Z is for Zealous Representation over Zero Sum Confrontation

 My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Zealous Representation	Zero Sum Confrontation
Working hard to represent the people who elected you.	One side wins, the other loses. Not cooperating even when mutual benefit is a possible outcome.

Zealous representation is exactly what we need right now and sometimes I don't think we're getting it. I guess it is hard to get over the feeling that we need to "play fair," especially when the other side is so dishonest and unprincipled. I wonder where we would be at this moment if Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice had prosecuted #47 and his cronies for what happened on January 6, 2021. What if congress had done it's job and impeached him at that time? He would not have been able to run for another term.

Instead we have a heads I win, tails you lose situation going on. The congress people can't seem to agree on anything that will benefit anybody other than #47 and his rich friends. How much lower are we as a nation going to sink? How many more rights are we going to lose? We have to take back some control in November.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

And there you have it. Made it through the A to Z Challenge this year. Next year I'll go back to something a little lighter. Thanks for hanging out with me. 

Y is for Yes We Can over You Can't Do It

 My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Yes We Can	You Can’t Do It
Freedom Courage Strength	Restrictions             Limits             Prohibits

I have heard people talk about how frustrating and frightening it is to live in our world right now. "What can we do about it? We have no power to make changes." That is not true. We do have power. We may not have the majority in the congress but we already have the laws on the books (Constitution and the Bill of Rights). All we need to do is use them! And when we do get back in power we need to strengthen them so that this debacle never happens again!

Freedom of speech! As evidenced by the most recent Jimmy Kimmel incident when he said in his monologue that Melania looked like an expectant widow and the charges against James Comey for writing 8647 in the sand, the administration wants to restrict what we can say while using the most vile and hateful rhetoric ever. They want Kimmel fired and Comey in jail. Well, the last time they wanted to restrict Jimmy Kimmel we got together and cancelled subscriptions to Disney + (the parent company) and within a week he was back on the air. That's power in my opinion. We made our voices heard in a way that they listen to, their pocketbook!

I don't know if any of you have participated in the protests that have happened around the country. I have been to three, two holding signs on a freeway overpass and one as part of a human banner on the beach in San Francisco. I get so emotional when I see the numbers of people joining me. It really brings it out that we are not alone in how we feel and that we just need to keep showing up. They are getting weaker and weaker and they are afraid.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

 

X is for Xenial over Xenophobia

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Xenial	Xenophobia
Hospitable Treating guests and strangers with friendliness and generosity	Fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners.

"They're eating the dogs!" That was the battle cry during the 2024 election. I mean, really how much more xenophobic can you get? Ice grabbing up anybody that looks like the are from a foreign country whether they have committed crimes here or not. It's just disgusting. Even the way #47 has treated some of the foreign leaders has been so undignified. (Zelenskyy for starters)

And yet, the ones that get the most hospitable treatment are the ones that bring golden gifts. I mean, I haven't seen him give anyone else a gift but he sure likes to take them. The display he put on when Putin came was ridiculous.

I really pray that we can get some dignity back in the White House soon!

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on 

W is for Working Class over the Well Connected

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Working Families	Well Connected
Regular people with normal lives raising kids and working everyday trying to get ahead and build a life.	Those with lots of money who have friends in high places that can use their wealth to gain special favors.

So this one is kind of easy, isn't it? We can surely see that those with money have power over the rest of us folks. From inauguration day when all those millionaires and billionaires were standing behind #47 as he took the "oath" of office it was clear to see who was going to be most important. The subsequent bills that have been passed cutting all the needed services like healthcare, veteran's benefits, food supply, etc. in order to pay for tax cuts for those folks who truly don't need another dime in their lifetimes absolutely shows what's happening here.

Can we imagine for a moment what would have been possible had the woman won? There was talk about assistance with first time home buying, starting new businesses and more. Sounds much more in line with the common man, no?

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

V is for Voting Rights over Voter Suppression

 My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Voting Rights	Voter Suppression
Right to participate in elections Ability to make your own choices for leaders	Taking away the right to vote Making it difficult for certain people to vote

And this is another topic that is SO scary and totally unfair. To make women go through so many hoops to be able to vote is absolutely voter suppression. I have a passport so it's okay for me but not everyone gets one of those. We had to show lots of ID when getting our "real id" driver's licenses and it was a pain. Fortunately I had all the documents but a lot of folks don't.

