Claims And Issues

WHERE WE ARE, AND WHAT WE ARE DOING.

We see most clearly where we are, and what we are doing, when we take the long view.

Taking the long view, we can see events that consume our daily attention in a larger, longer context: for example,  protests that began in about 1964 ended 10 years or so later in the United States completely ending its involvement in war in Vietnam; or to take another example, eventually learning to incorporate  accommodations for disabled people in each new way of living in America.

And now we can see the daily reports (always presented in terms of "Be afraid, be very afraid") in context, things like terrorists in charge of the U.S. House of Representatives or certain State Legislatures threatening new ways to keep their opponents from voting.  The terrorists will be gone from our House;  State Legislatures will eventually flip from the dark side to the Force, as it were.

Taking the long view of things is the best antidote to 'being afraid, being very afraid.'    It is worth repeating that courage is not the antidote to fear, faith is the antidote to fear.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE STORIES WE TELL AND WHOSE STORIES ARE HEARD.

"What the climate crisis is, what we can do about it, and what kind of a world we can have is all about what stories we tell and whose stories are heard."  Rebecca Solnit.

And not just the climate crisis.  Many a thing is described in stories about "what we can do about it, and what kind of a world we can have is all about what stories we tell and whose stories are heard."

Democracy?  The stories about what we can do about it include the Women's March in Washington the day after The Grievance Boy gave an Inaugural Address but nobody came.  People did come to the Women's March, however.  All over the world, they came, making the Women's March not only the largest protest in the history of the United States but the largest gathering in the history of the world.

Democracy?  The stories about what kind of a world we can have are told in Michigan, for example, where the voters either threw The Grievance Boy's minions completely out of office or kept them far away from State-wide offices, including the Governor's Office, the State Senate, the State House, the Secretary of State's Office, and the Attorney General's Office.

The stories about what kind of a world we can have are also told in Arizona, for another example.  In Arizona, the voters closed the office doors to the minions that sought out the Governor's office, the Secretary of State's Office, and the Attorney General's Office.

There is more to be done, no doubt.  No doubt, there are also many more stories to tell.  In the end, the stories we tell and whose stories are heard will decide what kind of world and what kind of country we have.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THEM THAT'S BEHIND THE CURTAIN.

Heather Cox Richardson writes an informed and informative newsletter just about every day.  She is informed because she brings so many perspectives to bear; she is a historian in her day job.  She is informative for exactly the same reason.

Richardson wrote in the newsletter I received today, that she probably will not pay attention to them behind the curtain in the U.S. House of Representatives these days, unless what they do may have a chance of becoming law or otherwise affecting our lives.

This makes a good New Year's Resolution for everyone.  Pay no attention to them behind the curtain unless what they do may actually affect the way you live your life.  Paying attention to them takes all the oxygen out of the room, as they say.  To put it another way, watching their antics takes so much time that there is nothing left for the good.

So, this year pay no attention to them behind the curtain unless they may actually affect our lives, which they rarely do.  Otherwise we risk losing sight of the vast majority of life that is good.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"THE TRUTH IS …" PART TWO. THE SHORTER PART.

Besides the copier I wrote about in Part One, The Longer Part, I also took a very heavy bookcase apart and took the frame to the street.  When I write "frame," I mean the enclosed top and bottom, left side and right side, of a rectangle that stood as tall as a person, made of oak or oak particle wood, and with the middle shelf unremovable and holding what I call the frame together.

It weighed a couple of hundred pounds.

With the use of a dolly, I got it out to the end of my driveway, which was my goal and the bookshelf's destination for special pickup by Seminole County's garbage and waste collection service.

That is where the bookcase fell off the dolly and onto the grass.

I thought that it might move easily across the grass when I tried to push it the few feet that were left to get it into its position, but I was wrong.  The bookcase was reluctant to budge even a few inches across the grass.  I am almost embarrassed to write this, but the truth is that at that exact moment, a pickup trucked pulled up into the driveway of a house across the street.

I had never seen the driver before.  I have not seen him since.  He must have seen me, though, in my struggle with the bookcase on the grass that resisted my best attempts to move it.  He got out of the cab of his pickup truck and advanced towards me.  This stranger's first words to me were "Do you need help?"

I did not learn his name, but he helped me lift that bookcase to the concrete of my driveway where it rested until it was eventually taken away by them that take away bookcases that you put out on your driveway.

This is not a long story.  We are almost at the end already.  But it is a good story, by which I mean a story of good.  The truth is, stories of good do not have to be long.   They just have to be.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"THE TRUTH IS …" PART ONE, THE LONGER PART.

"THE TRUTH IS …"  PART ONE, THE FIRST PART.

by

Dennis J. Wall

The truth is that I was at a dead end.  I had reached the end of my rope.  I had run out of ways that I could take care of this alone.  All those things.

You have to understand that I have spent a lifetime taking care of things, most of the time alone.  "If I don't do it, it doesn't get done."  I bought a coffee cup with that saying on it.  It fit me to a "t".

This doesn't mean that I have not tried to work with other people. On the contrary, I have.  My greatest success rate in accomplishing anything in life, however, has almost always been to get it done myself, and with no excuses, thank you very much.

Oh, this is not the reflection of a narcissist for gosh sake.  I have failed.  Many times.  But I have succeeded many more times.  And either way, failure or success, I have generally had myself to see as the cause whenever human actions were the likely cause.

Which brings me to the last week of December, 2022.  Seventeen years ago I got cancer.  At the same time, my office lease was up at a building where I had my office for sixteen years, as it turned out.  I moved to a home office.  It is a converted shed that was on my property already; my wife oversaw the renovation.  I was too sick to contribute much time or effort, or I would have helped her.  As it was, she oversaw the renovation of a building that did not even leak for the better part of the next seventeen years.

