Tag Archives: Politics

Nov 14

Letter to the editor

I have so much I want to say. I’ve been thinking and reading and talking with friends about politics, writing, writers, the state of the country, the world, AI, the Constitution, the Civil Rights movement. I write scraps of ideas for posts and essays, but don’t get far with them. I promise myself I will return to them, and perhaps I will. I reworked an essay I started some time ago and really tightened it up—500 words that I thought worked well. My opening line: I’ve been shot only once. The next part: By my brother Gary. With his BB gun. It was an accident, of course. And we were kids—he, at 11, was four years older than me. Once I got to the point where I could stop and read it to myself, I wondered: what is my point? Why am I writing about this? Originally it was going to say something about guns (my brother was a life-long collector) and gun laws (my brother supported safety laws and no one would have guessed how many guns he (safely) stored in his apartment). Am I really adding anything new or different to the topic that so many people have written about brilliantly? Really, I just wanted to tell a couple stories about my brother that I see as connected now that his life is complete. Really, I just want to write out my grief to share with everyone. To say: look at how interesting this guy was and listen to this funny story from when we were kids and how it connects to what I learned about his gun collection after he died and can you believe he died at only 50 years old because sometimes I can’t. I can’t believe he turned 50; finished his bachelor’s degree; received a stage 4 pancreatic cancer diagnosis. It really is the worst.

One thing I did write and get published was a letter to the editor of my hometown paper. Never mind that when they published it online, they included my phone number [insert skull emoji here]. I didn’t receive any calls or anything—I wouldn’t have known it was included if a colleague hadn’t breached the paywall to get a screenshot—but it seemed like a bad idea to have my name and number on their website. So I changed my phone number. My stepdad mailed me clip of the letter. This is what I’ve been thinking about.

Mar 7

A grain of sand in the gears

Texas Representative Al Green representing so many of us. Photo by Win McNamee

I took a train to Washington D.C. on March 3 to protest what this administration is doing to our government systems. The President was to speak to Congress on March 4, and one of the national organizing groups suggested people head to D.C. The event got a bit watered down after Elon tweeted out something about this effort, and the organizing group said instead to protest at your state capitol. But I had already decided to go and the trip would also let me see for the first time my brother’s headstone in Arlington.

The protests were…fine. It felt anemic compared to the last time I was in D.C. for a protest, which was the women’s march in 2017. It felt very much Business As Usual with all the bros in their suits, talking on their phones and carrying their briefcases. I’m sick of seeing power-hungry men in suits after the comment during the Zelenskyy press conference.

There was not a lot of cohesion for the protests. One was to support Ukraine. One was to fight fascism. One was to March Forth for Democracy. I’d say a total of around 500 people for all of them? We were on a street across from the Capitol, but the police closed the street at 5pm, so the group had to move into the park located behind us, and that’s where the Refuse Fascism event was taking place. They had music and speakers, but it all felt like it was falling short of the moment. It felt like we’re using the methods of the 1960s in a 21st-century situation, where technology/social media is being wielded like an absolute sword, and one side has mastered it.

It seemed like life in D.C. was all normal. I was able to get assistance at Arlington Cemetery from an employee there, and people were visiting the monuments. Lots of supporters for the president. (I joined a solitary protester who was making a scene with a bullhorn during the noon hour right in front of the Capitol. This woman had a spine of steel. I unfurled my sign and stood as her backdrop. We were heckled by a few of his supporters, but they were difficult to hear over the bullhorn (lol).) I don’t know how one snaps out of their day-to-day life when the threat to democracy can feel so abstract, or as happening to Those People, but Not to Me. I think we all take for granted clean water, freedom of the press, freedom to protest, getting mail in a timely fashion, getting safe flu shots, getting our medicine at a pharmacy, making family planning decisions for ourselves. We are now learning that republicans are not speaking out against what’s happening (if they disagree) because they are scared for their safety. Then this is already not a democracy. Fear of political violence shouldn’t happen in a fair and secure representative democracy.