I have to laugh about old Caitlin Jenner and her dilemma about the passport saying that she is a male. And yet she still likes #45. He doesn't seem to care too much about her problem. Probably because he knows she still approves of him regardless.

And knowing that registering to vote puts you in the "system" why would "illegal aliens" want to get themselves on the books like that. It doesn't make sense. But then again, a lot of things going on now don't make sense.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

U is for Understanding over Ugliness

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Understanding	Ugliness
Compassion Mutual agreement Comprehension	Offensive     Hideous     Unpleasant

I am not sure what happened to all the compassion and understanding we had for our fellow humans. It sure seems that the members in congress that are in control now have lost all sense of that when it comes to passing the laws that will enable people to have affordable healthcare, help when they need it like Medicaid and even the help that Ukraine and other countries need during their difficult times.

Instead we get masked goons coming into our cities and terrorizing little children. We get concentration camps where who knows what is going on. And to be told lie upon lie upon lie is just offensive to my intelligence.

I'm from the SF Bay Area. Can we please just have some more peace, love and rock and roll?

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

T is for Triumph over Tyranny

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Triumph	Tyranny
Victory Joy                         Success	Oppressive power Government with a single ruler Harsh and unjust act

I think the best example of this lately is the victory in Hungary over Viktor Orban. He had been in power over the people of Hungary for 16 years! The corruption and oppression were terrible. He was old #47s idol (along with Putin). Even sending the vice-president over there to try to help Orban keep control didn't work. The people had had enough.

It gives me such hope. Watching those Hungarians dance in the street after the election was exciting. I can't wait until we can dance like that too!

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

S is for Substance over Slander

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Substance	Slander
Fundamental characteristics Ultimate reality Weight Practical importance	False charges that damage reputation False statements Defamation of character

The most recent defamation lawsuit brought up by those incompetents is the one from Kash Patel regarding the reporting of alcohol abuse while on the job. I mean, just look at his eyes people. It seems to me that there is substance in those allegations because we all saw the video of him chugging the beer at the Olympics. Really dignified actions for the FBI Director.

Can we please go back to respectable times?

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

R is for Reason over Racism

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Reason	Racism
Rational motive Logical Something that makes sense Explanation	Belief that race is a determinate of human traits. Discrimination Prejudice

One would think it reasonable to assume that after so many years of education and bringing the examples of how racism is rampant in our country to the forefront, it would not have been possible to elect such outright racists to the highest level of our government. But you know what they say about "assume."

I had no idea, for example, about the racism shown in the medical profession especially in regard to pregnancy. In the last few years I have been doing transcription for projects that are researching the differences in care between the races and how hard it is for people of color to get the same care given to white women. It is amazing.

Will we ever learn?

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

Q is for Quality of Life over QAnon

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation.  

Quality of Life	QAnon
General well-being Healthy Comfortable Able to enjoy activities of daily living Ability to afford to have a home, food, all the necessities and more	Far-right American political conspiracy theory and political movement. Believes the world is controlled by Satanic cabal. Believes there is a ring of pedophiles

I believe there may be a ring of pedophiles but they are not in the place that QAnon is looking. Let's release the Epstein files and see, shall we?

I know I am guilty of taking my quality of life for granted. I hope that we can learn from this difficult period in our history and make the changes necessary not to repeat it ever again.

Feeling better and trying to catch up with my work so a short one today. Thanks for all your well-wishes. I got lucky and my symptoms were not extreme.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

P is for People over Politics

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

People	Politics
Human beings Friends     Neighbors Kinship	Government     Policy     Political opinion     Affairs of state

Taking funding away from important programs like the Affordable Health Care Plan or Medicare so that the wealthy can have a huge tax break does not sound like putting people over politics. I understand that there are concerns about wasteful spending but to just arbitrarily defund programs doesn't make sense to me. Have you seen the depositions of those two guys who were working with DOGE? They were being asked about the cancellation of things because of "DEI" and they couldn't even articulate what DEI was! They used ChatGPT to help them identify programs to cut.  Another one was asked if he felt sorry for pulling the grants away from people who were doing important research. He said he did not feel sorry for them, he was trying to reduce the deficit. When asked if the deficit had been reduced, he said no. 