Until Hurricane Ian came on September 28, 2022, that is.  Then The Shop (as I called it, and call it still) leaked.  Water ran across the floor.  Long story short, I cleaned up the mess.  It was then I realized that I had to get rid of some things as I began plans to reorganize The Shop.

The truth is that long before Ian arrived, I had often thought about reorganizing things.  The truth is that I was very comfortable turning over and going back to sleep, so to speak.  No sooner did I have those thoughts about reorganizing The Shop and moving things around and getting rid of things, then I turned my thoughts to other things that I found much more pleasant to ponder.

One of the bigger obstacles, if not the biggest obstacle, was a very large photocopier.  It had a large paper feeder and what I recently found out is called a "finisher" by manufacturers but which we in my office called a collator.  The feeder and the finisher were on wheels, one 70 pounds and the other 50 pounds according to the manufacturer's specs.  I could get them out to the curb for a special pickup by Seminole County garbage and waste collection.

The truth is, the  copier itself was a different story.  Although it sat on a cabinet that has wheels, the copier weighs 220 pounds.  At one point, I could have picked it up by myself (or at least I think so), but not now.  The stipulation by the Seminole County garbage and waste collection is that two people have to be able to pick the object up.

My neighbor must have heard the clatter as I first wheeled out the feeder, and then the finisher for pickup.  She came across our respective yards and asked if I needed help.  I said "no" as to lifting the copier, and asked for her ideas, because I would feel really bad if she hurt herself, and told her so.  She asked if she could see the copier.

In The Shop, I showed her the four handles that I had discovered were built in to the copier. I had spent hours trying to figure out why there were four little black rubber tips, two each on opposing sides of the machine.  The rubber tips were attached to levers that pulled straight out.  Once I eliminated the possibility that these levers had anything to do with screwing the machine into the cabinet it sat on, I recognized them as handles.  The copier  was obviously designed from the beginning for two people to lift.  But I had my doubts that I was any longer in a position to lift something that weighs 220 pounds, while I did not have any doubt that I did not want my neighbor to hurt herself trying.  (Even though she is stronger than I am, I did not want anyone to hurt themselves trying to lift the thing.)

She suggested we try to lift it, just to see if we could, using the handles.  We could.  We proved my theory that these were handles we were using, and that the copier lifted straight up and off the cabinet (which I wanted to keep if I could).

We put the copier straight back down on the cabinet.  That done, my neighbor said that she has a dolly on four wheels that, if we lifted the copier onto it, I could keep the cabinet and we could wheel the whole assembly down to the curb for pickup, so long as the garbage people did not take the dolly.

That gave me an idea.  With her help, we could wheel the copier down to the curb sitting on the cabinet which it sat on already.  The cabinet has wheels, after all.  Once at the curb, we would leave it to the two garbage people to lift the copier.  We would ask them to leave the cabinet.  She agreed.

And that is what we did.  The truth is, we did it together.

Now that may seem like a natural place to end this story, but the truth is that I have another end in mind.  Long before the copier reached the curb, I was at a loss as to how to get it there, and even whether it would be worthwhile to get it there if, once it was there, two people could not lift it after all such as if it was still attached to the cabinet somehow.

To return to the beginning of this story here at the end, I was at the end of my rope.  I had hit a wall (no pun intended) as far as my own abilities would take me solo.  It was then that, through no fault of my own and with me not even suspecting that it was about to happen, my neighbor appeared.  She was the previously unknown answer to my prayer that somehow, I could get this copier down to the street where it could be hauled away.

The truth is, the end of this story is not complicated.  To many people, including some people who share our social circles, the end will even seem trite.  But the truth is that we are simply not in control of everything.  We will, all of us, reach the end of our rope, run into a wall, run out of ways to do things strictly by ourselves alone.  All those things.

So we perhaps we had better realize that.  For people like me, that involves shedding years of thinking otherwise.  My experience in the last week of December, 2022 that I have described in this true story is not the only opportunity I have had for this kind of enlightenment.  But it is the most recent and it is one of the more unexpected opportunities I have ever had to realize that Sinn Fein, "Ourselves Alone," is best left as the name of a political party in Ireland.  A good,  secular way to express the thought  as a behavioral idea or way of life, was given to us by The Beatles back in the day:  "I get by with a little help from my friends."

Another way of expressing the lesson I took away from my experience with a copier and a neighbor in the last week of the year, is the same sort of story that Linus told Charlie Brown.  "And that's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2023 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"SOMEBODY TOLD ME I COULD" HAS JUST BEEN PUBLISHED!

I was there.  I saw it, heard it, and lived it.

Dianne McTaggart Wall is a Polio survivor, an inspiration, a musical genius, and now she is an author.  She is also my wife.

So I could see up close and personal, as they say, what it took for her to write this book.  And what it took for her to live this story.  And what it still takes.

See for yourself.  Here is a link to the Amazon Books page where you will find information about the book and Sample Chapters from it:  https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BR8PLTYK/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1JIBQI7PU8DF4&keywords=dianne+mctaggart+wall&qid=1672317795&s=books&sprefix=dianne+mctaggart+wall%2Cstripbooks%2C100&sr=1-1.  I have read the entire book many times.  Reading the Sample Chapters on Amazon made the book new again to me, with appreciation and wonder.  I could see it through your eyes, fresh and joyful. 

Give yourself a reward.  Take a visit.  Sit down with Dianne.  Live, learn, and most of all, thrill to the story of how every person's life is well lived.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

VALUE WHAT THEY DO, NOT WHAT THEY SAY.

The government of Texas has been sending people North where they will be cared for.  The latest shipment was sent by bus to the Vice President's residence in Washington, D.C. in the piercing cold on Christmas Eve.

The reported numbers of people ranged between 110 and 120 or so.  These were all people from warmer climes, of course, likely including Colombia, Argentina, Nicaragua, and Mexico according to reports.   While the reports of their numbers varied, the reporters all agreed on this:  Many if not most of these people were not clad for the cold but for warmer climes.  Their T-shirts and short pants and the thin blankets for the children did not stand a chance in the freezing wind.

