BOOKS OF THE YEAR PART II

Read and Selected by Ruth A. Sheets

Here is the second installment of my excellent books of the year collection.  I hope you like some of these too.

1. The Naked Don’t Fear the Water, An Underground Journey with Afghanistan Refugees by Matthieu Aikins (Matt left Afghanistan with his Afghan interpreter who wanted a life in Europe.  They used smugglers and scary strategies to get first to Turkey, then to Greece, then beyond.  They survived when many didn’t.  )

 2. Go Back to Where You Came From and Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American by Wajahat Ali (The writer describes growing up in CA and the biases against himself and his family even though he was born in America.  The book is funny, sad, and a peek into the lives of an immigrant family that has been here 50 years.) 

3. Making Numbers Count, The Art and Science of Communicating Numbers by Chip Heath & Karla Starr (A great book about the way we can simplify number examples to make them more comprehensible and able to change minds:  3 of 10 instead of 30%, 1 every ____ minutes, on the 1^st yardline of the football field instead of 1%, using terms and sizes people can relate to.)  

 4. The End of Bias, A Beginning by Jessica Nordell (Everyone has biases and they are started early.  However there are many strategies we can use as a people to make those biases less harmful and destructive.  The book includes police departments working to change their culture of violence and businesses working to become truly inclusive.)

 5. A Christmas Legacy by Anne Perry (I loved this book about the rich getting theirs.  Gracie goes to sub for a friend at a rich house where the servants are like family but there is something wrong.  The old woman being nearly starved to death is the owner of the house.

 6. Until Justice Be Done , America’s First Civil Rights Movement, from the Revolution to Reconstruction by Kate Masur (So many Black Americans and their allies were working for their rights at this time, but being fought at every turn by white men who just couldn’t bear to imagine that Black people were equal to themselves.  A shameful history for this nation)

 7. The Best Strangers in the World, Stories From a Life Spent Listening by Ari Shapiro (This is a great memoir of a really good broadcaster, describing some of his background, his life of interviewing people, and his caring nature, as well as his other talents like singing with an indy band and cooking.)

 8. Myth America, Historians Take on the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past by Kevin Michael Kruse & Julian E. Zelizer (These were essays about various events that didn’t happen as people often think:  Black people rarely protested before the 1950s and 60s, there was no “southern strategy” by the Republicans, the “Great Society” changed nothing.  All lies but people still believe them.)

 9. The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear (Eleanor White lived I Belgium during WWI when she and her older sister were recruited to work as spies for a WWII resistance group Because of her skills.  After the war, she tries to make a life for herself and gets connected with a crime family as she tries to save one of their former members.)

 10. A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg (A man with serious lung disease goes south to possibly recover.  He falls in love with the tiny Alabama town and the people who come to love him too.  Sweet and funny)   

 11. The Common Good by Robert Reich (On this second reading of this book, I found it is still relevant and important.  It looks at our need to pay more attention to working for the common good.)

 12. Nine Black Robes, Inside the Supreme Court’s Drive to the Right and Its Historic Consequences by Joan Biskupic (An excellent retelling of the transformation of an already-failing SC into the right-wing anti-American bastion of male arrogance and desires its conservatives  have become, even the female conservative justice.)

 13. Poverty by America by Matthew Desmond (A quick summary of the ways we the people maintain poverty in this country by what we buy, who we allow in our neighborhoods, who banks lend to or don’t, the way we permit landlords to keep people living in squalor while charging outrageous rents, etc.  well-constructed)

 14. Science and the Skeptic, Discerning Fact from Fiction by Marc Zimer (It is a positive to be a skeptic if one is a scientist, but not so much when the information supporting a theory or finding is overwhelming.  Good overview with good talking points.)

 15. Above Ground by Clint Smith (beautiful poems about fatherhood and the world his son would inherit and how he feels about it.)

 16. Paved Paradise, How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar (I never drove, but found this book fascinating and fun in places to see what people will go through to get a parking space and how much land is taken up with such parking spaces.)

 17. Off With Her Head, 3,000 Years of Demonizing Women In Power by Eleanor Herman (I loved this book that took the various misogynistic tropes like ambition, appearance, female hormones, shrillness of her voice, neglect of family, being a bitch that are used to tell women that they have no right to positions of power.  It’s been going on for so long even a lot of women have bought the nonsense and will vote for anyone but a woman and men and women will malign through social media any woman in power.)

 18. Viral Justice, How We Grow the World We want by Ruha Benjamin (This was a really good book about the way we can look at issues like racism and connect with others to find ways to change things where we are.  Ruha uses her own personal journey to illustrate.  Very hopeful.)      

 19. When the Angels Left the Old Country by Sacha Land (This was a hilarious book about an angel and a demon that lived in early 20^th century Poland in a Jewish community who decided they should come to America to help protect the immigrants from their village while in America.  Lots of Jewish humor!

 20. The Teachers, A Year Inside America’s Most Vulnerable Important Profession by Alexandra Robbins (The book mostly follows 3 teachers and what it was like during 2021-2022 trying to recover from pandemic times with limited resources, sometimes support and appreciation, and interesting but challenging students.  The author mentions a variety of other teachers and their experiences as well.)  

 21. A Bit of Earth by Karuna Raizi (I loved this retelling of “The Secret Garden” as the story of an immigrant girl from South Asia coming to New York, trying to adjust and connect with the family who has taken her in and the community where they live. Gr.4-7 and anyone who loved “The Secret Garden”) 

 22. Weathering, The Extraordinary Stress of Ordinary Life in an Unjust Society by Arline T. Geronius (an excellent  but scary account of how just living in a society that does not value certain people can “weather” them causing them to get serious illnesses, to die young, and to live a whole lifetime with chronic illnesses.) 

 23. The Wax Pack, On the Road In Search of After Life by Brad Balukjian (The author ordered a pack of baseball cards from 1985 and set out in 2015 to find and interview all the guys on the 14 cards in the pack.  He reached most of them.  Gary Templeton and Don Cardin were the most interesting to me.)

  24. Welcome to the Circus of Baseball, A Story of the Perfect Summer at the Perfect Ballpark at the Perfect Time by Ryan McGee (A fun book about a minor league intern and his adventures in Ashville, NC in 1994.)

 25. Accounting for Slavery, Masters and Management by Caitlin Rosenthal (When looking for accounts of how early American business records were kept, she is given a plantation account book from SC, the author realizes that slavery was not just something owners did out of habit, but for them was good business.  She cites records from account books and the information as well as what else was going on economically at the time. 

 26. One Fatal Flaw by ?Anne Perry (This is one of those writers that every book is a gem.  In this one, lawyer Daniel Pitt defends a woman in 2 arson/murder trials.

 27. The Librarian Spy, A Novel of WWII by Madeline Martin (Ava, a Library of Congress librarian is recruited to go to Lisbon to interpret French and German newspapers and letters.  In France, Helenne works on a printing press after her husband disappears.  She learns he was in the Resistance and she wants to help too.  The two women come together at a distance when Helenne tries to rescue a Jewish mother and son.  They finally meet after the war.) 

 28. Readme.text by Chelsea Manning (This is the memoir of a transwoman who did her best to do the male thing, even joining the military.  She released information about the ridiculous, harmful actions  in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, none that put people at risk, but the military went crazy in their treatment of her.)