This is a clip from a news report: 

The smug look on their faces just tells it all. The full depositions I'm sure can be found on YouTube if you want to see them. 

Still a little under the weather so this is the best I can do for now.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress.

O is for Opportunity over Obstruction

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Opportunity	Obstruction
Choice Getting a chance to do something A favorable situation A way to move forward	Block Hindrance Obstacle Interference

Putting this here as a place holder. Unfortunately I got COVID and I am drained! Talk about an obstacle!

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

N is for Normalcy over Negativity

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Normalcy	Negativity
Business as usual Typical Expected Standard	Criticism Gloom Lying Complaining

You know at this point I don't ever think we will get back to "normal" here in the United States. Too many things have been changed by this administration to ever put back into place. It may, however, give us the opportunity to create a new "normal," one that has truth, decency, compassion, innovation, gentility, love at its core.

First we have to get rid of the negativity and hate that is being spewed on a daily basis from that guy. The way he talks to the reporters he doesn't like, especially the women, should absolutely have people in more of an uproar than they are. When he starts on his rampage of spite and tells all those lies the press should get up and walk out as a whole. At the very least they should be calling out the untruths.

All of his constant complaining is so exhausting. I guess that's the point though, to make us so tired of it all that we just give up. Well sorry bud, that's not happening. The protests are getting bigger and bigger and the overturn of Orban in Hungary last weekend should give us all hope. Not to go back to "normal" but to take the best parts of what we used to be and build on them. We can do it!

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

M is for Maturity over Mar-a-Lago

 My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Maturity	Mar-a-Lago
Responsibility. Addressing what is going on in the world. Ability to admit when you are wrong.	Play Gatsby parties Golfing Inability to accept when you are wrong

I cannot think of any president who took the responsibilities of the job less seriously than #47 does. I mean, there are serious things going on in the world, mostly of his doing, that need his attention more than the golf course does. Almost every weekend since he was elected! And he used to make disparaging remarks when Biden went to Delaware once in a while. 

And how selfish is it of him to throw these lavish Gatsby type parties when the rest of the country is struggling to put food on the table.

He's just a spoiled child and unfortunately he has surrounded himself with people who like to play just as much as he does. I mean, how many times has the government been shut down because the Republican controlled congress can't get it together. Seems like they take vacations or recess at the drop of a hat as well. 

I can't wait until November when we can elect some mature (and I don't mean old) folks to get this country back on track. 

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

L is for Liberty over Limitations

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Liberty	Limitation
Being free from oppressive restrictions. Able to make your own choices.	Unreasonable restrictions Laws Constraints

The Constitution of the United States guarantees its citizens the right to life, LIBERTY, and the pursuit of happiness, not life, LIMITATIONS, and the pursuit of happiness. Patrick Henry said, "Give me LIBERTY, or give me death," not "Give me LIMITATIONS or give me death."

Now clearly there have to be some LIMITATIONS and laws regarding the safety of others. You can't just take a gun and start shooting people for no good reason (oh wait, we DON'T have good restrictions regarding that, do we?)

Women should have the LIBERTY to decide whether or not to have a baby and should be protected against rape and incest. People should be able to love who they want and have the ability to feel comfortable in their own skin (oh wait, we DO have restrictions on that, don't we!)

Seems like we have gotten a few things backward. Time to make some changes!

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

K is for Knowledge over Kangaroo Court

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Knowledge	Kangaroo Court
Knowing something through experience or association. The body of truth. Being aware of something.	Finding someone guilty without good evidence. Ignores recognized standard of law.

They say "knowledge is power" but in this day and age finding the truth is getting more and more difficult. We used to have a thing called the "Fairness Doctrine" where both sides of a situation needed to be presented equally so that people could make informed decisions. From Wikipedia:

"The Fairness Doctrine had two basic elements: It required broadcasters to devote some of their airtime to discussing controversial matters of public interest, and to air contrasting views regarding those matters. Stations were given wide latitude as to how to provide contrasting views: It could be done through news segments, public affairs shows, or editorials. The doctrine did not require equal time for opposing views but required that contrasting viewpoints be presented. The demise of this FCC rule has been cited as a contributing factor in the rising level of political polarization in the United States."