Reporters all agreed on this as well:  A local area church stepped up to welcome the arrivals, offer shelter and donate warm clothing.  And food.  Apparently the Texas government's cruelty knows no end, for they not only sent these people into the Northern freeze but they sent them without food or at least enough food for the trip.

It is important to recall that the Good Book recorded that you could tell the early Christians by doing this:   "See how they love one another."  It did not say, 'Hear how they say they love one another.'

In this reporting from Christmas Eve, it is clear that the residents of Washington, D.C. who fed and clothed and sheltered these people were ones of whom it would have been said, "See how they love one another."

P.S.

The bus company that chartered the torture of these people runs with a license for which it must apply to the Federal Government.  Perhaps human trafficking is something that the relevant agency might look into concerning this company which operates only because it has a license from us, the federal government.  Come to think of it, recent reports of airplanes chartered at the expense of the people of Florida to take people from Texas up North, bears looking into as well.  That airplane charter company cannot fly without the approval of the Federal Aviation Administration or perhaps other agencies to approve their applications for a license to run their businesses to include things like tearing people away from one place and transporting them to another place.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

A STORY FOR CHRISTMAS, THIS CHRISTMAS EVE.

 

Christmas 2022 (Image by Dennis J. Wall)

This is a Christmas story that came about this way.  There is nothing spectacular about it.  But it does involve miracles. 

This story began when my doctor gave me a prescription for a blood test.  I went to a lab which shall remain nameless.  Quest.

My appointment was just after 6:30 in the morning.  On a Friday in December.  It was cold outside.

Inside it was even more difficult.  I brought my printed EMail with my QR Code.  I showed it to the machine which is the only way to sign in for your appointment at the lab in December, 2022, which is true I think of every day and not just when your appointment is close to 6:30 in the morning.

The machine did not take it.  It rejected me and my appointment.  Three times.

A young woman who had just signed in for her own appointment asked me if I was having trouble signing in.  That was a smart question to ask.  If she had asked me, a  man who has lived through many things across many years, if I needed her help I might have done the masculine thing and gruffly barked a "No, thanks."

As it was, she may have had some experience with old cranks in her life, perhaps a grandpa or two.  She asked me if I was having trouble.  I was able to reply to that question without being defensive, but I would not contradict anyone who heard my voice dripping with frustration at that point, "Yes, I am."

She tried herself.  Twice.  (By the way, it has since occurred to me that she was there for a lab test herself.  She did not just show up at the lab that morning.  She had a prescription from her doctor for some kind of test herself.)

Then an employee appeared, ready to usher in the next appointment.  She noticed the young woman trying to check me in and asked if she could help.  The first young woman replied to the second young woman with a short narrative of what had happened.  The employee did a brilliant workaround and when I did not even notice it, she signed me in as a walk-in appointment on a not-very-busy morning or hour of the day.

I got my blood test.  It was all over before 7:00 A.M.  The results have already been delivered to my doctor.  My appointment was successful, through no fault of my own.  But that is not the reason I am writing this story.

The first young woman has red hair and a fair complexion.  The second young woman has black hair and a dark complexion; I guessed that she or her family came to this country from India at some point.  That is what I think of, when I think of American exceptionalism:  Everyone is welcome here.  Everyone belongs.  Here there are no artificial differences built around obstacles of the mind like gender or youth.  Not here, not in the United States of America we truly live in.

That may not strike you as a Christmas story, but it is a miracle to me and to me, Christmas is a miracle.  Besides, the things I have told you happened at Christmastime.

Think of this as well.  This may be more of a story we would expect for Christmas, a story with the flavor of Christmas in it.  The first young woman did not have to say or do anything.  But she saw another person in trouble and she offered to help.  (It so happened that this time I was the other person in trouble who could use some help.)  She stared down any risk of rejection she may have felt.  She reached out.  And she reached out in a way that shows she knows very well how to deal with people, especially strangers like I was to her.  As a result, I am eternally grateful.

The second young woman may have offered her help as part of her job, and probably  did.  But there was more in her actions than just her job.  There was the same character at work that is so clearly alive in the first young woman as well.

So there you have it, a Christmas story on Christmas Eve.  But this story is not unique to one day a year at 6:30 A.M. on a Friday morning in December at a lab.  This is a Christmas story that happens every day in every place at all hours.  There are more stories of this kind than there are of the depressing kind, but it seems like depressing stories are mostly what we are told by media and so they are the ones we hear and see most of the time.  But those stories are not the way we really live.

We all have stories for Christmas and not just on Christmas Eve.  Tell your stories.  Even if together we do not drown out the naysayers, we will sweeten and soften the air around us.  Telling our Christmas stories will help to make gentle the life of this world.  So, Merry Christmas to All and, on this Christmas Eve, to All a Good Night!

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE ANTIDOTE TO FEAR IS NOT COURAGE. IT IS FAITH.

The antidote to fear is not courage.  It is faith.

I first heard this years ago and it has proven true ever since.  It especially proves to be true right now.

The time we live in is populated by fear.  We are constantly bombarded by media and the people who manipulate them.  Their message is to be afraid, be very afraid, no matter the situation of the moment.  They tell themselves that they, not we, are in charge then.  They recognize that that may be the only way that they can hold our attention.

The time we live in is also populated by faith.  We will not hear much about it if all we listen to are the media and the manipulators.  "See how they love one another" is an observed fact.  The observers of that fact absolutely did not say, 'Hear how they say they love one another.'  No, the observation was a statement of this simple fact:  "See how they love one another."

At this Holy Holiday time for us all, let's remember that fear does not come from the Divine, we do.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THE PLEASURE OF YOUR COMPANY: WE'RE BACK!