 29. Finally Seen by Kelly Yang (Lena arrives in the US from China and finds that things are not as great as her parents wrote and told her they were.  She gradually learns English and to express herself, particularly through art and her courage.  Gr.4-7)

 30. The Four Seasons of Jackie Robinson by Kostya Kennedy (Jackie Robinson was a complex person who believed deeply in human rights for all and loved baseball and its challenges for a Black man in a white sport.  He was an advocate for both baseball and civil rights for most of his life.)

 31. On Democracy by E.B. White with John Meacham (This was a collection of essays and letters to the editor by White from 1928 to 1976.  They are remarkably relevant today.  It is almost as though he predicted a lot of what is going on now, people pushing to end democracy without realizing what it would mean for them.)

32. The Swamp Fox, How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution by John Oller (Francis Marion was one of my heroes growing up.  This book let me know I was right to have him as a hero.  He and his men were all partisans surviving mostly on what they could steal from the British or what was donated by friends.  They harassed the British incessantly despite being betrayed several times by members of their crew and scared locals.)

 33. The Hidden History of the Supreme Court and the Betrayal of America by Thom Hartmann (In category by category, the author shows the ways presidents have appointed people to the Court who would ignore and twist the Constitution to fit their personal beliefs and do it with impunity.  He suggests some changes that could help fix this.) 

 34. Better Living Through Birding, Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper (The Black man who was threatened with the police when he demanded a woman put her dog on a leash as required in that part of Central Park presents a memoir of his life as a gay Black man who loves birding and nature in general.)

 35. Prequal, An American Fight Against Fascism by Rachel Maddow (As a follow-up to her podcast “Ultra,” the book looks at the many people involved in the Fascist movements in this country leading up to WWII.  There were many members of Congress involved, including several prominent senators.  There were also people who did their best to stop them and hold them accountable.)

 OK, there are a few more than last week’s collection, but I was so fortunate to have read so many excellent books this year.  There were a bunch more too that just missed the arbitrary cut-off.  I hope you pick a few to peruse and enjoy.     Have a spectacular Christmas/Kwanza/winter holiday.  Make the New Year remarkable and special for as many people as you can.

BOOKS OF THE YEAR PART I

Selected by Ruth A. Sheets

Last December, I decided to present a list of my favorite books of the year.  I am lucky that I have time to read a lot.  I’ve read around 350 books so far in a wide variety of genre.  Here are just a few that I have liked a lot.  I must say, though that if I don’t like a book after the 3^rd or 4^th chapter, I usually ditch it.  That means that the books I have included here I really liked and recommend to anyone who is into that genre.  They are in the order in which I read them.  Here goes!

1. The Gun, the Ship, and the Pen, Warfare, Constitutions, and the Making of the  Modern World by Linda Colley (Constitutions of various kinds were developed all over the world beginning around 1755 in Corsica, then Russia under Catherine, then the US.  Wars on land and sea often led to the spread of constitutional ideas and the “need” to write constitutions for government, often monarchies.)

     2.  America on Fire, The Untold History of Police Violence and Black Rebellion Since the 1960s by Elizabeth Hinton (Police have been unbelievably violent toward Black citizens always, but to an extreme extent since the 1960s.  Every American needs to read this book, especially the white folks.)

3. Hospital, Life, Death, and Money In A Small American Town by Brian Alexander (This was a distressing book describing the spiral down of a small-town hospital that was taken over by people who saw the bottom line as more important than the people who needed the services of the hospital.  The town, Bryan, OH from 2018-2020)

 

4. The East St. Louis Massacre, The Greatest Outrage of the Century, 1917 by Ida B. Wells-Barnett (Wells-Barnett arrived in East St. Louis the day after the most horrendous attack on a Black community that had occurred to date, on July 2, 1917.  She reported first-hand accounts of the events from those who managed to escape.  There was so much violence and cover-up estimates of the number of Black citizens who were killed range from 40 to 200 (similar to the range 4 years later at the Greenwood Massacre in Tulsa OK).  White citizens, many of them union members, murdered Black people in the streets and even the National Guard the IL governor called in either helped in the killing or prevented anyone from stopping it. 

 

5. Under the Skin, the Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and the Health of Our Nation by Linda Villarosa (An excellent description of what racism hath wrought on the society, often unnoticed by white medical personnel but destructive to Black lives and the lives of others of color.  Disturbing that medical folks could just ignore, dismiss, and poorly treat people who already face so much that harms their health.)

 

6. Starry Messenger, Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization By Neil DeGrasse Tyson (beautiful presentation of the value of science and how it helps us understand everything.)
7. The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill (An ogress has a house on the edge of what was once a beautiful town, but something has happened.  Despite her kindness to everyone, the mayor talks everyone into blaming her for their problems.  The mayor is actually a disguised dragon who is undermining the town’s happiness.  The orphans befriend the ogress and they try to help the people bring happiness back to their town despite those who would continue the hatred and negativity.  It is an allegory of today’s America. Gr.4 and up)

 

8. 999, The Extraordinary Young Women of the First Official Jewish Transport to Auschwitz by Heather Dune Macadam (The girls and young women were taken from Slovakia.  They had no idea what would happen to them.  They were part of the work camps at Auschwitz.  Many died, many were tortured, and many took care of each other so they would survive.  Every person targeting people in this country to harm, like trans persons should read and consider this book, because cruelty was the point of everything the Germans did.)

 

9. Honey Bee, Poems and Short Prose by Naomi Shihab Nye (a beautiful collection with pieces for different ages, but all thought-provoking.  The last one about awaiting a delayed flight brought tears.) 

 

10. The Math of Life and Death, Seven Mathematical Principles that Shape Our Lives by Kit Yates (I am not a mathy person, but found this book compelling.  It looks at the ways math can help, hurt, and even kill us depending on how it is used and by whom.)

 

11. Torn Apart, How the Child-Welfare System Destroys Black Families and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World by Dorothy Roberts (an excellent account of the many ways  the child welfare folks stalk homes of Black families, take away the children for foster care with little or no reason while white families in the same situation are left alone.  Amazing and really upsetting!)  

 

12. No True Believers by Rabiah York Lumbard (Two Muslim high school seniors are seen as suspicious of having caused or at least helped with a terrorist attack.  They learn it was a disgruntled man and his son who belonged to a hate group trying to rid our country of Muslims.  They and friends help stop a more serious attack.)

 

13. Disfigured, On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc (The author, a person with CP, describes the challenges of all the fairy tales that have “disabled” characters, have them as the villains.  People with disabilities can’t see themselves doing the things able-bodied persons do, so begin to see themselves as less than “normal” not just different.     

 

14. Lady Liberty, Women, The Law, and The Battle to Save America  by Dahlia Lithwick (Women have been working,                 almost underground to preserve our democracy:  defending women’s rights, defending immigrants falsely about to be deported, fighting for voting rights, a fair census, and more.)

 

15. The Destructionists, the 25 Year Crack-up of the Republican Party by Dana Milbank (Republicans use many strategies to undermine our democracy from Newt Gingrich to all the folks who helped Trump with his “Big Lie” and the insurrection of Jan. 6^th.  The lying never stops and Republicans at all levels are involved in it.)

 

16. The Woman They Could Not Silence, One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore (Elizabeth Packard was declared insane by her minister husband who got doctors to certify it.  She was confined in an asylum for 3 years where she was abused, seduced by the director, but able to maintain her sanity despite the conditions.  She helped to change the climate of the institution and how residents were treated.  She should be remembered for her work for women’s rights.)     