When I read about protests in other countries, people come together en masse to fuck up the systems. They stop trains. The slowdown highway traffic. They flood into their capital and fill the streets with angry bodies (thinking of South Korea when the president declared martial law). Mass disruption to the systems that are allowing us, right now, to just keep on keeping on. Our country is so big, and it’s so easy to feel that something happening eight hours away is not happening to me, even though we are in the same country, experiencing the same government. (And, of course, many are thrilled with seeing all the destruction.)

I read this poem on my way home after the protest and it captured my mood. Particularly the lines:

No blackouts, no rolling of tanks,
but yup, we’ll take your democracy. Thanks.

I don’t know how the protests will continue to go in the face of what’s happening. But I have made one decision for myself and that is to basically do an economic blackout all the time as much as possible (not aiming for purity, but making my best effort). Buying groceries from a regionally-owned grocery store. Buying used. No Amazon. No Target. No Facebook. No Meta. No Google. No shopping, generally (to be honest, it’s really lost its appeal these days). Avoiding food chains. I truly think the only thing that these clowns will respond to is a weak market. This is my small way of kicking sand in the gears of this monstrous machine. I won’t make a difference alone (I’m only a grain!), but maybe if enough of us do it, it will be noticeable.

Who really needs to buy more shit anyway?

Nov 4

Fingers crossed

I have printed my official “Election Night Chicago/Grant Park/Hutchinson Field” ticket.
I have my Amtrak ticket and leave at 6:33 am.
I have my maps to find my way to the hotel from the Amtrak.
My hotel is directly across the street from Grant Park. This is not a coincidence.
And, according to weather reports, the sun will be completely unclouded, warming us to 72 degrees! The weather around here has been exquisite. The partying takes place in the evening though, and the low will be 54. Still, very manageable. I won’t have to wear the winter boots I bought in anticipation of freezing weather.
I return Wednesday at 9:00 pm, and will have pictures to post!

Oct 14

Hooray for Hitch!

A few weeks ago I wrote a post lamenting Christopher Hitchens’ dislike/disdain for Obama. What I was more perplexed about then was the apparent “pass” he gave to Sarah Palin. I mean, I consider Hitchens to be a brilliant intellect and writer, and his unwillingness to attack Palin’s obvious lack of credentials for the role of VP astounded me. When I mentioned it to a friend, she said, “I think he’s out to tow the Republican party line.” What a depressing thought. I know he’s labeled a neocon, but my impression is that he writes his own opinions about the Iraq war, religion, the Middle East, regardless of what those around him think. To think he’d become a full-fledged Republican shill was terrible.

But today is a new day.

The title of this week’s Slate column is this: Vote for Obama

I nearly did cartwheels. I’ve never been so gleeful while reading a Hitchens’ column.

Oct 13

What I’ve been missing!


It is such a pleasure to be in Ohio right now. The drive north was almost unbearable at times, particularly because I don’t have cruise control and my leg started cramping after several hours. However, the view in Virginia was exquisite—a landscape of orange red green yellow leaves.
The cats didn’t make a peep on the drive. I was impressed with their calmness and the fact that they didn’t have any accidents in their carrier. There’s been a lot of hissing and yowling here at mom’s house as her two cats try to defend their territory and my cats try to claim unclaimed territory.

Paul tries to explore downstairs

Paul encounters Marcy and much growling ensues

(no cats were injured during this photo shoot)

I’ve decided to stay here for the week while DS goes on to Illinois to find a house. This keeps me from having to drive back to pick up the cats later, and it gives me some much needed quiet time to work on the thesis.

The big news of the week is that Sen. Biden is visiting the town on Wednesday! Mom’s house is about a mile away from the local branch of OSU, and he’s going to give a speech there! He was scheduled to visit the eastern part of the state, and from what I understand, his decision to visit Newark was made recently. DS and I suspect he made the decision when word got out that Holophane (my mom’s factory) was closing. I mean, this is a factory that’s been opened for over 100 years, and the fact that it’s closing is emblematic of what is happening in a lot of places, and to a lot of working class people. I have every intention of attending the speech, and, perhaps, making a spectacle of myself on behalf of the workers losing their jobs at Holophane. Well, maybe I won’t make a spectacle of myself, but I think I’ll seek out the media to see if I can make a public plea for why health insurance shouldn’t be dependent on employment, and why universal health care makes the most sense.