Volunteering with the Poor People's Campaign textbanking to Get Out The Vote has been a blast.  I am looking forward to future events like this one.

A good friend of mine who joined the textbanking campaign told me that he enjoyed every minute of it.  John DiMugno is a distinguished lawyer and the editor of a prestigious newsletter for lawyers.  Like me, the Replies to texts that he remembers best are the ones that said, "Thank you for reminding me to vote," or just "Thank you."

Older citizens like me have been here before.  Third Act is an organization founded by Bill McKibben that invites older citizens to reach into their experiences and pull out an effort to change things for the better one more time.  After youth (our First Act) and raising families (our Second Act), this will be our Third Act.

John DiMugno said another thing that ties in here.  He told me that his volunteer experience with the Poor People's Campaign reminded him of his own youth, and the energy and enthusiasm of other campaigns.  I felt that too.

The message is pretty clear to me:  As I said, we have been here before.  Now, "WE'RE BACK!"

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

"I WILL!" VOTING IN THE GEORGIA RUNOFF ELECTION.

I have sent out 15,300 texts as a volunteer with the Poor People's Campaign to Get Out The Vote in the Georgia runoff.  I want to tell you today about the reply that meant the most.

Parenthetically, the Poor People's Campaign GOTV texting is nonpartisan, although I can tell from many of the replies that some people perceive a partisan bent toward the re-election of Senator Warnock, which is not the case with the PPC's texting.  I have also sent out 50 nonpartisan GOTV letters for a different organization, and 100 partisan postcards for other organizations to re-elect Senator Warnock in this runoff.

The replies to my texting have used one certain curse word, many of them.  A significant percentage, but not nearly half, maybe 20% of the replies have used the "f" word.  They do not use any curse words that begin with b, d, s, or any other letter except f.  I put the lack of vocabulary down to the sad state of American education.  But that's another issue.

Today I want to tell you about the text reply that meant the most.  Our standard Poor People's Campaign text to Get Out The Vote is a straight-forward message to vote in this important election, that every person's vote matters, and for more voting information such as voting hours and locations to click on the link provided in the text by the PPC.

The one reply that meant the most to me was more of an exchange, or in EMail terms, you might call it a string.  I do not remember the voter's name, and I would not tell you her name if I did remember it.  She replied: 

"Thank you."

I wrote back:

"Thank you as well.  Stay well and stay safe.  And … keep on voting!"

She replied again:

"I will!"

Out of the 15,300 texts I have sent so far in the Georgia runoff, this exchange means the most.  Oh, I am not saying that 15,299 texts are not good; they were and they are good.  What I am saying is that this exchange alone makes it all worthwhile for me even if there had not been 15,299 other texts.  So far.

Before I conclude this simple report, I want to add a simple message.  We, all of us, me included, often go through each day without realizing the positive effects our words and actions have on other people every ordinary day.  We don't have to be a United States Senator or something like that in order to have an effect.  We can make a contribution even without special words or actions.  I knew that, but I kind of forgot it for a while.  This unknown person texting replies in Georgia has reminded me of that.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

MAYBE NOT OPTIMISM, BUT ALWAYS HOPE.

(Image by Peter Ringenberg / University of Notre Dame)

 

I have been thinking a lot lately about optimism vs. hope.  What's the difference?

Sometimes the best definitions are by example.  Take the current U.S. House of Representatives for example.  I personally am not overly optimistic that Democrats will win a majority of the gerrymandered districts at this point.  The numbers favor the Republicans, as they intended when they drew most of these districts.

But I am hopeful.  Hope is durable.  It endures.  It lives for the long term.

To paraphrase Robert F. Kennedy who paraphrased George Bernard Shaw back in the day not so long ago, "Some people see things as they are, and ask 'Why?'  I dream things that never were and ask,  'Why not?'"

Maybe I am not overly optimistic, but I am hopeful.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE; NOTRE DAME, VATICAN II, UNIVERSAL APPEAL.

This is a personal footnote to FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY WERE IN KANSAS THIS WEEK, an article I published here last Saturday.

I was born and raised a Catholic when Vatican II came of age.  The Church grew then.  It added more than numbers, although it certainly did that.  The Church also added inclusivity, the quality of reaching out to include one's neighbors.  Faith, Hope, and Charity.  The last virtue is often called "Love."  That is what Vatican II is responsible for, what it inspired people seeking God to do as well as to say.

I went to Notre Dame when the Reverend Theodore Hesburgh was the President of the University.  We called him "Ted the Head."  Father Hesburgh was also the Chair of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, until he resigned to protest the activities of President Richard Nixon.

During my time as a student at Notre Dame, there were was a lot of discussion about Faith as you might expect.  Notre Dame students, faculty, and administration not only talked about their Faith, they tried to live it.  That gave everyone Hope.

There were many campaigns for Charity, running from raising funds for Biafra (a breakaway republic in Africa that no longer exists) to raising funds for the Tom Dooley Foundation (which delivered medicine and provided doctors in Southeast Asia, until the foundation was eliminated by those who took power later).

In my first article with FAITH, HOPE AND CHARITY in the title, I mentioned the activities of the so-called Catholic Church in Kansas City.  They campaigned this Summer to make everyone believe what they believe, which is not at all the kind of campaign that real Catholics ever waged.  To begin with, the Kansas City campaign was not a campaign for Charity.   What's more, it was not "universal" and so by definition it was not "Catholic," which means "universal."

But let's focus just on the money.  Following the money means following at least $2,450,000.00 or $2.45 Million Dollars.  That is the amount that the Archdiocese of Kansas City spent on a political campaign to pass an amendment to the Kansas State Constitution so as to permit the Kansas State Legislature to ban abortion for anyone and everyone in Kansas.

That $2,450,000.00 did not come from God.  It was donated by thousands of parishioners in the pews.  It was not the Archdiocese's money to spend on a political campaign.  Especially a campaign that turned God into Big Brother.

