A citizen's duty...

Putting pressure on our Members of Congress is our duty as citizens of the United States. If the overwhelming majority want quality healthcare for everyone, putting pen to paper is the way to insist that our Senators and Representatives honor us and act on our behalf. If they do represent us, we are actually the ones who hold the power at the ballot box. It is our responsibility to act.
Sent March 31, 2017

"NO WALL"

Taking money, jobs, and security from working Americans to build a wall does not pencil out as a good idea. Trump has no interest in keeping Mexican workers out of the United States. What he is really doing is using our tax dollars to pad the pockets of private companies to build the wall for profit.

I do not want my taxes wasted on a wall and I do not want our government to support the wealthy at our expense. Those are messages we need to be sending to every person in our government, from the city all the way to the White House. Get some postcards and let your congress people know, "No wall!"
Sent March 30, 2017

Water protection....

Protecting our water and air is going to be the biggest justice battle we will ever fight. Every time you buy water in a plastic, single use bottle, privatization of our water is handed a bonus. It will be so easy to stop this and other public raids if we remain conscious and vigilant in our choices. Just imagine a day when the only water available to us comes in single use plastic bottles.
Sent March 29, 2017

We are not alone!

The take-away for today is: I will not give up and I am not alone.

Said a bit differently: We are not alone and we will prevail.

Our task is to remember this. Put our shoulders back, squeeze our gluts, and raise our hands in solidarity. We are not small!
Sent March 28, 2017

"Shock Doctrine", beware...

Take some time to inform yourself about Naomi Klein's "The Shock Doctrine" and how it was used to overthrow stable governments in South America. The theory was promoted by Milton Freidman who went around the world looking for countries to try out his pure capitalism theory as a governmental system. No one seemed too interested, but, in the 1970's, with U.S. military help, three countries in South America were overthrown and completely privatized. Remember the 1970's?) Freidman was ecstatic as the governmental systems collapsed and were remade in his image. The outcome: mass poverty, killings, disappearances, torture, joblessness, governmental profiteering and corruption. Every thing was privatized including schools that were made into for-profit systems that were voucher driven. Sound familiar?

I am not by nature a conspiracy theorist, but I am learning things that cannot be ignored.
Sent March 27, 2017

Tax dollars for Flint, Michigan...

A big "Thank you," to Former President Barak Obama for his generous $100 million EPA grant for the people of Flint, Michigan to clean up their catastrophic water system. I am proud to have my tax dollars used to help people all across our nation.
Sent March 25, 2017

Enviroment, a waste of money?

How can anyone say protecting our environment is a "waste of money"? This is our home, it needs to be a safe and fertile place for everyone to live.

I think what he means is, our government spending the money is the problem. His intent is to turn over the care of our planet to private corporations, like the fossil fuel industry fracking our Earth's structure and contaminating our aquifer; or the extraction industries which lay waste to the land and have employees dying of black lung; or the forestry companies that would indiscrimintely level our public forests.

I want my tax dollars spent on helping the Earth recover from the exploitation of its most invasive species.
Sent March 25, 2017

Shopping....

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks, President George Bush told us to just "go shopping". That was a jaw-dropping moment for me. Apparently, that would keep us busy and not asking questions.

I once read that in all governmental structures there is a bludgeon to keep the people from getting out of control. The bludgeon list includes threats, ostracism, beatings, incarceration, torture, burning at the stake, genocide, and "disappearing".

"Ah," you say, "We don't have any of that in the U.S." We actually do, but that will be another postcard. What we do have is entertainment. We are kept entertained with sports, TV, outrageous news, working long hours, and shopping. As long as we are busy and happy, we won't be asking the question, "What is really going on here?" It is almost as if we don't really want to know. What would happen if we suddenly stopped being pacified by shopping?
Sent March 24, 2017

Betrayal...

History shows that presidential agendas have to be activated within a year of taking office. That means we have to sustain our resistance for about nine more months. We must stay focused and steady, with our eyes on the kind of world we want for our children.