 

17. On Critical Race Theory, Why It Matters, and Why You Should Care by Victor Ray (Looks at what CRT really is and how important it is for everyone to know.  Racism is systemic and must be addressed systemically.  It is essential we work to stop racism, but first, people need to know where it can be found every day, no matter who claims racism does not exist.)  

 

18. The Library Book by Susan Orlean (Begins with the day of the great fire at the LA library in 1986 when a half-million books were destroyed and another nearly 500,000 books severely damaged.  She came to the belief that it was impossible to determine who had started the fire if anyone had done it.  The library has been repaired and expanded since then.)

 

19. Stringing Rosaries, The History, The Unforgivable, and the Healing of Northern Plains American Indian Boarding School Survivors by Denise K. Lajimodiere (This is one of the most disturbing but necessary books I have read in a while.  Survivors tell of the brutality inflicted upon students at several of the boarding schools they were either forced to attend by the state, or attended because parents had no money for education.  Many died in the schools either by illness, loneliness, or suicide.  The brutality killed some too and there was no accountability for the perpetrators as far as the survivors knew.)

 

20. What the Fact, Finding the Truth in All the Noise by Seema Yasmin (An excellent book for people of any age about the way our brains deal with information, how we can be manipulated, and how we can realize it is OK to be wrong and to carefully listen to others.)

 

21. What the Ermin Saw, The Extraordinary Journey of Leonardo Da Vinci’s most Mysterious Portrait by Eden Collinsworth (I really liked this book about a painting that got to travel all over the world.  Leonardo worked on the painting 3 different times to get the portrait that hangs in a Krakow museum today.)    

 

22. Hold The Line, The Insurrection and One Cop’s Battle for America’s Soul by Michael Fanone & John Shiffman (This book about a police officer who went to the Capitol on Jan. 6^th to help the officers under attack and was attacked by the insurgents.  He had been an officer in DC for 22 years before that and got little to no support after the Jan. 6^th events from fellow officers who were still stuck on Trump.)

 

23. A Knock At Midnight, A Story of Hope, Justice, and Freedom by Brittany K. Barnett (a young law student is captivated by the story of a woman given a life sentence for possessing a small amount of crack though there was no actual evidence and the people who accused her were long-time criminals who got much lighter sentences for ratting her out.  She left her corporate law job to work to free wrongly sentenced people.)

 

24. The Light We Carry, Overcoming in Uncertain Times by Michelle Obama (This is an excellent account of how a person’s life experiences shape who they are and that they can learn from them and continue growing through the hard times if we permit ourselves to deal with the uncertainties of life.)   

 

25. Dinners with Ruth, A Memoir on the Power of Friendships  by Nina Totenberg (The author talks about how friendships sustained her, particularly with Ruth Bader Ginsberg.  She had friendships with several SC justices which made her coverage of the Court more interesting and understandable.)

 

26. The Pregnancy Project, A Memoir by Gaby Rodriguez & Jenna Glatzer (Gabi is from a working-class family in small-town Washington State.  Her community expects little of her and since her mother got pregnant at 14, she is expected to also.  She fakes a pregnancy to find out what it is like for girls who become pregnant in her community in 2011.) 

 

27. Mouse, A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman (The father of the author told him the story of his time during WWII, in Polish ghettos, nearly a year in Auschwitz, and the post war struggles in refugee centers and searching for his wife who had also survived.  They came to America where they had a son who became an artist who wrote and illustrated the book from his father’s memories.)

 

28. Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston by Esme Symes-Smith (I was not sure whether I would like this one, but it turned out to be a fascinating fantasy about a non-binary 12-year old who wants to be a knight but has the magic only girls are supposed to have.  Everyone sees them as female except their dad and some friends.  Callie works to get everyone to see that people should be who they are.  Gr.5-8 and older)

 

29. The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynne Barnes (This is the third book of the “inheritance Game.”  There were more puzzles and intrigues related to the Hawthorne family, people we didn’t know about previously.  The whole trilogy was Terrific!) 

 

30 Win Every Argument, The Art of Debating, Persuading, and Public Speaking by Mehdi Hasan (I loved this book full of tips and tricks for public speaking with a lot of actual examples.  I took notes.  

 

If you read any of these books, I would love to know what you thought of them.  Happy reading!!

THE ANXIETY-DESPERATION FACTOR

By Ruth A. Sheets

It is painful to see how many people are either in despair or experiencing significant anxiety in this nation.  The number of deaths from overdoses and those from suicide each year is startling.  Many of our family members, neighbors, and fellow Americans can't see a future without drugs they have to get from strangers who care nothing for them.  Some people turn their anxiety into fear, anger, or both which leaves them perpetually on edge.  Others see their lives as irrelevant or decide life is just no longer worth the effort.  This anxiety and despair are devastating and are tearing us apart.  It does not have to be this way. 

I am thinking we could do a lot to ease some of this despair and anxiety if we did a few things, admittedly difficult things, but I believe the lives of those we love as well as the lives of strangers matter and are worth the trouble.  

1. invoke the 14th Amendment section 3 and make Trump ineligible to run in the 2024 election.  Trump is a divider.  He has been indicted on 91 criminal counts and even if some judges might have biases toward him, at least some of them will stick.  Trump is working to make this nation a dictatorship where he will be permitted to take vengeance on anyone he does not like (and that is most people).  He tells us over and over that he will do away with our democracy, turning our nation into something it will be hard to change back since he plans never to leave the White House if he is re-elected.

 

2. We need positive stories on news and other programs every day or two.  I remember reading “if it bleeds, it leads” so media pump out the blood and guts first and often keep it going.  That could be changed if We demanded it.  Several times a week, we need positive coverage of things our neighbors are doing to improve things where they are.  A program on WHYY radio each Monday called “Good Souls” focuses on someone nominated by a community member for the things they have done for family, friends, neighbors, or whole communities.  It is popular and very inspiring.  That could be adopted elsewhere too.

 

3. Pressure social media to curtail the amount of mis and dis-information pumped out and fine the offending corporations significantly for spewing lies and other posts that put people's lives at risk, with guidelines identifying what the parameters are.  We the People have permitted whiny white child-men to decide that lies and fraud can be pumped out on their platforms as much as possible as long as it brings in the bucks, even if it threatens people’s lives.  That should never be acceptable, even with free speech as one of the pillars of our democracy.

 

4. open more centers where people who are addicted can take their drugs of choice under supervision while also having services for them to treat their addiction available if they choose to take advantage of it.  I haven’t figured out what the opposition to these centers is but it is loud and powerful.  I guess folks would prefer people to overdose alone rather than walk into a place where they can take drugs safely.  I can’t help but wonder what that says about us as a people.

 

5. Pass laws that make it illegal to discriminate against LGBTQ+ persons and help people learn about them so people's fear may be less intense and dangerous.  Gov. DeSantis of Florida and some of his colleagues have decided LGBTQ+ persons are worthy targets of their efforts to promote fear and hatred, targeting trans youth in particular.  The legislators who have passed the “Don’t say gay” laws should be ashamed of themselves, going after vulnerable people, but nope, not a bit.  They also want to target people of color in general through banning books with main characters of color, claiming they are making white kids uncomfortable.  White kids should be a bit uncomfortable knowing that even today, people of color are discriminated against in ways they as white people will not be.  Reading about characters who are different from themselves can foster in kids an empathy DeSantis and the white Republican state legislators didn’t develop as children.