In 1987 the Fairness Doctrine was repealed because critics argued that it violated the first amendment rights. That paved the way for broadcasters such as Rush Limbaugh to get a foothold and now as we can see Fox Entertainment doesn't care whether they report the truth or not, yet many people rely on them for as their news source.

This in turn led to the kangaroo court (think Hilary's emails, Hunter's laptop, etc) and also to the investigations into such people as Leticia James, Mark Kelly and Jack Smith to name a few.

So what are we to do now? I think if we want to have the knowledge to make informed decisions we need to listen to more than one news outlet. We need to do our own research to make sure we are getting the actual facts. That's why I like Heather Cox Richardson so much. When she writes she includes the sources for all of her facts and encourages us to check her statements.

Here in California we have a situation where our frontrunner for Democratic governor of our state, Eric Swalwell, has been accused of sexual assault by a few of his staffers (I think 4 so far). Because of this he has removed himself from the race. Some folks are claiming that it is horrible for him to be judged before the case has had its day in court but at the same time, there is a lot at stake in our race because California has what they call a jungle primary and the two top vote getters move on to the general election. That could mean that two republicans could win. We can't take the chance of having no democrat on the ticket. If, in fact, the allegations are not true, Swalwell could run again in a few years if he wants.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

J is for Justice over Judicial Overreach

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Justice	Judicial Overreach
Impartial adjustment of conflicting claims Fair Conforming to truth Using the law to punish crimes	Court acting beyond its authority. Making decisions that intrude into the Legislative or Executive branch. Excessive and without substance.

I think this is one of the comparisons that bothers me the most. Using the law to punish crimes! Should be pretty simple, right? In my opinion part of the reason we are in the predicament we are in now is that the judicial system failed us right after the insurrection of January 6, 2021. It took WAY too long for criminal charges to be brought against #47 and his cronies. And even now, there are laws against many of the things that he is doing and yet congress is too slow to act.

On the flip side, those judges who are beholden to that guy for their positions have overstepped their boundaries when making rulings regarding things he has done. I'm specifically thinking of Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida who has made several decisions favorable to him even though they don't always follow the rule of law. She has even gotten reprimanded by the circuit judges stating that her rulings were inconsistent but nothing has been done about that either. Don't even get me started on the "supreme" court.

As with yesterday's mention of Heather Cox Richardson as someone I routinely follow, Attorney Mark Elias of Democracy Docket and Glenn Kirschner with Justice Matters. I find their explanations and insights very helpful as truthfully this whole mess is very confusing. I will admit that before now I took our democracy for granted. We can't do that anymore.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

I is for Inclusion over Isolation

 My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Inclusion	Isolation
Making room for others Adding to	Setting apart     Being alone

I don't think we need to go far to find examples of this. From the minute he made fun of the disabled reporter we should have known that #47 would not be tolerant of people who in his opinion are "less than." His distancing himself from all of our natural allies is just disgraceful. And now he wants them to come to his rescue with the whole Iran issue. I don't blame them at all for keeping out of it and I totally understand why they would want to form alliances without including the US. How can they trust us after this?

Remember what it was like when you were young and perhaps not included in a game or invited to a birthday party? I'm not saying that you have to be best friends with everyone but to just generally push someone aside because of disabilities or differences isn't very nice. What a world it would be if we were able to truly include people who are different than we are. So many ideas and possibilities. Granted it is not always easy to understand other cultures or languages and it may take a little more work on our part but most of the time it is worth it.

Side note: I missed an opportunity yesterday to include a very important link to a very important "H." I don't know if you have heard of Heather Cox Richardson. She is an American historian and professor of history at Boston College. Since 2019 she has been writing Letters from an American nightly. Starting on Facebook, she has grown to include a Substack account and other social media platforms. In addition to her newsletters she does two podcasts a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) on YouTube and Facebook. I don't know what I would do without her insights. She takes the craziness that is our life now and equates it to things that have happened in our history. She gives me hope that we can overcome this time and when we reclaim our country from the insane ruler we have now, we have the opportunity to make a much better place to live. All of her work is free to read/listen to and I highly recommend.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

H is for Hopefulness over Hatred

My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Hopefulness	Hatred
Full of hope Optimism Anticipation Expectation of positive outcomes	Extreme dislike Ill will Resentment Intense negative response

Hate is a very strong word and I don't use it often. I try not to use it about people. Let's just say I extremely dislike #47 and what he is doing to our country. He gives off such negativity and is so resentful of anything that he considers a slight to himself. His speeches are full of threats and constant vitriol. I can't listen to them.