The contribution of $2.45 Million would have gone a long way to support adoption services.  That alone would be a huge encouragement to mothers to decide to bring babies to term  instead of having an abortion.  But of course, then there would have been no guarantee that women would be absolutely prohibited from making their own decisions.

The millions of dollars spent by the Archdiocese of Kansas City on a political campaign could have been spent to support healthcare of mothers and babies and small children in Kansas City and anywhere in Kansas for that matter.  The millions should have been spent for those purposes, or perhaps even to buy diapers and formula, and in a different age, Catholics' money would have been spent on Charity.

Where your money is, there will your heart be also, the Bible says.  And speaking once more of all that money taken from the faithful Catholics of the Kansas City Archdiocese, it should be paid back.  That would be the Christian thing to do.

Let us Hope for Charity as our Faith would have us do.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

FAITH, HOPE, AND CHARITY WERE IN KANSAS THIS WEEK.

Earlier this week, the people of Kansas rejected an attempted coup of their State Constitution.  In the process, they were gracious hosts to Faith, Hope, and Charity.

The people rejected a convoluted, devious scheme to overturn the Kansas Constitution that would take the right out of their own hands to decide whether to have children or not, and award that decision to the politicians in the Kansas Legislature.  For example, the election was scheduled by the Legislature for primary elections which are not usually well-attended.  (The election turnout  this year broke records.)  The amendment was written in language that was so convoluted very few people could understand it.  (An overwhelming majority voted "NO" anyway).  The people of Kansas voted overwhelmingly to keep the right to abortion a private right of each person to decide, and to reject the forced-birth crowd in the Capitol.

In contrast to the Kansas citizens' open display of Faith, Hope, and Charity, the Kansas City Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church contributed more than 200 times the amount contributed by anyone else to promoting this amendment.  According to a report stamped filed on July 18, 2022 with the Kansas  Governmental Ethics Commission, the Kansas City Archdiocese contributed $2,450,,000.00 in cash and another $16,000+ in what it called "in-kind contributions" to the failed campaign to change the Kansas Constitution.  The other nearest contributors gave $5,000.00 in cash, more than 200 times less.

Some reports put the Archdiocese's contribution at $2.45 Million, without counting the "in-kind contributions."  See, e.g., Jack Jenkins, Catholic Bishops Spent Big On Kansas Abortion Vote – And Maybe Lost Bigger, Washington Post online, August 5, 2022.

Parenthetically, the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission report also lists the expenditures of that campaign as well as the contributions.  The campaign spent $350,000.00 of the contributors' donations to a business in Florida for "canvassers."  The Florida business lists Carter Page as one of its Advisors.

Returning to Kansas, the head of the Kansas City Archdiocese is a man named Joseph Naumann.  Archbishop Naumann is famous for denying Communion to Catholic office-holders who, while perhaps personally opposed to abortion, still support everyone else's right to choose, which is what the Kansas Constitution does.

Do you think that Naumann will deny Communion now to everyone who voted "NO" against the amendment scheme?

Will he try to deny Communion to the two nuns who published a letter on July 27 in The Kansas City Star opposing the amendment scheme?  To Many Catholics, Social Justice Demands a No Vote  on Kansas  Constitution Amendment / It's About Control.  I understand that one of the nuns is a co-founder of Network, the Catholic Lobby for Justice.

More to the point, why did Archbishop Naumann spend Millions of Dollars raised from the Catholic faithful of the Kansas City Archdiocese to take away a constitutional right?  The money he spent was not his money, you know.  It was given by the people in the pews.  Given the size of the vote, I doubt that many of them intended their money to support the scheme.

If Archbishop Naumann was going to spend their  money, wouldn't it have been much better to spend that kind of money to assist mothers who bring children to term by supporting adoption services?

Or by supporting healthcare of mothers and babies and small children in Kansas City and anywhere in Kansas for that matter?

 Or in support of parental leave?

Or maybe even to buy diapers and formula?

Where your money is, there will your heart be also, the Bible says.  The people of Kansas put their money where their mouth is, this week:  Their vote invited Faith, Hope, and Charity to pull up a chair in Kansas and sit awhile.

Archbishop Naumann's choices, on the other hand, are failures.  Speaking of all that money taken from the faithful Catholics of the Kansas City Archdiocese, it should be paid back.  That would be the Christian thing to do.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

VENUS IN MY BACKYARD AUGUST 4, 2022

Venus in my backyard, August 4, 2022.

Venus in my backyard August 4, 2022 (Dennis Wall)

 

What a lot of wonder there is in creation, if we let it.

P.S. TO LEAVING A BUSINESS REVIEW ON GOOGLE MAPS.

Here's something I just discovered myself, and I am passing it on to you now:  Not every business entertains reviews on Google Maps.   I found that the more I searched businesses on Google Maps to leave reviews, the more businesses I often found that just will not allow anyone to leave a review.

So don't be distressed if you want to leave a review for a certain business, and that business won't let you.  There are plenty of businesses to make the point with reviews on Google Maps.

Keep on reviewing!  Leaving a review on a business on Google Maps is a good nonviolent way to resist, so:  Resist with a review!

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

LEAVE A REVIEW ON GOOGLE MAPS.

Yes.  That's not a typo.  Google Maps.

So you want to be heard?  Your voice is drowned out by all the noise, it seems to you?  Want to do something about say unfortunate contributions that in your eyes are like the ones that the Beetles sang about in 1969 in the song Revolution?  ("If you want to give money to people with minds that hate, all I can tell you brother is you have to wait."  Fifty-three years on, the lyrics would be 'brother and sister,' of course.)

Here's how to make your voice heard.  At least, heard by a corporation.  Businesses pay attention to reviews; it's their life-blood.  Popularity with the public is important to them because that is how they make their money, by making it seem like giving them your money is something you want to do.

