Stop the Steal

 Watching this last election, especially in the last year, has been mind bending. Watching after the election was even more mind bending. As court after court threw out election challenges - 60 - SIXTY - at state level, state supreme court level and US Supreme court level, it seemed obvious to a reasonable person that there was insufficient evidence to conclude election fraud.

But Trump supporters couldn't let the idea go. "Stop the Steal" took root and it was dug in deep. Around town you could see it with Trump signs and some have not gone away. Trump supporters I know were posting on social media with expectation that something big was going to change it all. As the court cases fell, one by one, by dozens, the desperation grew. I saw romanticized Revolutionary War images and Mel Gibson as the Patriot. Threads assured commiserators that something big was going to set things right. "Time to fix bayonets" appeared on one page.

On January 6th at the start of the insurrection, I checked one persons page. "It's Happening!" she posted gleefully. Others chimed in with similar excitement.

That day I watched in horror but I was not surprised. There has grown a blood thirst with this right wing movement. We saw it in our own town when a peaceful group met to support Black Lives Matter and a dozen or so AR15 guys showed up, supposedly to protect our city monuments. My only surprise from January 6th is that I didn't know someone who was part of the insurrection. 

Anyone who tries to tell me that insurrection was Antifa not Trump supporters, needs to explain what all the Revolutionary War posts are all about. Why were so many QAnon, Proud Boy and Oath Keeper members identified and arrested?

And the biggest question of all - If the insurrection was successful, what would the country look like after that? Would there be elections? Would those elections automatically eliminate votes from certain parts of the country? If all the elected officials were killed that they wanted killed, then what? No repercussions? We just kill people we don't agree with?

We do need to "Stop the Steal". We need to stop the steal of reason and rational thinking. We need to stop the steal of our civility. We need to stop the steal of our morality. 

I've watched people I know say on one hand that something is a hoax and then say it was cooked up in a lab and intentionally spread. Others have irrationally grown focused on human trafficking. Another believes the Kent State massacre is proof that we need AR15's. It's simply mind bending. I've had a nurse argue that we should not wear masks because they do nothing to help.

We do need to "Stop the Steal". We need to stop the steal of reason and rational thinking.

I love DEEP but there is TOO DEEP for me.

Much is possible outside of "conventional wisdom". Just because we believe something IS doesn't mean it really is. I believe in the unknown. There really may be intelligent life out there. We may have been visited by aliens. There may be aliens living among us. It is possible. Maybe it is even probable. But until is is provable, it's just possible and probable. It's fun for me to think about and consider, but I won't stake my life on it. It's just possible and probable. I love imagining and will share those with you.

So, when you ask me to believe the election was stolen, I can visit the possible. Maybe. But if you want me to stake my life on it, it needs to be provable. Zero, out of 60 - SIXTY - cases were successful. NONE - NOT ONE - moved into court. Filing with the courts - state, federal and even the Supreme Court - took it to possible but NONE moving forward removed the probable for me. THERE WAS NO THERE, There. I'm not staking my life on it. And I'd be stupid to stake my reputation on it. I could play with maybe there is so huge deep, deep state. And it is a huge deep state.

That deep state includes regular people who are poll watchers and vote counters. It includes both democrats and republicans who are either ignorant or compliant. It includes republican and democrat election officials at county, state and federal levels. It includes democrat and republican judges at all levels. It's DEEP, Deep, deep. It even includes postal workers across the country. It's DEEP, Deep, deep.

So then, if I am to believe that this DEEP, Deep, deep thing happened, I am further to believe that insurrection is the answer. If I want to preserve democracy, I am supposed to believe that overturning an election is the way to do it. I need to take over the Congress and install "my guy" because I could not prove to the courts that he won. I could not convince his own vice president to lead an insurrection, so I need to do it.

That's DEEP. That's really Deep. That's deeper than I can go and I like to explore the possible - even the probable. This is not probable to me. I'm not diving with you.