 

6. Change the rules in the Senate so one person can't stop everything as Tommy Tupperville of Alabama stopped military promotions since February, demanding women in the military not be able to be reimbursed for travel to a state where they can obtain an abortion if they choose to do so.  He left military families in limbo waiting to learn where they would be assigned.  Mr. Tupperville (it is hard to think of such an unamerican person as senator) will never be pregnant, yet he thinks he should have the right to dictate to women what they can and can’t do related to their own bodies, particularly women who have chosen to serve in our military  , something Tupperville didn’t do.  I guess he thinks having been a football coach makes him worthy to stop military promotions and control women’s bodies, causing anxiety for a lot of people that is completely unnecessary.  

 

7. make the previous year's budget stand the following year if Congress can't get its act together or wants to hold the nation hostage over their pet projects.  That way there would be no government closures.  I read that the past 3 Republican-initiated government closures cost We the People over $4 billion.  I know there are far better things that money could have been spent on.  The anxiety caused by worrying over whether the government will shut down for the whims of Republicans is tremendous and again, unnecessary.

 

8. Pass sensible gun restrictions that would include semiautomatic weapons of all kinds and high-capacity magazines.  Neither of these are necessary for anyone outside the military and even then, those weapons need to be used sparingly.  If a hunter needs such weapons, he is not a hunter.  Then background checks that take as long as they take are essential.  These and a few other regulations would lessen some of people’s anxiety and despair.

 

9. State and restate the concept that Freedom of Religion does not mean freedom for just conservative Christians and everyone else is somehow worthy of violence sent their way by those same conservative Christians.  Freedom of Religion means that all of us can worship or not worship as we choose, with respect and appreciation.  That means no established religion of any kind here.  This cannot be stated too often by our leaders.   Our courts need to stand by that premise in all their rulings no matter how much they are paid to do otherwise.  Our founders (whom the Supreme Court conservative justices claim to revere) were not all Christians and wanted religious freedom for everyone.

 

10. Deal with global warming head on.  Talk about it a lot with specific things people, local and state governments,  and corporations can do to slow it down.  We the People need to demand that corporations act on behalf of the planet and fine them painful amounts when they do things to harm the environment, no matter how "valuable" the corporations are.  We need to empower the white working-class people who believe they have been forgotten, to get involved.  We need everyone to see the ways it will benefit them and their children and grandchildren if they/we all act now to stop the coming disasters.

I know these will require a lot to accomplish, but they are all worth trying since so many people are stressed over our future and they are not wrong.  Right now, Republicans are looking to making this nation a dictatorship run by a bunch of thugs.  The scared white people who vote for Republicans somehow have lost their willingness to think things through and are almost holding Trump as their deity.  He's just a scared old man who cares only for himself, not a god anyone should want to believe in.

We all need to push our members of Congress and our President and Vice President to do more on behalf of the nation to ease the fear, anger, resentment, and hatred that have infested our nation.  I think of those emotions as the new “4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse.”  Everyone gets caught up with those Horsemen now and then, but too many Americans are now grazing on those emotions every day, maybe at night too, in their dreams.  They are blaming the wrong people for the “misfortune” they feel they are suffering and want to get even somehow.  They think that when they do, their lives will be better.  By the time they find out life for them under the representatives they have chosen isn’t better, in fact it’s much worse, it may be too late for them to do anything to fix it.  I suspect their resentment will still be there and they will still be blaming the wrong people, but there won’t be anyone in power who cares what they think or need.  Anxiety and despair are bad now, but will be far worse in the Trumpian world many Republican voters envision.  They just don’t know it yet.

We need to get the word out that anxiety and despair don’t have to be permanent.  We need good stories out here about positive people who helped others by doing important things to make the world, even their little part of it better.  Those frightened working-class folks need to see that Trump will not be part of their efforts.  He simply wouldn’t know how, if he even cared enough to try.

DEMOCRATS TAKING THE OFFENSE

By Ruth A. Sheets

Robert Reich is in my not so humble opinion, a critically important voice for democracy in America today, and for the last few decades too.  He was the Secretary of Labor in Bill Clinton’s cabinet and taught at The University of California, Berkeley.  A few mornings ago on his Substack thread, the discussion was about Donald Trump the mob boss.  The discussion included some of the ”don’t” henchmen, in particular, an extremist MAGA election denier, our new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson of Louisiana.  For 3 weeks we all watched the chaos of Republicans trying to decide on a new Speaker after ditching Kevin McCarthy, a nonentity who had the respect of almost no one (but I understand he was a great fundraiser).  The new guy, while a mystery as to how he will serve as the Speaker, has no mystery concerning his positions on nearly everything, supposedly guided only by the Bible.  Of course that means the parts he likes permit his racism, misogyny, homo/transphobia, xenophobia, and general dislike of humanity, well, those who are not like him.  Johnson may be Speaker now, but it is clear who is really in charge, and it ain’t Johnson. 

As often happens in this particular thread, the discussion moved to Democrats in relation to Trump’s role as don, Teflon Don as some have referred to him.  Someone commented that Democrats have been on the defensive for ages.  Republicans jump in with their wild accusations, rights-limiting legislation, accompanied by a vast number of lies which Democrats have been left to try to oppose then present and effective defense.  Republicans toss out wild accusations like that Democrats approve of abortion until birth (coming out the birth canal).  They spew a raft of conspiracy theories with absolutely no evidence but “professionals” who know someone who knows someone who . . . .  Republicans work creatively to suppress votes even though the Constitution gives every citizen the right to vote upon reaching age 18 with no upper age limit.  Dems are forced to try to provide fact-checking for the myriad of Republican lies as soon as humanly possible, before they can solidify in people’s minds, a near impossible task.   

The problem with constantly taking the defense, the ordinary people get to hear the Republican positions and lies first and often that is what sticks with them, particularly with the overworked underpaid, overwhelmed white voter.

A Substack commenter’s response was that Democrats need to move to the offense for a change.  That will be hard as the media is primed to hear the Republican input while ignoring the Democratic responses.  This means Democrats will face a serious challenge.  Some commented that our democracy depends on it, and I agree. 

The contributor to the discussion, Susan, suggested that Democrats have a significant number of people who could take leadership roles in the new effort to get the message out first and force Republicans to try to defend their “policy ideas, their anti-Constitution/anti-democratic stances, and disregard of the needs and desires of the American people.  From paying attention to hearings and interviews, Susan suggested a few who could do the job:  Jamie Raskin, AOC, Katie Porter, and Maxwell Frost as excellent defenders who could also take the offense.  I would add:  the other members of the Squad, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, John Fetterman, Kamala Harris, Sherod Brown, and Jeff Merkley, and on the state level, Govs. Shapiro, Whitmer,  and Newsome.     

For some reason, and it is not clear why, Democrats have permitted Republicans to define the issues and take their positions so Dems have to defend even the status quo, as with Social Security and Medicare which should be off the table altogether.  That constant defensive posture does not allow our society to progress into the modern world where global warming and scared men in power present hazards we must confront as a nation not as individuals. 

President Biden is, in my view, an excellent executive but he is not the one to lead the charge.  He needs to be running and steering the ship of democracy while others plan and with his help carry out the moves needed to get people to pay attention, to want to help, and to feel needed as efforts are made to improve life for all here and possibly throughout the world.  Democrats must be able to distract the American people from petty whining, turning on neighbors they neither know or understand, and give folks a realistic positive mission that matters and can be accomplished.