Contrast that with the speeches that Kamala Harris gave when she was running for President. She was always talking about how the policies she wanted to put in place would lift up the middle class and while she did speak against #47 it was more against what his policies would do and not about him personally (other than that he was a liar). Listening to Kamala talk definitely gave me hope for the future. I guess that's what made the loss even more devastating.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. Thanks also to Tamara Gerber for suggesting that I write about the difficulties we are having here in the United States.

G is for Governing over Gaslighting

My theme for this year's A to Z challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Governing	Gaslighting
Directing and making decisions for a country. Guiding the actions of someone or something.	Psychological manipulation of a person that causes the victim to question the validity of their own thoughts and perceptions. The act of grossly misleading someone for one’s own advantage.

It seems to me that we have not had very successful governing lately. Even though the Republicans control both the House and the Senate very few decisions have been made. Indeed most of the time the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, has sent the representatives home without passing any legislation. We have had a shutdown of the government for months at a time of either some or all of the departments because the funding was not passed to keep them open. As of right now the fight is over the Department of Homeland Security because the bill includes funding for ICE and Border Patrol. Sadly this affects the other services like TSA agents which in turn causes problems at airports, etc. There was a lot of money appropriated for DHS in the "One Big Beautiful Bill" that was passed last year and if the department had not spent money on frivolous things (advertising and airplanes for former Secretary Noem for example) they would still have plenty of money to pay salaries of regular working folk.

Instead we have gotten endless misleading statements from those in power to try to convince us that "the people are eating dogs" and that there are millions of undocumented people committing heinous crimes on every street corner. We are told that "gas prices are going down" and that "affordability is a hoax." I know what I am paying at the gas pump and grocery store. Those prices are not going down!

We have the president getting us into a war with Iran and threatening to destroy an entire population. I don't think that that qualifies as good governing for our country. He says that the Iranians were in the process of getting nuclear power and would have been able to attack us when there is no credible evidence to that fact.

I think it is time for the "governing body" to get a spine and actually DO some governing. Stopping this incredibly dangerous behavior from the petulant child in the Oval Office would be a great start.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. I wish that he would heed his own words and rally the other representatives to take back some control. 

F is for Freedom Over Fascism

My theme for this year's A to Z challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation.

Freedom	Fascism
The absence of necessity, coercion or constraint in choice or action. Unrestricted ease. Ability to make your own choices. Liberation A right or liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.	Puts nation and sometimes race above the individual. Autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader. Characterized by severe economic and social regimentation and forcible suppression of opposition.

I know I am much happier when I have the ability to make my own choices about what I can read, where I can go, what religion I choose (or don't choose) to follow and even what I can write on this blog.

Old #47 has made it his mission to try to suppress (Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel) and even take revenge on his opposition (going after Leticia James, Jack Smith, etc).

Leaving it at this today. As we all know the guy threatened to demolish Iran tonight so we'll see what happens.

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

E is for Economic Opportunity Over Extremism

My theme for this year's A to Z is democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

E is for Economic Opportunity Over Extremism 

Economic Opportunity	Extremism
Education Employment Financial Resources Health Federal Assistance	Uncompromising Outside the mainstream attitudes of society Zealous Out of control

I don't have to do much research on this one. Opportunity Economy was one of the cornerstones of Kamala Harris' platform when she was running for president. Her vision of assisting new businesses to get started, a tax break for first time homebuyers and cancelling out of control student debt would certainly lead to a better future for most people. Oh how I wish!

I have been very fortunate to be able to work from home for the last 28 years and being able to claim a home office deduction on my taxes has been a huge help. The sale of the stock we had through my husband's employer allowed us to get the downpayment for our home. Because he was subsequently disabled, the loans we had to take for our daughter to go to college were forgiven by the Department of Education. All of those things have really made a difference in our lives. 

