused him to vote to protect the interests of the majority of people in Pennsylvania.  I am glad he is retiring this year, but if Dr. Oz takes his place, we will be no better and probably a whole lot worse off.  

So, here we are at Independence Day again.  I must admit that back at the bicentennial in 1976, I thought we would have moved on to a higher equality, a place where it wouldn’t matter one’s gender or race or LGBTQ status (I thought of it as sexual preference at the time).  What we have is far less than that, a few steps backward in the area of personal freedom and privacy.  

- White men are still in charge nearly everywhere even though they are a minority.

- Women are still second-class citizens even though we have made some progress.  The white men in charge are still doing everything they can to control our lives and are still succeeding.

- Black Americans are still maligned, targeted by the police, and forced to live in poverty in many places in this “land of the free.”

- Indigenous peoples have lost some of their tribal autonomy  since the Court ruled that they cannot fully police their own lands. 

- Abortion is now or soon will be illegal in more than half of the states.

- The Confederacy has risen again and has recruited a whole bunch of other states (Confederate Wannabees) to its cause of white supremacy and toxic maleness.

- Christianity has decreased in the number of practitioners in this country, but the Christians who throw their weight around (mostly Catholics and Evangelicals) are rabid, spewing a faith I would not have recognized 50 years ago and still don’t recognize.  They want to make this a Christian country of their own brand, despite the first amendment.

- Gun violence is up because guns are everywhere.  There are more guns than people in this country while only about 35% of the people own guns.  That’s pretty scary!

We must enjoy our 4th of July events but determine to fight for the freedom we celebrate today tomorrow and onward.  It is our responsibility not to give up hope and to work for a better world.