The mission should include, but not be limited to getting huge corporations under control:  paying their fair share of taxes, breaking up monopolies and trusts to make a more fair playing field, looking at copywrite and patent laws to see what is actually fair and what is cheating to keep more money in the corporate coffers, even after the American people have already paid much of the cost of product development (as with drugs and vaccines for example).  We could also push for innovation and have more monetary awards to encourage innovation, particularly related to global warming, developing new manufacturing techniques and materials, and helping all people to be able to take advantage of modern technology. 

Another issue to target is health care for all, a bit at a time perhaps, making sure there are proper staffing to patient ratios. ending insurance cheating, keeping rural hospitals and hospitals in mid-sized urban areas open and well-staffed.  This could include paying for medical and nursing school for people willing to work in challenging areas of medicine like geriatrics, general medicine, rural patient care, online medicine, and vaccine research.  Getting universities and colleges on board would be huge, providing a certain number of full scholarships for medical and nursing students from low income families, say 12 of every 100 students to start with until a full program can be in place to cover the costs for all students in training for medical careers (that could work for educators too).  Democrats on the offensive line could demand necessary staff to patient/resident ratios in hospitals, nursing homes, and other care facilities by graphically describing the results of such understaffing on patients and residents. 

Then there's immigration. We need to hear and read more stories about the ways immigrants have made and are making a positive difference in communities all across this country.  The border needs to be staffed with people who actually care about the immigrants, the challenges they have faced trying to get here, and ways they will need help to complete the process to remain in the US.  The immigration staff as well as the immigrants need sufficient resources to accomplish this successfully and as painlessly as possible.  Democrats need to loudly call for expedited paths to citizenship for those who want to pursue that route:  DACA young people, immigrants who have lived in this country at least 5 years for whatever reason, and asylum-seekers and refugees who simply can't return to their homelands due to fear for their lives.  There should be a small fee involved so the immigrant can feel that they have paid some dues and fully belong.  These reforms would stop some of the fear and blackmail that has stalked immigrants for decades.  Dumping ICE would be a good move too and Dems can explain why in normal people language.

Right now we have a thriving economy, yet somehow people don't realize it, mostly because the media mentions it only in passing or with surprise each month when they don't get to tell everyone how bad things are.  The economy's success could be the spark that can move the offense down the field if Democratic leaders step forward and run with the ball (OK, a football metaphor, I’m sure you get the idea). 

Dems need a strong message with a snappy phrase or statement that is shared among all the players so people will get the fact that something positive is happening.  Republicans have used phrases like “Morning in America” for Reagan, but there wasn’t much of a morning for working people, unions, or struggling Americans.  George H.W. Bush used “a thousand points of light” but those lights were not for people of color or for working families either.  Trump’s slogan was and is “Make America Great Again (MAGA) which tells us all exactly what is meant (rich, white, straight, pseudo-Christian men should rule and the rest of us are just here to be used and abused by that particular type of men, the way Republicans imagine it used to be.  Democrats can do better:  more inclusive, upbeat,  a phrase that is the cue that everyone is on the offense for a change.  Alas, I don’t have the gift of coming up with such a phrase, but I know there are folks out there who can.   

It might be entertaining to watch Republicans trying to defend their appalling positions on all kinds of issues, none of which help anyone but themselves and their rich white donors when they have to defend them at every turn.  Republicans have not really been expected to seriously defend anything for years, maybe decades (“I’m pro-life” or “I’m a Bible man” or “I like guns”).  They just act and We the People have to clean up the inevitable messes.  Democrats have been forced to get around abortion bans of all kinds, even illegal state laws, before Roe v. Wade was overturned by the Trump Supreme Court.  Fighting book bans is wasteful in addition to being against the 1^st Amendment, but beginning over a century ago, conservatives and now Republicans in particular, have tried to dictate what people can read, send through the mail, even at times purchase in stores, all based on their own biases and all against free speech, but Republicans can lie, insult, threaten, and don’t want anyone criticizing them because what they are saying/texting is free speech, right?  Nonsense! 

OK Dems, you know who and what the opposition is and the task ahead.  Let's do it!  Let’s win one for the nation! 

ORIGINALISM – SAY WHAT!

By Ruth A. Sheets

I don’t remember when I first heard the term “originalism” but I believe it was AROUND 2000.  The Supreme Court was arguing cases and some justices were claiming that their positions on issues were totally determined by “originalism.”

Justice Antonin Scalia was asked what it meant and said the Constitution should be read the way the founders intended it.  Even then, I was sure that was nonsense, but that supposed learned justice was spouting it as though it actually meant something and We the People should swallow something the founders didn’t even believe. 

Over the years, I have been paying attention to cases and how the “conservative” justices argued their positions.  I read summaries of several cases and noticed a few, rather obvious things about what the justices really meant by “originalism,” and the realities of 1787.

1. First, they ignored the variety of opinions and positions held by the members of the Constitutional Convention.  There was a lot of compromise going on to try to accommodate that range of opinions.  The originalists act as though the founders spoke in one voice.  They didn’t. 

2. At the time our Constitution was written, the only people who had any power at all were rich/propertied white men.  The members were very well educated for the time, but most of the population was not. 

3. Science was rather “limited” back then.  Only a few of the elements that were not useful metals had been identified and some of their properties known.  Observers were just beginning to get a sense of how weather happens.  They knew little of how the earth works or how diseases were spread.  Beyond what they needed to know to travel on the water and catch fish and whales, the oceans were a total mystery.  

4. Some of the founders were Christian, but several considered themselves deists who believed God had created the world and stepped back to let it develop as it would.  Members like George Washington believed religion was personal and not to be established in any way.  Most of the founders believed there must be freedom of religion included in the Constitution.  It was done through the Bill of Rights in 1791. 

5. Education beyond basic reading, writing, and arithmetic was reserved for the privileged white men of the time.  It would be decades before any women or people of color would be able to attend schools providing higher education.  A couple of indigenous men had attended Harvard briefly before the American Revolution, but that’s it for non-white-male persons.  Education emphasis now is very different from what the founders received.  They studied philosophy, religion (Christianity), Greek, Latin, the classics, some mathematics, rhetoric, and writing/composition.  Even conservatives now would not see that as the education they would want for themselves or their children 

6. Women provided most of the medical care at the time of the founding.  They were midwives who knew the use of herbs and other things used to provide care.  Women delivered babies, helped with abortions, cared for injuries, etc.  This woman-centered medicine was overtaken and dismissed as men wanted power in a medical “profession,” beginning in the mid-1800s.  Those men pushed for laws to make abortion illegal in some places to diminish the role of midwives, not because they had any religious objections. 

7. The founders only wanted propertied white men to vote because they thought no one else had the integrity, intelligence, or ability to understand the Constitution (or anything else). 

8. Technology was basic.  The Industrial Revolution was getting wound up.  Large scale manufacturing was just starting in Britain.  Here most production was on a small scale, often home industries by families.  The vast majority of the people lived on farms, working the land.  The economy was rather limited. 

9. In short any honest comparison between life 236 years ago and now is interesting, but nearly irrelevant.  Even the founders’ thinking about the world was quite different.  I suspect the average 12-year-old today has more awareness of the world than most of the founders.  That is not an insult on the founders, but the fact that so much more is known now.  Through technology and public education, children are exposed to and astounding amount of information.  

Justice Scalia claimed he could understand the founders and knew what they wanted for this nation.  However, he voted for Citizens United which said money is speech and corporations or practically anyone else could give as much money to candidates or their campaigns as they chose.  There is no way any of the founders would have said money is speech or would have publicly approved of buying elections.