War is ugly

 Many years ago, I got to know Charlie as he invited me to join him on the porch at his farm in Fulton County. He was a few years older than my dad and had served in the Navy in WWII. Charlie loved to tell stories and share his favorite Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. It was not my favorite beer but I never turned him down because I knew he was in that story telling mood.

He talked a little about the war and once told me how his arm had been so badly injured in a truck accident. He drove a dump truck for a local sand and gravel and took great pride in his ability to perfectly spread a driveway controlling the dumping.

His favorite topic was civil war history of the area including the confederate march through McConellsburg toward Gettysburg. He gave great context to the history having known a woman who was 10 years old when they came through the area. Perhaps he sat on her porch just as I was, listening and asking questions, happily soaking it all in. 

So close to the Mason Dixon line, families divided. Charlie explained that they would often change the spelling of their last names to designate their allegiance - North or South. In his own family history, Cutchall's were north and Gutchall's were south. There were Smiths and Smyths. The war pitted brother against brother.

As the confederates marched through Fulton County, they burned and pillaged. The woman he knew said there was just one egg they didn't find on their farm. They took everything they could find. They burned McConnallsburg. In the south, Union troops did the same. War is ugly. 

Those stories follow me anytime I explore the site of a battle. Standing beside the creek at Antietam, my stomach churned to imagine it ran red from the blood of the wounded and dead. People knew one another. Opposing officers often went to West Point together - served together once. They became enemies. War is ugly.

Too often movies and history books romanticize war. The horrors and pain are softened. Those who live through it can barely speak of it. Charlie could talk about the civil war history but not so much his experiences in WWII. His ship was part of battles in the far east but that's about all he would say and he'd get quiet a while. War is ugly.

The south argued and some continue to say, the Civil War was about state's rights. That's a way to hide the ugly truth. It was about state's right to allow slavery. The current calls for insurrection are hiding behind something as well. History will reveal it. Hopefully, before it's too late truth will lead us to a greater way because War is ugly.

 

It's gut check time

 It's gut check time.

If you have lived long enough, you have had times when something triggered a reaction that you later regretted. We all have those places that are so sacred to us that we will do most anything to protect that sacred space and even behave outside of who we believe ourselves to be. 

It's gut check time.

If you have lived long enough to have had that experience - to have acted outside of your acceptable behavior, it's time to reach out to those who are acting outside of what would seem to be acceptable to them.

It's gut check time.

If you have lived long enough, have long enough ties, be ready to take your loved ones and long time friends by the hand in empathy. It's time to reach out and act within the boundaries of acceptable behavior and walk each other to a better place.

It's gut check time.

If you have lived long enough, you have seen the carnage of violence. You have experienced the pain of war. You know the pain of loss. You have seen the power of love. It's time to reach out and act within the boundaries of acceptable behavior and walk each other to a better place.

It's gut check time.

How powerful is your conviction? How deep is your commitment to love and peace? You have seen the power of love. It's time to reach out and act within the boundaries of acceptable behavior and walk each other to a better place.

It's gut check time.

It humbles me

Hildegard Von Bingen has come to my attention these days. She was a remarkable spiritual leader in the Middle Ages at a time when women were rarely held in high regard in any sense. As I begin to explore her teachings and impact, one word emerges: Connection.

This year, that is my word - my mantra - my focus of inspiration - Connection. It's long been my spiritual belief that we are intrinsically connected to all things in all ways. If we want to understand "God" we need to understand connection. Nothing is separate from us and that has always included "God". We are connected to all things in all ways. That includes all that ever was and all that ever will be.

It humbles me. In recent weeks I have been reminded of my connections in many ways. I can inspire others to be their better selves. I can influence others to set aside their better selves. There is an inner voice that guides me but I do not always find it most impactful. What I say and what I do matters in a very connected way. 

When I feel there is danger and fail to act to minimize it, there are connections I have to what then happens. When I am wrong in believing something and cause actions based on my erroneous beliefs, there are connections to what happens. When I see the best in someone and help them to see it, there are connections to what they do with their confidence. Connections matter. My connections matter.