Keep in mind that Trump's agenda is to privatize our entire governmental system and turn over all of our education, social, health, and infrastructure business to private corporations to run for their own profit.

I know that makes me sound like the radical, but do you want to ignore this and take the risk of it actually happening? Stay informed (not fake or alternate information) and stay focused on what is really happening in Washington.
Sent March 23, 2017

The microwave? Again?

It is this sort of thing that scares me more than anything else on the list. It is so distracting and so trivializing, that we jump into the fray and use up all our energy. All the while, behind the scenes our schools are being privatized, our health care is being taken away, services for the poor, elderly, and mentally ill are defunded, our environment is being exploited, and we are upset because Trump and Company accuse Obama of wiretapping with appliances.

Get over it. Set your sights on what you care most about and do something.
Sent March 22, 2017

Geez... Just noticed I have sent this postcard twice. Guess I am too focused on the microwave! Sorry, D

The budget....

This budget will drastically change life as we know it and do it for the profit of the few. Picture a world where corporations are making profits from educating our children, cutting our forests, mining our natural areas, fracking for extraction of fuel with no concern about our water, increasing the cost and availability of our healthcare, and fewer services for seniors, youth, low income, and mentally ill. In addition the money for community arts, music, accurate news will disappear.

If you care about these things, we need to act... and soon!
Sent March 21, 2017

The microwave?

Forgive me. I couldn't resist this "drop-my-jaw" response to the accusation against former President Obama. The fiery rhetoric that flies out of Washington, without a shred of evidence, is mind boggling and exhausting. We have to laugh, or we will lose our focus and the energy to stand firm. Keep calm, keep focused, and keep your sense of humor.
Sent March 20,2017

Moral guide...

I would hope that most people fall into this last category. I think we need to ask, "Why?" more often than we say, "Yes, sir, or yes, ma'am." We are skeptical and hesitant to mindlessly obey. I come from a long line of people who follow their moral guides and none of us have ended up in jail.
Sent March 18, 2017

True heroes...

These brave officers did not shoot first and ask questions later. They wanted the questions answered first. It took uncommon courage to respond to the human behind the gun, rather than to the gun.

Still, local people of color feel singled out. When will we all learn to see the people inside the skin as no different than ourselves?
Sent March 18, 2017

A prayer...

We can claim to be a Christian, or Muslim, or Jew, or Buddhist, or Bahá'í, but to be convincing we must live the life of that faith. Our words and deeds define us more clearly than the labels we apply to ourselves.
Sent March 17, 2017

Hoarding profits...

This may be our single most important battle. I liken it to hoarding where people cannot let go of anything. Only this hoarding is seen in how the Trump administration is allowing extraction, timber, and grazing interests to exploit the Earth with no care for the future. It is almost as if they think their billions of dollars will give them a shield from the climate devastation. There is no concern for you or me, or the animals, or the seas, or the air, or the beauty, or anything but what goes into their own pockets. Now, that's scary.
Sent March 16, 2017

Modern healthcare...

As Trump recently said, universal healthcare is the answer. Payroll deductions will pay for it, a non-profit system will cut the profit layer, and it will be accessible for everyone. It is what the rest of the modern world has. Why do we promote a system that has to be earned instead of having it for everyone as a right?

Let's join the modern world.
Sent March 15

A very real sin...

Don't say you are Christian to appease your constituency if you are not willing to act like one. There are few things that I categorize as sinful, but this is one.
Sent March 14, 2017

Fear is what we should fear...

It seems fear is driving everything we hear and read. Here are some statistics from CDC that you might find interesting. I guess we only really have to fear each other or.... fear itself.
Sent March 13 2017

The Old Woods, a poem...

Dale Willey published his book of poems in 2001, sixteen years ago. Timely then, it is even more prophetic now, in 2017. Our air, water, and our very lives are at risk from people who do not believe the prevailing science of our environment. The error in believing that carbon pollution has no effect on the Earth has monumental consequences if we are wrong.