And now look at the extreme plunge the stock market has taken, the overzealous use of tariffs and most recently the war with Iran with no actual planning or foresight. Our retirement funds fluctuate, general prices are continuing to rise and #47 is off playing golf saying that he "doesn't care" about the situation. Great. According to him, "We can't pay for childcare. Our primary focus is the military." He is truly out of control. 

As always, thanks to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries for giving me the basis for this year's challenge. Last year I made it through the letter E before I had to stop. Starting tomorrow the posts will be fresh from the oven - LOL.

 

D is for Democracy Over Demogogues

My theme for this year's A to Z challenge is the A to Z of Democracy. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

D is for Democracy Over Demogogue

Democracy	Demagogue
Power in the hands of the people Guaranteed civil liberties and human rights. Free and fair elections.	Political leader who seeks support by manipulating and appealing to the prejudices of others. One man has power.

  

One of the ways #47 gained power again was by telling everyone lies, lies and more lies. He manipulated the truth so many times and was never called on it. He also railed and railed about things like immigration, which admittedly needs to be reformed and adjusted but by no means is it as bad as he made it out to be. People were not eating dogs. He made big promises about deporting people who were in this country illegally and that appealed to the prejudices of a lot of folks. However, as we can see now, he is not doing the deportations in a democratic way. There has been no due process and a few US citizens have been taken from their homes and families unlawfully. 

He (I refuse to write his name) had said several times on the campaign trail that he didn't need votes or only "vote this one last time and you won't need to vote again." Now he is talking about running for a third term, which is against the constitution. He believes the rules do not apply to him. He is also talking about taking away mail-in ballots and wants desperately to have congress pass the SAVE America act which would make it much more difficult for certain people to vote. I'll talk about that more in another category.

I want to live in a country where I can vote and have a say in who our leaders are and I want there to be secure guidelines about what those leaders can and cannot do. I am lucky, for now, that I am a white woman and there is less of a chance that immigration officers will come knocking at my door. Who knows if those rules will change at the drop of a golf club? Maybe someone will see these posts and think I need to be silenced. (LOL I wish I had that readership). 

As always, credit goes to Speaker Hakeem Jeffries who gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives at the beginning of the 218th congress. 

Have a wonderful Easter. Hope to see you on Monday.

C is for Constitution Over Cult

Welcome to my A to Z this year where I am covering the theme of democracy.This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

C is for Constitution over Cult

Constitution	Cult
We the People Freedom Rights Rule of Law Separation of powers	Great devotion to a person or idea. Worship Extreme Beliefs Psychological Manipulation Brainwashing

 

It is true that our constitution was written many years ago and has had to have a few revisions over time but the basic principles of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have always been at the core. We the People is a powerful phrase. It signifies that we work together as a collective and not just blindly following one person or ideal. We have a say in what those changes need to be and we vote to make them happen. 

If there is any question about whether a cult has now invaded the country, these words from Representative Troy Nehls shortly after Trump won reelection are pretty cult-like. He said, "If Donald Trump says jump 3-feet high and scratch your head, we should all jump 3-feet high and scratch our head." And have you heard any of the cabinet meetings? Every single one of the cabinet members continue to heap praise on #47 and tell him what wonderful things he is doing.

I don't know how many times I have heard "they drank the Kool-aid." Granted those who were closely involved in the Jonestown massacre probably don't appreciate being reminded of that tragedy but it is a common connection describing people who follow someone blindly. So many times the Republicans in office have bowed to his wishes when clearly "We the people" do not approve. It seems they have no mind of their own.

I don't think there will be too many pictures in this A to Z but I did come across something that I think perfectly fits here. I was on my way to visit my daughter who lives in the area around the Facebook/Meta buildings. This is one of the street signs:

I know which direction I'm going.  

If you want to see Speaker Hakeem Jeffries' speech which is where I got the idea for this year's challenge, you can see it here. Also make sure to visit some of the other participants in this alphabetical endeavor. See you tomorrow!

B is for Benevolence over Bigotry

This year for the A to Z I am writing about the differences between democracy and the other thing. This is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or interesting tidbits. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

B is for Benevolence over Bigotry.