 When writing to overturn Roe v. Wade, Justice Alito didn’t know or care that abortion was legal nearly everywhere in America at the time the Constitution was written.  He had to turn to a 17^th Century misogynistic English witch-hunter to find someone who was extremely opposed to abortion to cite.  So much for originalism.  Chief Justice Roberts should have sent Alito back to do his homework, or rather the Chief could have done his, to see that the justices had no grounds to allow abortion to be made illegal anywhere in this country on originalist grounds.

 There was no “affirmative action” in 1787 so it must not be acceptable in 2023.  Of course there was no affirmative action back then because only rich white men and their proteges went to college.  They were already affirmed and didn’t need action on their behalf.

 There are a lot of cases this year coming before the SC.  With at least Alito, Thomas, and possibly Roberts claiming to be originalists, it will be interesting to see which rights they are willing to take away from Americans and what kinds of arguments they will claim for the founders so they can use them to justify their positions.  What I have noticed, the claim of originalism in reality is the excuse given to make one’s own personal selfish beliefs law or overturn a properly passed law. 

Hey, now, the SC can take on cases that aren’t even real cases, but made up by someone with some kind of hypothetical situation the justices can rule on as they did this year related to a website owner who didn’t want to make wedding sites for same-sex couples when no such couples had ever even approached the person to make one, in fact the plaintiff didn’t even have a website business up and operating.  The founders would never have thought such cheating to impose one’s own religious beliefs acceptable.  Our Supreme Court 6 thought it just fine.  

 Six of the current justices have a deep belief that their interpretation of the law permits them to overturn precedent, ignore the desire of the American people, and ignore the critical elements of our democracy, even our Constitution.  They have said for example, that gerrymandering is OK if it is political.  What!  Gerrymandering started after the Constitution was ratified and most of the founders would not have permitted that kind of cheating, but our current court thinks it’s OK.  The SC has permitted people or other entities with no standing to bring cases to the Court, that is if the 6 justices want to make changes to the law the case would allow.  The 6 want to rule in America when they have not been elected, have no term limits, and can act illegally with impunity because Republicans would never impeach one of the guys needed to undermine our democracy, no matter what that justice has done, ala Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and the other justices who have received “rewards” from folks with cases before the court.  I want to know which founder would have approved that.

 We don’t live as the people of 1787 lived.  We mostly don’t use outhouses, don’t take a full day to travel 20 miles or a month to travel to Europe, and now have technology the founders could not possibly have dreamed of.  Since we don’t live as the founders did, don’t have their world view, have expanded rights to all citizens, even who is a citizen, why would anyone think pretending we can know what the founders intended  236 years ago could matter legally today?  It shouldn’t, and we must call them out on it when they claim that is what they are doing!  They’re not!

FOR THE LOVE OF CHILDREN

By Ruth A. Sheets

For decades, I have heard people say “children are our greatest resource” or “Children are our greatest treasure” or “Our children are our legacy.”  Statements like these or ones like them often seem to flow from the mouths of people whose actions don’t seem to match their words, making it appear they don’t really value children very highly.  Are the speakers lying?  I suspect sometimes they are deliberately lying or misleading others.  However, I also think many believe they are telling the truth, do believe they love children, but are rarely challenged on their statement-action mismatch.

What does the love of children look like today in our modern world?  Obviously that depends on who is being asked, but for many children, it is not looking too good.  I suspect there are some basic things every person could or should agree upon as critical elements of life for every child, not only for one’s own.

These are a few I think are a good start.

1. Loved children are wanted and have adults who care for them providing for basic needs as well as all the love and care needed for the child/children to survive.  This includes appropriate food, clothing, shelter, communication, medical care, etc.
2. Loved children are respected and supported for who they are and not forced to be like their parents, siblings, friends, or anyone else.  They are given the right amount of attention for their age and level of development. 
3. Loved children are taught to think of others, not just themselves and their wants.  They are taught manners that help them function in society when around other people and personal integrity is regularly modeled for them.
4. Education is critical for loved children, education that includes their story as well as the stories of others.  The education should be broad and exploratory as much as possible, taught by strong, well-trained teachers in well-maintained and resourced settings as well as in their homes by caring informed parents.
5. Positive moral, social-emotional education is part of the child’s upbringing at all levels. 
6. Loved children are not abused, hit, beaten, starved, imprisoned, tried as adults, left homeless or abandoned.
7. Efforts are made for loved children to discover their gifts and talents and intentionally develop them.
8. Positive critique is owed loved children and negative criticism should be specific, appropriate,  and infrequent.
9. Loved children are seen and heard and appreciated.

After reading this list, one might think it is impossible for parents and teachers to do all these things with and for children.  That is true.  Perfection is not possible, but children don’t need perfection, they need love and the knowledge that they are valued and worthy of parents’ and society’s best efforts on their behalf.  And that’s the other element in the process, community, society.  We the People have a joint responsibility to see that to the best of our ability, we provide for the children of our society and help provide for the children of the world. 

We know parents and teachers can’t do the work by themselves, but both should be given the resources they can’t themselves provide, like funds for decent housing, food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medical care, and the rest.  Children and teachers also need a school building that is not infested with animals and mold that don’t belong there for health reasons.  They need curricula and books of all kinds where children can see people like themselves and a wide range of others represented. 

A significant percentage of our society has decided they can force women to give birth whether they want to, are financially capable, or are sufficiently healthy  to have a child.  They have fetishized fetuses and claim the needs of children when they are born are the total responsibility of the parents no matter their health or economic status.  In fact, they don’t actually care about the woman while pregnant with the “precious” fetus, just that she must give birth to it.  They care nothing for the mother after the birth happens either, unless, of course it is they or someone they care about who is involved.  Despite their “love” language, it seems there is little or nothing behind the talk.  Maybe they can bestow that “love” on their own children, but have nothing left over for anyone else’s child.  That would mean only my child deserves my love.  Those other kids can get the love of their parents and if they have enough love, it won’t matter that they have no home, no food, no appropriate clothing, no heat, no funds, inferior schools. 

What happens when those forced-birth children begin to grow up and despite their parents’ love, don’t have the resources they need and develop chronic illnesses, but have no money to cover the medical costs?  Are they to just suffer and die?  Do the conservatives who control most of our state legislatures even care?  My answer is “naturally, they don’t.”  I do wish they would prove me wrong about this. 

I am not a parent, so I don’t have the direct knowledge of the day to day struggles of parents, trying to do their best for their children, often on a very limited budget.  I do have extensive experience with children, though.  I began babysitting from age 8 (parents can’t leave kids with 8-year-old babysitters anymore, but I was a good one, only sticking my little sister with a diaper pin once).  I was a nanny for 2 years and volunteered in a kindergarten during college breaks and when unemployed.  I have marvelous nieces and nephews whom I care deeply for.  Then, there are my students.  For 26 years I taught the most amazing children and young adults, grades kindergarten through 12.  My experiences taught me the value, challenge, joy, and wonder of children. 

I learned that at various times in the past, up to 50% of children died before reaching age 5.  That was due to diseases, terrible living conditions, lack of food, racism, neglect, and other factors.  There are people who want to take this country (not themselves) back to those times.   That is simply insane when we have terrific medical procedures available so we don’t have to lose the lives of mothers and children in pregnancy and birth.  Girls and women don’t have to carry the fetus of their rapist or incestor now, but many white men and some women in power want them to, even 10-year-olds!  Where is the love?  I am just not feeling it, probably because it isn’t there.  It is easy to say “I just love children so much.”  It is much harder to show it.  

