Bill Barr

If you watched any of the testimony of Bill Barr before the House today, you saw how polarized our political system is.

Democrats were all over him about everything: doing the president's will instead of upholding the law, using federal officers against peaceful protestors, clearing Lafayette Square for a photo op for the president, denying there is systemic racism in the police, having almost no black lawyers in the Justice Department, not whole hearted-ly supporting voting rights, backing up the president's lies, on and on and on.

The Republicans on the committee praised him for his good work, justified everything he has done that goes against the separation of powers, defended him for supporting the president, labeled protestors as violent, on and on and on.

I don't think we, as a nation, have been so divided since the beginning of the Civil War.

Something must be done to put out the brush fires of political division, deal as a nation with the pandemic and bring us closer together again.

For my money, that means voting out the president and letting Joe Biden work, across the aisle when possible, to make us the 'united' states again.

(Taking control of the Senate by the Dems would be even better.)

I fear for our democracy and our safety.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_NCX5sr08g&feature=youtu.be (link to my youtube blog)

All opinions here are mine alone.

So many robins and one black bird

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_NCX5sr08g&feature=youtu.be 
Link to my youtube blog.
All opinions here are mine and mine alone. 

I was out on our deck a few minutes ago and their were seven robins waiting their turn at the bird bath.

One robin cut line, but retreated to let the next robin get a drink and wash itself.

So many robins. They lift me heart.

The black bird wasn't in our back yard, it was in Washington, D.C.

The president, who will not be named here, announced to reporters before he flew off in his helicopter that he would 'not' visit the capitol rotunda to show respect for Congressman John Lewis, whose body lies in state in those hallowed hall.

Mitch McConnell and many other republicans have already been there. Mike Pence will go. Joe Biden will go.

John Lewis was a civil rights icon and 'the conscience of the congress'. And the president won't go to pay his respect.

The last thing the president would like to be called is a 'black' bird.

Things black and brown are not in his vocabulary.

But he is 'black', as in 'tainted' and 'burnt' for not showing respect to one of the great men of our times.

Sorry, Mr. president, but it's true....

 

What I suck at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_NCX5sr08g&feature=youtu.be

(link to my youtube blog)

All opinions here are mine and mine alone.

I'm really terrible at foreign languages.

I graduated from college Phi Beta Kappa, Magna Cum Laude (I swear I did). Even though I got two C's in my two years of German. 

At Harvard I did well in the first year of Greek (it was koina Greek--the Greek of the streets and the new testament) but in my second year I took Classical Greek and couldn't manage all the declensions. 

I barely speak English well, what with my Appalachian accent and all, so I just can't manage other languages.

I did meet Bern, my wife, in Latin class in high school. I was considering applying to a college (Shimmer) that required a year of foreign language. I didn't apply there but Latin gave me the love of my life. (I was a senior and she was a freshman). Cradle robber, I know....

I'm not sure why I suck at foreign languages, but I do.

When the Latino congregation at St. John's in Waterbury was growing, the bishop wanted me to go to an intensive Spanish language program.

Armando Gonzalez, the Spanish priest, intervened and told the bishop he wanted the congregation to learn English and would need to so they could talk with me.

I have thanked him in my heart ever since.

I just don't do languages.

And in spite of my academic pedigree, I know that makes me look stupid.

So be it.

I suck at languages.

 

 

I'm writing little this week....

https://youtu.be/MLNVV75yoY8

  Link to my blog on YouTube.

I am so upset with the President that I dare not write since I couldn't avoid words that start with 'f' and 'gd'.

The invasion of cities like Portland with unmarked, unnamed, federal 'storm troopers' is such an egregious violation of the constitution that I can't decently write about it.

And breaking a 250 year old rule about the census--not counting anyone who isn't a citizen--completely undoes what the census means. We 'count' 'who is here'. End of discussion.

And the Republicans in the Senate unable to pass a bill to address the financial needs the Virus has caused. (Well, at least for dirty Mitch to get enough votes to pass anything, he must rely on Democrats who will include more into the bill...if it ever comes to a vote. The House passed a bill for financial help in May. Now it's the end of July and the Senate has done doddley-squat.)