Benevolence	Bigotry
Kindness Good Will Charity Compassion Volunteering Social Conscience Generosity	Narrow Mindedness Prejudice Injustice Intolerance Racism Homophobia Discrimination

Now I am not saying that ALL Democrats are benevolent.  And I am not saying that ALL Republicans are bigots. Let me make that clear. It just seems to me that the policies and laws that each party wants to make are so vastly different. 

Take the new budget. Why in heaven would you want to take away funding from cancer research or giving food to children just to give tax breaks to the wealthy and fund a larger military presence?

Does the color of one's skin or the fact that two men or women love each other change the fact that they are human beings? 

And as we can see from what has happened in the last year, the situation has gotten much worse. The "One Big Beautiful Bill" did pass and funding for things like cancer research, public broadcasting and the like is gone. The aid we give to other countries has been stopped as well. The problem is in doing that we have made our country less stable. 

Is it so hard to care about someone other than yourself? I just don't get it. 

The basis for this year's A to Z has been taken from the speech that Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, delivered on the opening of the 218th congress, which was the least productive congress in history up to that time. This congress may be worse!

And We're Off...Blogging from A to Z 2026 A is for American Values over Autocracy

I really wasn't sure if I was going to do the A to Z this year and I didn't do a theme reveal. I don't know if you remember but last year at this time I had to stop after the letter D to take care of my MIL. This year I don't have any big life things going on until next month when hubby and I go on our first cruise...(maybe I'll do an A to Z on that sometime!). I haven't been blogging much at all lately but I do still have all the info I gathered for last year so maybe I will give it a shot. If I make it past the letter D, I'll consider it a win. Here we go. 

My theme is Democracy and I am taking the basis from the speech given by House Representative Hakeem Jeffries when opening the 218th congress in 2023. I will admit that I have lost a little of my admiration for Rep. Jeffries as I think that he and Senator Schumer could/should do more to try to prevent the awful things that are happening to our country and at the same time, I realize that there isn't much they can do given that they are the minority, for now. 

As I begin, let me get this out of the way...I am a Democrat but MORE IMPORTANTLY, I am a firm believer in democracy and the rule of law. If there was a Republican who was doing something good for our country, stood for something closer to my beliefs than a Democrat running for the same office, I might vote for the Republican. So far I am not seeing any of that. With the exception of Liz Chaney and Adam Kinzinger who both chose country over party, I can't think of another Republican who was willing to turn his back on the dysfunctional group we have in control right now. Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn't count. Too little, too late in my opinion. 

That being said, this is your trigger warning. If you are going to be bothered by my descriptions of what I believe America should look and feel like, please stop reading and come back next year when my topic may go back to music or scrapbooking or cruising. Please respect my space and DO NOT leave disinformation or inflammatory statements in the comments. It's my blog and I will delete them. Thanks for your cooperation. 

Here we go then. 

American Values	Autocracy
Community Independence Right to make our own choices Equality Rule of Law	Centralized power Strict control Unquestioning obedience Limited participation One person rule

It seems like common sense to me that a person would want to be able to make their own choices and live their life without having someone tell them what to do every step of the way or restricting access to things. Other than when raising a child, and even then most of the time it is a shared experience, I can't think of any reason for one person to have total control over someone else. Even with parenting there comes a point where the child should be able to make some of their own choices, as long as it will not hurt them or others. I can remember letting my daughter choose her own outfits for school even though a) they were not things that I felt would go together or b) she was without a jacket when I thought it was a little chilly. If it made her feel good to dress this way then she would be more apt to able to focus on learning.   

We should be able to question the people governing us and to express our opinions without fear of being retaliated against. We should have the ability to choose our leaders and hold them accountable when their decisions are detrimental to our country and safety. We should be able to read whatever books we want, practice religion or not and love who we want. 

Live and let live is my core value. It is not my business to tell you how to live your life and no one's business to tell me how to live mine. I believe we can be stronger as a community if we share our ideas and cooperate together. We may have different beliefs or ideas but mine are not necessarily better than yours and vice versa. Our uniqueness is what gives us strength when we work together.   

In the year since I wrote that, look how much closer we have gotten to the autocracy side of things and farther away from the American Values side! 

One down, 25 to go.  Happy April Fool's Day!