On the other hand, the life of corporations is not an easy one if they get bad reviews.  They cannot make nearly as much money then.  That is why they pay attention to reviews.

Everyone including you and me can leave a review of a business on Google Maps.  Until recently, I had no idea that this was even a thing.  Someone mentioned it to me and I think it is brilliant.  I can call it brilliant because it is not even my idea, it's someone else's idea, and it is truly brilliant.

Here's what you do.

1. Go to Google Maps.
2. Input the name of your company, the business you want to leave a review for. (Google calls it 'Search for a Place.')
3. Click on that business and on the left, Google's Help instructions at this point will say something like scroll and click "Write a Review."
4. You also get the opportunity to give the business 1 to 4 stars. Always leave at least 1 or 2 stars.  This insures that your review will be printed.

Instead of Steps 3 and 4, you may have the business pop up on your screen by name.  A tab with "reviews" may pop up with it.  Below it should appear a hyperlink for "Write A Review."  Click on that hyperlink and you are in business (no pun intended) to leave your review.

Your name will appear on the review automatically.

Now, if you wish, you can invite other people to visit your review and click "Like."  The more Likes on a review, the greater the chances that the business will pay your review the attention it deserves.

That's it.  Simple stuff, really.  But definitely brilliant.

Happy review-writing!

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

DO WHAT YOU CAN DO.

I am only one, but I am one.

I can do something.

That which I can do, I ought to do.

And that which I ought to do,

By the Grace of God,

I shall do.

I do not know where I first came across this saying.  It seems to me that it applies today every bit as much as it has applied throughout my life, always.

There are people who despair of many things in this country right now.   They could do far worse than putting this saying into effect.  At the moment, nothing attracts more despair than the recent decision of a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization.  This is the decision which overruled Roe v. Wade and Casey, rejecting privacy rights over reproductive decisions, with more decisions to come apparently.

Many people say there is nothing to be done.

They are wrong.  They probably mean to say that it will take a long time to overrule Dobbs and to restore privacy rights over reproductive decisions.  But there is definitely something that can be done right now.

Introduce legislation which will enact the law of privacy rights over reproductive decisions.  Base the legislation on Roe v. Wade and Casey as much as those judicial decisions will translate to legislative bills, sure.  But introduce legislation which will enact privacy rights over reproductive decisions.

In the U.S. Congress, we can only be certain that there will be an outcome in the House of Representatives.  We also can be certain what that outcome will be in this case:  The legislation will pass and it will be sent to the U.S. Senate for action there.  Perhaps legislation like this has already passed the House and has been sent to the Senate already.

Leave to the Senate what the Senate will do.

If the measure has passed the House already, pass it again.  Send it again to the Senate. 

Then do it again.

In the Senate, call for a vote.  Filibusters may prevent votes on the substance of the bills, meaning filibusters prevent votes on the bills themselves.  That's fine also.  Regardless, there must always be votes on what the Senators call cloture motions, which are motions to end a filibuster.  Let the cloture votes be recorded, again and again, of all those people in the Senate who deny votes on privacy rights for reproductive decisions.

Record those votes.  There is nothing that politicians fear and dislike more than having their unpopular votes recorded and made public.

Over and over again.

If one of the bills passes both the Senate and the House, perhaps some will say that the process is fruitless because the Supreme Court will strike it down just as a present majority overruled Roe and Casey.  Well, then, if that is the case pass it again.

If the bill passes in 2022, for example, and the Supreme Court strikes it down, when another bill passes – with identical language – say in 2023, the Court did not strike that Act down yet, just the one that passed in 2022.  The current majority think they have the final word?  Let them write the final word, endlessly.  In the meantime, there is more to be done, including in the States.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

DIRECT ACTION #DEMOCRATS, LIKE @BetoORourke CHALLENGING ABBOTT AT HIS PRESS PARTY.

Direct action is a legacy concept, perhaps, and may require explanation.  It comes from the days when the Vietnam War was on and people opposed it.  Some of those people took direct action to register their opposition to the War, such as burning draft cards, pouring fake blood on draft records,  and even things like Country Joe and the Fish singing certain songs.

Yesterday Greg Abbott, current Governor of Texas, held a party for the press.  He invited the most prominent Republicans of Texas to be on the stage with him.  There for example was Rafael "Ted" Cruz, late of Cancun.

Beto O'Rourke, who is running for the Democratic nomination to oppose Mr. Abbott, interrupted Abbott's choreographed party for the press.  That was after Abbott intoned in essence that nothing could be done about the massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.  Nothing except talk about the mental health issues of people like the apparent shooter.

Beto O'Rourke interposed reality to say that "Yes, there is something to be done:  Stop selling AR-15's!"  That didn't fit into the choreography of the event, needless to say.  For that, Mr. O'Rourke was escorted out of Mr. Abbott's press party.

Direct action seems to be making something of a comeback.  And it should.  Direct action helped to stop Americans dying in Vietnam.  Direct action can help to stop Americans dying in America too.

Democrats and all people who are fed up with choreographed events that are pre-programmed for friendly venues and obedient audiences, be advised:  Choreography and pre-programming are not normal.  They are not American. 

Direct action!  From now through November and beyond.  Direct action!  Be alive and active.  Like Americans are born to be.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved. 

Dr. KING'S PRAYER FOR AMERICA.

Dearest Jesus, come and sit with us today.  Show us the lies that are still embedded in the soul of America's consciousness.  Unmask the truths we have made our best friends.  For they seek our destruction.  And we are being destroyed, Lord.  Reveal the ways the lies have distorted and destroyed our relationships.  They break your shalom ... daily.

Jesus, give us courage to embrace the truth about ourselves and you and our world.  Truth:  We are all made in your image.  Truth:  You are God; we are not.  You are God; money is not.  You are God; jails, bombs and bullets are not.