We need to elect more people to office who actually do care about children, who don’t assume every challenge a child has is due to parents’ behavior or neglect.  Leaders need to believe women should have the right to bodily autonomy without state interference, and want all children to succeed, not just the rich white ones.  Such candidates would stand for

Excellent, well-maintained  schools with curricula based on critical thinking, problem-solving, and exploration rather than test scores.

• Families that have a place to live, good food to eat, clothing appropriate to the season and situation, books of all kinds to read and extra help if that reading does not come easily,
• Opportunities for good jobs that pay well for parents as well as for the young people as they come of age. 
• Guns should be taken off the streets because guns are the primary cause of death for children in this country. 
• Positive stories about children should regularly be in the media. 
• Regular voluntary classes should be offered for parents on various topics related to parenting with no stigma attached to parents who choose to attend.

• There is a lot we could do and not all of it extremely expensive.  Some will be costly:  housing for families, money for food, clothing, and utilities.  We could take about 10% of the current Pentagon budget to help with those programs.  The Pentagon can’t even account for what it spends now and would never miss it. 

In short, how much do we love our children.  The answer to that will  come down to how much we are willing to support families with children and stay out of women’s decisions about family planning.  Fathers, and men in general can stand up for women’s right to make her own reproductive decisions as men already have the right to make their own.  It’s time we actually prove we love children, all of them, not just our own or ones like us.  If we say we love children, our actions on behalf of children must match our words.

WHO OR WHAT IS WORKING IN US – OR WHO OPERATES OUR MORAL COMPASS?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Recently, a New Testament scripture reading was mine to consider for a sermon I was preparing.  As supply pastor, I use the Common Lectionary for developing worship services and sermons for the churches where I substitute. 

In this particular reading from Philippians, there is a note implying that God is at work in the members of the church at Philippi.  It occurred to me to wonder, how does the writer know that?  Christians believe that God is ever-present, but that does not necessarily mean that such presence guarantees that what is at work in a person, one’s motivation is what one says it is. 

Whether one professes a formal faith or not, there should be some kind of guiding essence that lets one know what is the right thing to do in a given situation, one’s inspiration.  I like to think of it as our moral compass.  There should always be a “needle” pointing “North” so it is possible to get direction and perhaps some clarity as to why we have made the decision we chose. 

It seems to me we all should be checking out our moral compass or code of ethics to see what is guiding our lives, regular check-ups.  Certainly, something is doing the guiding so it is a good idea to know just what that is.  Our actions are probably the best indicators of our guiding forces, so it behooves us to pay attention to what we say we stand for and what we do about it. 

Are there words that give us pause and if used in connection with particular actions could help us know if we need to step away from an action or decision, offer an apology, or work to make amends?  Some that come to my mind include:  selfishness, anger, fear, resentment, hatred, unkindness, greed, dismissal, pain.  Those words can be innocuous in certain situations.  For example, sometimes we need to be selfish if we are being overworked, if we are ill, or if our family needs us.  However if we are doing things that could harm others because we think we have a right to do it or because it feels good to us, it might not be an action that matches our ethics.  Anger can do damage, but can also be a motivator pushing us to act on behalf of ourselves and others to right wrongs, to change an abusive situation, to secure rights for those who have been denied them.  I suspect resentment, greed, and hatred have few if any positive outcomes.

Other words can let us know something positive is involved in our ethical considerations.  They may be pointing us in the way our moral compass would direct.   A few of my favorites are love, joy, respect, care, peace, gratitude, honesty, kindness, integrity, listening, understanding, knowledge, and generosity.  If I think, is peace somewhere in my action and the answer comes back “yes,” I am pretty sure I am at least moving in the right direction.  Then I need to ask, is this a positive peace or an imposed peace?

A number of things that have arisen lately in our politics and community life have led me to look at what it is that motivates our actions and that this is a critical issue.  Every day, decisions are being made that impact one to millions of people and the judgement used in considering each decision is often shaped by news media, social media, religious pronouncements, money, power, and numerous other factors which can do damage and are often not challenged. 

We the People of the United States are now dealing with a political party, Republican, that does not seem to have our Constitution, our people, or anything else recognizable guiding its significant decisions.  It is unclear what they stand for and they don’t seem to be in any hurry to let anyone in on the “secret.”  Shutting down our government if they don’t get what they want seems to be a go-to attempt at motivating themselves and their supporters, but the end game is unclear. 

The Supreme Court’s 2023-24 term opened yesterday and it has agreed to take on many cases that could do tremendous damage to our democracy.  The feeding court is the 5^th Circuit, an extreme collection of judges who think they have the right to take away people’s rights just because they are judges and for life.  One of the judges declared a safe abortion and miscarriage drug illegal.  He has no medical background, will never be pregnant, yet he thinks he has the right to make such a decision over ruling our FDA which does have medical experience and approved the drug more than 20 years ago knowing it had another 10+ years of high safety around the world.  Now, the SC gets to decide the legality of an extremely safe FDA-approved drug, also with no medical knowledge.  Because a bunch of conservatives don’t want women to be able to obtain abortions, the SC can outlaw a very safe drug?  How did anyone have standing to bring such a case in the first place?  The misogynists who brought the case, judge-shopped to find someone ignorant and misogynistic enough to be used?  What is the guiding force, the magnet that draws the moral compass needle?  It is probably a hatred or fear of women, but who will admit that.  What happens if the Supreme Court agrees with the ignorant Texas judge and outlaws Mifepristone?  What drugs will other folks want banned and for what reason?  Should anyone go along with such a decision by the SC that has at best, no honest reason?  Those of us who have a moral compass that says women have the right to make their own reproductive decisions will say, “no” the SC has overstepped.  The decision has not yet been made, but it is coming.

A case the SC will hear this week is whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is legal.  What!  Congress passed this protection agency to help consumers who were taken advantage of by predatory banks and other financial institutions like credit card corporations and payday lenders.  Those payday landers who have an extreme history of cheating and overcharging desperate, mostly poor customers brought the case.  How can the CFPB be illegal when the payday lender reverse Robin Hood actions in poor communities are considered legal?  The excuse for getting rid of the agency is that it is funded by financial institutions and should be paid for by annual congressional appropriations.  What a bunch of nonsense, but the SC conservatives have proven over and over they care nothing for what the American people want or need.  Only rich white folks and corporations’ desires count.  We get the motivation of the payday lenders:  greed, power, and more greed.  What is the motivation of the SC conservative justices?  Is it also greed, power, bribes, and more greed with a lifetime appointment power cherry on top? 

Nearly all the actors in these cases and in the Republican party in general claim to be Christian, but it is not clear Christian principles are involved in the functioning of their decision-making.  Lying is one of the “Thou shalt nots” included in the Ten Commandments, but despite Republican professed love for the Ten Commandments and the desire by many to post them in courthouses, schools, and other public buildings, lying is a major item in the Republican toolbox and is wielded daily, often, hourly with little or no challenge by their fellow conservative Christians.  When lying is a “coin of the Republican realm,” what is the Party’s inspiration?  

Perhaps it will help if We the People start demanding that our candidates identify at least some of the factors that are guiding their current actions and what they are likely to do when in office.  However, just saying “I’m Christian” or Jewish or something else is not sufficient.  Ask for their 5 top principles for living.  Then, when they do not even try to live those principles they claimed to hold dear, call them out on it.  We have come to expect so little of our representatives at all levels they don’t seem to feel they need to even have a moral compass that they follow, they go with whatever way the wind is blowing.  Lying, misdirecting, and gaslighting   are just what they do. 