Never mind that Things are Going to Hell with the virus and there is still no leadership on a national level to deal with. And it has to be a national response, not left up to states.

We're beginning to think we won't be able to go to Oak Island, NC in September. North Carolina is a 'hot spot' and if we fly back we could be put somewhere by CT for two weeks.

So much is happening and I can't seem to settle down enough to write about it.

I apologize.

I woke up this morning and wasn't sure what day it was.

That's how crazy things are right now--days blur, weeks pass without awareness, nothing much makes sense.

100 days to the election.

Pray.

And vote.

(These opinions are mine and mine only.)

Nature is greater than us

https://youtu.be/MLNVV75yoY8
Link to my youtube blog

(opinions here are mine and mine alone.)

We got the long promised thunderstorm last night in Cheshire.

It was astonishing.

Lots of thunder and lightening that outlined the trees perfectly.

Hard rain for a while.

The sounds echoed and re-echoed around town.

Nature is greater than us.

What a show Mother Nature can put on.

I stood on the back porch for a long time, watching the lightening and listening to the rolling thunder and the rain.

Then, this afternoon, a rabbit was in our yard. It had the longest ears I'd ever seen on a local bunny. I watched him for a long time too. Whenever a bird would call, the bunny would lift his head and listen.

That bunny and those birds are precious in my heart.

And what are we doing to save all this wonder of nature.

Not much.

Maybe nature would be better off without us around.

Ponder that.

Baseball, thank you God, is back!

https://youtu.be/MLNVV75yoY8  (link to my youtube blog)

All opinions here are mine and mine alone.

Baseball is back!!!!

Tonight the Yankees go to DC to face the Washington Nationals in the first game of a 60 game season.

Dr. Anthony Fauci will throw out the first pitch. Very symbolic.

I have always been a Yankee fan.

My father and two buddies in NYC waiting to ship out to WWII from New York were given tickets to a Yankee/Dodger World Series game. My father decided whoever won would be his team.

The Yankees won.

So I grew up in the southern most county of West Virginia being a New York Yankee fan.

My friends never understood.

Sports--and especially baseball--have been important to this country in times of crisis.

Baseball, for me, is more like "life" than other sports. Lots of time passes and then something happens! Lots of 'down time' in baseball, unlike football and basketball and soccer. Lots of time to look around and have conversation and wait for whatever is going to happen next. Just like normal life.

Since life today is anything but 'normal', I think baseball will remind us of what normalcy was like. And I think, give us some hope for the future.

Besides that--Go Yankees!!!

 

Birds live on high

https://youtu.be/MLNVV75yoY8
(link to my youtube blog)

All opinions here are mine and mine alone.

Birds live on high. I watch them every day--soaring, swooping, flying fast and far.

Our neighborhood hawk flies so high it's just a dot in the sky.

I would make a terrible bird--I hate heights.

As a deputy to the General Convention of the Episcopal Church in Anaheim some years ago, my room was on the 18th floor! I tried to get a room lower down but there were none.

I didn't dare go out on the balcony and before I went to bed I locked the balcony door and wedged a chair under the handle in case I sleep walked!

(I've never walked in my sleep in my life....)

Mimi and Tim and Eleanor lived on the 13th floor in Brooklyn. I couldn't go out on their balconies for love nor money.

I'm sure I've mentioned this fear of height before, but have been reminded of it because our neighbor is painting his house and is up on scaffolding up to the tip top of the house. I can't bear to watch him up there.

I used to be afraid of airplanes until I told a friend of mine in college. I was going to have to fly that weekend and told him I probably wouldn't be able the sleep the night before the flight.

"How do you feel about it?" he asked me.

"Terrified, anxious, scared..." I begun to answer.

"No, no," he said, 'those are names for what you feel. What are your physical feelings?"

I explained about a nervous stomach, a clinched butt, light-headed feelings.

"Well," he told me, "why don't you 'name' those physical feelings 'excitement'?

I took his advice and call my feelings on an airplane "excitement". It works! (A couple of glasses of white wine helps too....)

But not for high places. I don't know why. And I sure wouldn't drink wine before going up scaffolding!