And Jesus, give us faith to believe:  Redemption of people, relationships, communities and whole nations is possible!  Give us faith enough to renounce the lies and tear down the walls that separate us with our hands, with our feet, and with our votes!

--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Please read the disclaimer.  This blog post ©2022 Dennis J. Wall. All rights in it reserved. No claim to Dr. King's Prayer. 

OH, BUT YES, WE CAN. OH, THE SACRIFICES WE MAKE.

I just read an obituary about a person who taught high school biology at Bellport High School, a high school on Long Island not far from the high school I attended.  If I had lived closer to that school district, he might have even taught me high school biology.  We played Bellport in football; I do not recall whether they were good or not, but I think that they were fair to middling.

The person's name is Art Cooley.  The obituary says that he lived in East Patchogue in the fall of 1965, when my high school freshman year began.  I have been to Patchogue.  It was not the likeliest place for a miracle.

But in the fall of 1965, Mr. Cooley and others began to organize what eventually became the Environmental Defense Fund.  Their small group of friends shared concerns about the use of DDT on Long Island at first.  As time went on, they expanded to reach the entire nation.  Mr. Cooley's obituary says that the EDF "reported $221 million in support and revenue in its 2020 fiscal year."  DDT, on the other hand, is now banned across the entire nation. 

The obituary reports, without amplification, that Mr. Cooley's marriage ended in divorce.  We have no way of knowing, at least from this obituary of course, but you have to wonder if the end of Art Cooley's marriage was one of the costs of the miracle that started with friends gathering together and, years later, ended up with the Environmental Defense Fund.

Rest in peace, Mr. Cooley.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

MERRICK GARLAND IS BOB MUELLER ALL OVER AGAIN.

We were told for years that Bob Mueller and his Special Counsel team would save us.  Then we finally saw Bob Mueller ourselves when he testified on national television.  The Bob Mueller who testified in 2020 was not the Bob Mueller who we were told would save us.  This Bob Mueller did not save us, in any event.

    Now we are being told that Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice will save us.  Merrick Garland is Bob Mueller all over again.

    Both Merrick Garland and Bob Mueller built solid reputations for integrity over the years.

    Both were relentless in the past in their investigations of potential crimes and criminals, regardless of where the investigations led.

    Both grew into old age believing that, in the end, the Department of Justice stood for justice.

    Mueller issued a report that he could not prosecute certain potential criminals.

    Mueller also wrote in his report that even if he could prosecute all the potential criminals, they didn't commit crimes -- except that the facts he laid out in his report reflected that crimes had been committed.

    Garland gave a speech.  I predict that soon Garland will deliver reports as well.

    Garland did not and will not name names, nor give specifics about any potential crimes beyond those we saw for ourselves on TV, but he did give us a flurry of statistics more numerous than the snowflakes that have also paralyzed Washington, D.C. this week.

    Garland gave us lots of statistics about numbers associated with the people who actually did walk down to the Capitol on January 6, 2021.   He did not give us any statistics about numbers associated with the people who sent them there; no statistics about them, zero, zilch, nada.

    Garland and the DOJ are floating a suggestion that the prime movers of this coup did not commit crimes when they acted at any time including when they ultimately sent what some call their "foot soldiers" to the Capitol on 1/6.

    If that suggestion is believed, that makes it easier when the time comes for Garland and the DOJ to declare that they are not prosecuting crimes.  If there are no crimes to prosecute, in other words, that would explain why no criminals are being prosecuted.

    Personally, I intend to look at whether conduct being reported a year after the fact involves potential federal crimes.  I am not a criminal lawyer.  I invite others to look at the conduct that took place at least since the election results in November 2020, through at least January 6,, 2021 and not just at what took place on 1/6.  If we can highlight potential crimes, perhaps it will be more difficult for Garland and the DOJ to pretend that there weren't any crimes committed by people who have dinner and attend parties at the same places they do:  people who worked at the White House, people who worked at DOJ, people who worked at DOJ then and who still work at DOJ now, people in government generally.

    The failure of Garland and DOJ (which includes the U.S. Attorney for D.C. for present purposes) to move on crimes is related to their failure to prosecute contempt of Congress charges, or at least it is related to dragging their feet before time forces them to do something, anything at all.  It may be difficult for people at DOJ now and who worked at DOJ then, to prosecute contempt charges against people who also worked in government then or who they perhaps knew and socialized with at the time.

    In future articles, I intend to take a look at the pretty clear lack of stomach at Merrick Garland's DOJ for all of this.  I invite you to do the same.  Between us, we may be able to see at least some of this more clearly before we are finished.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2022 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

JOE, DON'T STOP THINKIN' ABOUT BUILD BACK A BETTER TOMORROW!

President Biden   -- the #BuildBackBetterAct needs to honor your goal to cut climate pollution in half by 2030. Keep fighting for a bold #BuildBackBetterAct that includes a CEPP, eliminates fossil fuel subsidies and passes the Climate Test #NoClimateNoDeal.

Please read the disclaimer.  This blog article ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

SAY IT AIN'T SO, JOE MANUCHIN! YOU GOTTA BELIEVE!

President Biden: Keep fighting for a bold #BuildBackBetterAct to address the interlocking crises of mass unemployment, public health, racial injustice & climate crisis. It should honor your goal of cutting climate pollution in half by 2030. #NoClimateNoDeal #HoldTheLine.  Tell Joe Manuchin to Build Back Better for ALL OF US!

Please read the disclaimer.  This blog article ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

BUILD BACK BETTER AND THEY WILL COME, JOE.

THEY WILL MOST CERTAINLY COME.

President Biden: The #BuildBackBetterAct must be bold enough to meet the economic, climate, and inequality crises we face. We're counting on you @POTUS to hold strong for historic climate action, good jobs, and racial justice.

Please read the disclaimer.  This blog article ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

YOU STILL GOTTA BELIEVE, JOE: BUILD BACK BETTER!