It humbles me. I feel a great responsibility to seek truth, to speak truth and to act on the truths revealed to me. I always need to seek to be better and to remain focused on truth because it is what connects to "God". 

I place "God" in quotes because it (He) (She) is actually that ultimate connection to all things in all ways. "God" is everything that ever was and ever will be. If we are or ever were disconnected, we failed to see that truth. All people are part of God. All things are part of God. Our actions show our understanding of connections (God in all people and all things) or not.

It humbles me.  

The Giant Gifts

 Growing up, I thought of Aunt Dorothy as a movie star because she lived in California. As a little girl, while mommy wrote her letters, I would draw her pictures. The year after mommy died, Dad drove us to California and I met her for the first time, at nine years old. The first words out my mouth were, 'You look just like mommy.' And she did!

Over the years, Grandma always made sure I knew where Aunt Dorothy was because she and her husband moved a lot. After Grandma died, I learned that Aunt Dorothy had moved back to the area and was living in an assisted living facility not far from home. Seeing her for the first time in so many years, she asked, "Who do I look like now?" 'You look just like Grandma!' And she did!

We had a few precious years filled with memories. She told stories and filled in family history. She told of an early Christmas memory going to her Grandma's big house in Pittsburgh. She described a giant tree, 2 stories tall, around which the children sat waiting for their special gift. They each got one present and she was delighted with a mickey mouse watch - all the rage that year.

Growing up, Aunt Dorothy always sent us a box of dates for Christmas so I began making a little treat package for her including dates. But her favorite part was a bag of fortune cookies that she would save for New Years eve. She would gather her friends and they would open them then.

And so, every year I have dates at Christmas and find fortune cookies if I can. I'll hear her infectious laugh, see her and mommy and Grandma too. I'll thank them for all the gifts they gave me that are far bigger than even that giant Christmas tree.

Pandemic of ill will

There seems to be a pandemic of ill will in this country. It's an illness attacking our values.

Historically, America has been a country that led the world in attacking disease. Our approach to tackling tuberculoses, polio, chicken pox, measles and many other community spread diseases have been generally accepted and successful. We have historically shown value for human life. 

Herd immunity as a goal for the end of this pandemic is a shared goal; left, right and in the middle. How we get there is the huge divide. These opposing views are making it impossible to get a handle on this virus.

On one end, herd immunity and survival of the fittest are the same thing. These people tend to see themselves as fit enough to survive, of course. With this approach there should be no mitigation efforts. Everyone is on their own to handle the virus and there seems to be a certainty that the vast majority of people can survive it. Those who don't were going to die of something anyway.

Survival of the fittest discounts or dismisses the impact on the health care system. They are blind to the number of hospitals across the country that are overwhelmed, EMT workers overstressed, morgues overflowing in some regions. Or perhaps they feel this is an acceptable cost. Perhaps they feel mitigation efforts are too costly and are willing to let the cost be paid on this end of our society.

On the other end, herd immunity means a vaccine. A vaccine provides immunity in a controlled way, mitigating the level of illness and death. The problem here is that the vaccine is slow in coming and in actually creating herd immunity on a mass scale. AND many of the survival of the fittest folks will have nothing to do with it.

In between, mitigation efforts are painful and costly. Business shutdowns with no relief are devastating, especially for small businesses. School shut downs spiral families into chaos and financial hardship. Wearing a mask everywhere is a pain in the ass. Fighting one another over all of it is exhausting. 

What has been missing is leadership that is focused on an approach that brings us closer together in an approach to dealing with this pandemic. We all want to get back to some semblance of normal. We all want to survive this thing physically, emotionally and financially.

Number ONE - We cannot overwhelm our health care systems. PERIOD! We use contact tracing to accurately identify the greatest risk of spread and we shut it down. 

Number TWO - We accurately identify the financial impact of number one and provide funding to those who need it to survive. Screw the deficit. If we can go to war with blind cost and cut taxes willy nilly, we can spend money on mitigating a pandemic.

Number THREE - STOP fighting each other. Fight the virus. Act like we care about each other. Be a community.

This is not an unsolvable problem. We can do this. Let's do it!