Do the research. Find what you can do to lower your footprint on the Earth. There is no error in making changes to protect our future, only in staying a course because of belief.
Sent March 11, 2017

Wash your mouth out...

When your base begins losing their respect for you, it is a difficult thing to earn back. It is far better to behave in a way that shows respect and earns respect. A good place to start is to clean up what comes out of your mouth.
Sent March 11, 2017

Truth is who we are...

There is an old saying from my family, "Once burned, twice cautious."

If my word is not true, anything I say becomes suspect. And, if I persist in telling falsehoods, skewed information, and alternative facts, all that I say is believed false. That is a hard spot to recover from.

Our credibility and trust depends on accuracy and truth.
Sent March 10,2017

Let's give PEACE a chance...

What has happened to us? After the last two World Wars, the Vietnam War, and the Middle East War, you would think we would have figured out that our best strategy would be Peace. Unfortunately, Peace does not make money for the Military Industrial Complex. As long as the arms industry is in the back pocket of Washington, there is no hope for peace. In the Iraq war, there have been 4,491 U.S. military deaths up to 2014 and "174,000 Iraqis reported killed between 2003 and 2013, with approximately 112,000-123,000 of those killed being civilian noncombatants." Isn't it time to give peace a chance.
Sent March 9, 2017

What is our environment worth?

Scraping the EPA is a sure-fire way to increase profits of extraction corporations. If anyone believes this is a good idea for us and our children, just think about Flint, Michigan.
Sent March 8, 2017

Where the buck stops....

Blaming is a childhood game. "It wasn't me," hopes to deflect attention from the reality of what is happening. We need to keep our eyes peeled and not be distracted by blame, lies, and alternative facts.
Sent March 7, 2017

Who are you working for?

It is hard to imagine that I have to write this sort of thing. For a long time the wealthy have been catered to by Washington. But now, it is blatant and threatening. Who will stand up for us, the hard working people of the United States, if we don't do it ourselves?
Sent March 6, 2017

Schools run for profit....

This is the first step in privatizing our public education system. I fear the whole idea of schools managed for profit, which I think is the next step after vouchers and dismantling the Department of Education. It chills my bones to think our children's education will be driven by someone's bottom line.
Sent March 4, 2017

Heartfelt words....

The grown son of a friend of mine posted this on FaceBook. I thought it was beautiful and asked permission to make a postcard. We all know these people and we must all stand up and say, "No!"
Sent March 4, 2017

Media I trust....

It is so easy these days to think there is nothing you can believe. One source says one thing and another says the opposite. It makes me want to crawl into bed and cover my head. I cannot do that, so I have another strategy.

Instead of getting worked up over everything on social media, I rely only on known sources. When I read something that horrifies me, I take a quick peak at the source. I'm not talking about who posted it, rather I am looking for the media source of the post. If that source is unknown to me, I read no more. If it is a known source, I will read the post. If I am still skeptical, I run a fact check.

This simple strategy has reduced my exhaustion with false news, unfounded stories, old news put into new contexts, and alternative facts. I am back to sleeping my eight hours and waking up refreshed.
Sent March 3, 2017

Public Assitance...

Relying on public assistance did not make me a lazy ne'er do well. On the contrary, it provided my children with food as I cobbled together a place to live and a way to get a job that would support us. It took hard work on my part, but I could not have accomplished what I did without public assistance.

I did not exploit the system nor am I ashamed of having used the system. To this day I pay back what was given to me by volunteering to help people in my community.
Sent March 2, 2017

Learning to talk....

The single most important thing Americans are NOT good at is having a conversation with someone of a different persuasion. We are a terribly judgmental lot.

At a recent family gathering I was "outed" as a democrat. I smiled and acknowledged the shocked look. Later, when he told me he would give me lessons on becoming a republican, I again smiled and put my arm around his shoulder. I said, "The only lessons we need to learn are how to talk to each other." He nodded and smiled. Why is it so difficult?
Sent March 1, 2017