President Biden -- the #BuildBackBetterAct needs to honor your goal to cut climate pollution in half by 2030. Keep fighting for a bold #BuildBackBetterAct that includes a CEPP, eliminates fossil fuel subsidies and passes the Climate Test #NoClimateNoDeal.

Please read the disclaimer.  This blog article ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

THREE QUOTES FROM RABBI HILLEL.

I was reading the Introduction to the recently published book by Viktor E. Frankl, Yes to Life / In Spite of Everything.  The Introduction was written by Daniel Goleman, who notes that Dr. Frankl cited Rabbi Hillel from 2,000 years ago.  Here are three favorite quotes:

• "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?"
• "If I am not for others, what am I?"
• "And if not now, when?"

These three quotes apparently came together in a single paragraph, one after another, but I have broken them out here so that each one may be seen perhaps a little more clearly.

Make this another good day!

Please read the disclaimer.  This blog article ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

JUDGES WILL OFTEN TELL THEM TO STOP, SO ASK!

 

(Gridview_imagefull/Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services)

Recently some courts have ruled against equal laws.  It seems to me that these rulings depend more on the fact that the people who sued (to get taxpayer money paid to them instead of that money being paid to other people) asked the judges to tell the defendants to stop, instead of asking for damages.  I have said this before.   

            More judges are ruling like this and so I say it again:  These rulings depend more on the fact that plaintiffs, meaning the people who filed the lawsuits, asked the judges to tell the defendants to stop, instead of asking for damages.

            A federal judge in Florida told the State to stop when the judge issued a preliminary injunction stopping the State from imposing fines and limits on people who petition to put proposed State constitutional amendments on the ballot.

            This ruling came right after another federal judge in Florida stopped the State from imposing penalties under a new Florida law that would require social media companies to let politicians say whatever they want to say on their websites.  The new Florida law would have allowed Florida to impose penalties up to a Quarter of a Million Dollars.  A day.

            Courts in Maryland are telling the State to stop withholding unemployment benefits from unemployed people during a pandemic.  These lawsuits have been heard at all three levels of courts in Maryland, from the trial court to the intermediate appellate court to the State's highest Court.

            Comfortable people did not file these lawsuits.  The people who filed them include individuals, and they include groups that did not exist before such as "the Unemployed Workers Union" and "the Baltimore-based Peoples Power Assembly."  Significantly, the plaintiffs apparently did not include political parties or established civil rights organizations or other entrenched interests.  These lawsuits were brought by people in Maryland who are affected by the Maryland Governor's  attempted order to force them to take jobs, any jobs.

            The Maryland trial judge was the first judge in these Maryland cases to hold that the State must stop what they were trying to do.  The trial judge issued a "temporary restraining order," effectively another name for a preliminary injunction.  One of the trial judge's reasons is instructive.  It should be followed in other States where governors are trying to block unemployment benefits and so force unemployed workers to take any job that the governors' campaign contributors condescend to give them.

            The Maryland trial judge ruled in part because the State governor "appeared to lack the authority to end the federal program early.  He added that the plaintiffs' stories of economic hardship reminded him that 'the impact of the pandemic has been cruelly uneven.'"  Katherine Shaver, Court Rejects Hogan Request to Block Order Preventing End of Enhanced Federal Unemployment Benefits, WASHINGTON POST, online Monday, July 5, 2021 (emphasis added).

            State governors may lack the authority to end the federal program early.

            Ending the federal program early may violate equal protection of the laws.

            These concepts are not limited to the pen of a trial judge in Maryland.  They apply in every State.  State Constitutions are based on them.  The Federal Constitution guarantees equal protection of the laws in all the States.

            Judges will tell them to stop.  So ask judges to tell them to stop.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

CRUELTY AND STUPIDITY IN CHARGE: SOME STATES REJECT FEDERAL MONEY.

A little fewer than half the States are rejecting federal money for unemployment benefits because they say it makes people lazy.

That's not why.

The Federal government sets national policy.  These States have an alternative policy.  They actually think they know better.

It is worth noting that these States represent the old Confederacy added together with the States with the smallest populations, by and large.  It is also worth noting that these State governments are the ones that oppose Affordable Care and oppose extending Medicaid to sick people.

To be fair, the issue these States are addressing is the seeming reluctance of workers in America to return to the jobs they held before the pandemic.  To these States, the reason is not low wages.  These states not incidentally are also among the loudest complainers about raising the minimum wage.

They do not speak about the open fact that there is no way for women to work without child care.  These States are inhabited by vociferous minorities who want women to stay at home, in the kitchen, barefoot, and in the 1950's, for the most part.

They ignore the contributing factor of workplace safety during what is still a pandemic.  These States do not loom big on the remote working horizon, although many people living in these States use Zoom.

It's about who makes policy.  It's about who tells the story of what life is like in these States.  It's not about lazy workers at all.

Call them by their true names.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

CRUELTY. CALL IT BY ITS REAL NAME.

Border Patrol Tear Gasses Children on Sunday, November 25, 2018.  (Kim Kyung Hoon / Reuters)

It is one thing to forgive cruelty.  That does not mean cruelty should be accepted.  Cruelty should never be accepted.

          For too long and in too many ways, cruelty has been accepted.  It continues to be accepted, and practiced, by people who make excuses for it.   Cruelty should never be accepted, rather, it should be resisted.  The people who practice cruelty should even be forgiven.  But cruelty itself should never have been accepted in the past, and it is not entitled to acceptance now.

          Some people claim that cruelty is political.  There is nothing political about cruelty.  Cruelty is cruelty.  Calling cruelty political demeans political and excuses cruelty.

          In its plain, unvarnished form cruelty is evil.  Cruel people may or may not be evil people, but that is not the point.  Cruelty itself, the act of being cruel to another human being, that is evil.  And cruelty is never acceptable.

          Call it by its real name.  If it's cruelty, it doesn't have any other name.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.