We must demand more of ourselves and more of those people we elect to represent us.  Things will not improve by themselves because when no moral compass is functioning for an entire major political party, we all suffer.  We must expect better and demand it. 

9/11, WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

By Ruth A. Sheets

Twenty-two years ago today, the United States was attacked by terrorists from various nations, all trained and organized to pull off the attack over months, perhaps years.  As so often happens, disgruntled young men were recruited by an angry older guy to do his dirty work.  To make it palatable to the young men, the acts were tied to religion, in this case, Islam.  If certain people are told they would get a great reward in heaven if they did enormous damage to the richest most powerful country in the world, they would jump at the chance.  There may have been some drugs involved to sweeten the pot and make death seem acceptable.

 That morning was the first day of school of the 2001-02 school year for our district.  I don’t remember the reason for the delay, but my office was told we were moving upstairs to a new spot.  I was in the midst of carrying a box of resource materials down the hall when I heard one of the teachers say that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City.  It didn’t fully register at that moment so I kept moving (plus the box was heavy).  On my next trip, I stopped at the door of the teacher who had told us earlier.  She said it was on the news and was real, and that a second plane had hit the other tower. 

One of my colleagues’ father worked in a building near the towers and she began trying to reach him, an effort that would go on all day.  Just before we left for the day, she got through and found out he was OK.  The people in his building had gotten out in time. There was a collective sigh of relief from everyone, but it was also clear our lives would never be the same after that day.  We had no idea how much things would change, and we would learn quite a bit in a short time.

Two planes hit New York City.  The third hijacked plane hit the Pentagon and a fourth was taken down by passengers in Western Pennsylvania before it could hit a building in Washington, DC.  This was an attack against the United States on American soil and we needed a response.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have a president who had sufficient experience to handle the situation.  He learned that the attackers had been trained in Afghanistan, so the response should be, attack Afghanistan.  Most of us knew very little about that nation, except many considered it backward with little to recommend it.  So, for 21 years, we tried to do something in Afghanistan, but for the most part it was unclear just what the mission was.  A lot of people died for the mission, though, and it is pretty clear things there are not much better for the effort. 

Lesson 1, think carefully before attacking a whole nation you know nothing about. 

George W. Bush, as president and Rudy Giuliani as Mayor of New York City were suddenly heroes.  I still don’t understand what made them heroes.  Bush made a nice speech about people staying calm and not blaming people here for what was done by others, than did a lot of things to do just that.  Giuliani showed up at “Ground Zero” for photo ops, but what did they really do? 

Lesson 2:  Heroes are people who actually do something to help.  Take care who you have as heroes.  It would have been better to pass by Bush and Giuliani and go right to the fire-fighters and many others who helped in the rescue and clean-up and make sure they are not forgotten later when their health proved to have been compromised.  We already think of the passengers of flight 93 that crashed their plane where it would cause less loss of life as heroes. 

I remember early on that the Bush administration was blaming former President Clinton for what happened.  Bush had been in office for nearly 8 months, but somehow the attack was Clinton’s fault.  All flights were stopped, except maybe for certain Saudi family members, friends of the Bushes who just had to get out of the US. 

Lesson 3:  It is worth the time and effort to learn what actually happened before pointing the finger at someone hoping you won’t be accused of not doing your job.  The 9/11 Commission did get some answers but it is unclear how many of their recommendations were seriously considered and employed.

Any man with dark hair and a beard was looked at suspiciously and just happened to be the ones who got extra checks and pat-downs by the newly installed TSA folks at airports.  Muslims in general were targeted because we were reminded every day, every newscast that the hijackers were Muslims, implying to many, of course, that any Muslim would do the same thing if they got the chance.  Twenty-two years later and Muslims are still seen by many as threats and not really Americans even when they were born here. 

Lesson 4:  blaming people for things just because they are of the same religion, race, gender, etc. is cowardly and hurtful, and does nothing to make a situation any better, and is particularly egregious when it is the media or prominent persons doing the blaming.

President Bush was looking for a way to get the US involved in Iraq, probably from Inauguration Day.  He and his “team” began introducing the concept of Iraq as enemy in 2002.  Somehow, Iraq was subtly mentioned just before or after a story about 9/11.  Even though there was no connection whatever, people started believing there was.  Then came the word that Saddam Husein was producing “weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).”  A lot of people, including our intelligence community knew that was a lie, but as employees of our government, I guess, were not willing to say much publicly.  Bush even got our Secretary of State, Colin Powell to lie for him that the WMDs were a fact.  I read that Congress was given all kinds of special meetings to support what the administration was saying and too many members believed the administration.  Why would Bush, Powell, and the rest of their team lie about something so important?  We ended up at war in Iraq before Afghanistan was settled. 

Lesson 5:  Congress should never give carte blanche to any president when it comes to going to war if we have not been attacked, unless there is overwhelming proof from an independent source that an attack is imminent.  A lot of Americans and Iraqis died or were injured because of a lie.  More than 20 years later, Iraq is still suffering from our poorly planned and executed intervention, and so are we.

After 9/11 Americans were terrified that another attack could come at any time, and the Bush administration was perfectly happy to keep that fear going.  In “response,” they made a new department, Homeland Security (DHS) that was supposed to combine all the parts of the government that “keep this nation safe” into one broad entity that had enormous powers.  The Administration claimed it was poor communication among agencies that kept Bush et al from knowing the attack was coming.  (The truth seems to be they ignored the information given.)  The Patriot Act was approved by a Republican Congress and signed quickly by a Republican president that wanted the extra anti-privacy powers the Act permitted.  Then, there’s ICE (Immigration  and Customs Enforcement) which has committed appalling crimes against humanity since its inception, yet it still exists. 

Lesson 6:  Whenever a new department or agency is created in our federal government, there must be an evaluation period of say 10 or 12 years to see if the department has actually done the job it was set to do and if it improved the situation it was “designed” to correct.  If not, the department/agency should be dissolved.  Nearly 20 years later, it seems to me the jury is still out on DHS and any evaluations of its performance have been minor and easily dismissed.

What have we as a nation learned?  That is uncertain and probably depends on who is answering.  I would say the above are lessons we should or could have learned, but it is unclear that we have or even want to consider them. 

It will be interesting to see how 9/11 is commemorated this year, what kinds of ceremonies.  We must remember that anyone younger than 27 years or so will have little or no memory of the event.  How will they be included if at all? 

What will we, as a people, remember collectively about 9/11?  Will it be the actual event, where we were when we heard about it?  Previous to 9/11, only a rare person imagined someone would fly planes into buildings deliberately.  Now we know it could happen and that has changed our lives individually and as a nation.  Will we remember the ordinary people going about their jobs that morning or will they be just part of the falling towers?  Will we remember the fire-fighters who didn’t know what was about to happen when they started running up the stairs in the towers, hoping to stop the disaster when the collapse of buildings attacked in such a way was a given? 

We are likely to remember the passengers who forced the plane down in Pennsylvania instead of its intended destination.  Service members’ as well as civilian lives were lost at the Pentagon which will be remembered for at least a while.  Will the passengers and crews on the crashed planes be remembered?  The various memorials may help us remember, but did we learn these or other positive lessons we can take into the future?  I suppose only time will tell.