It’s Here…

 

History, despite its wrenching pain cannot be unlived,
 but if faced with courage need not be lived again.

-  Author:Maya Angelou

 

Inauguration Day is here.

It really doesn’t/shouldn’t matter who you voted for — America is starting a new period in our history. This is a time to unify, to put America and Americans FIRST.

No president in history has ever received 100-percent of the American vote, but as a country we should put our support behind our leadership. Make our voices heard, of course, but work together to find the best paths for our own welfare, safety, and strength as a united country.

As per Wikipedia, “The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term by the American people through the Electoral College. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.” and “The President of the United States or “POTUS” functions as the head of the United States federal government. They directly oversee all agencies of the executive branch of government and are considered the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces.” It’s a heck of a big job!

One person who had a relationship with a Secret Service agent surmised what it must be like to be the President, “You spend 20 years getting there and for the rest of your career you try to get out. Presidential Protection Duty is difficult and was also thankless, but the job of the Leader of the Free World is even worse.” You have to be a special kind of person to take that job.

2020 was a very tough year on so many people and we held our breaths until midnight December 31 was behind us. As a country we looked forward to 2021, so with relief and some with trepidation. We are headed towards, hopefully, recovery and at least some normalcy to return to our lives. Today, January 20^th, 2021 we will see a new President and Vice-President sworn in, we’ve heard both promises and concern about what lies ahead.

We, as fellow Americans, need to bring our nation together, we need to stretch our hands out to each other to help where we can, to console those who had immeasurable losses in the past year, to help each other as we rebuild our economy, and to be decent human beings. It doesn’t matter whose campaign poster you displayed, or how late you stayed up watching returns… we live here TOGETHER.

This is OUR HOME. This is our future.

 

 

 

Everybody’s Talking ~ #MondayBlogs

On the average every year from late summer through early November everyone is buzzing about who is running for what office, rumors and meme’s overrun social media, and invariably some “friendships” are ended after heated exchanges.

Growing up all of the neighborhood parents painstakingly instructed all of us kids “Never discuss politics or religion”. To that I say HOGWASH. I believe discourse between opposing views is necessary to growth.

The meaning of the word discourse is “written or spoken communication or debate”; the key term is communication. When I was in junior high school my social studies teacher assigned all of the students to debate teams. Ironically we each had to argue the opposing view from our personal beliefs. The class of 30 (yes, large class sizes) was irate as we were tricked into voicing our honest opinions on subjects such as gun control, abortion, euthanasia,  the draft and other such hot-button items only to be told we had to argue against the very things we believed in!

Mr. L explained that the only way we could be sure of our convictions was to understand all sides and to respect the opposing views. Respecting other viewpoints does not mean we agree, as a matter of fact our willingness to hear other views indicates that we have confidence in our decisions; likewise closing our ears and minds to different beliefs may even be from fear that we could be easily swayed.

Now remember I called this exchange discourse. Discourse is not argumentative or insulting, it’s not threatening and should certainly not include generalizations based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion. Yes we are all guilty of chuckling and sometimes passing along a funny meme or two, sometimes these memes are applauding a candidate or political office without insulting anyone — and yet the vitriol that follows  gets out of hand.

These are the interactions I don’t care to entertain. When an otherwise intellectual conversation is polluted with nasty barbs, insults or profanity then the positive exchange of knowledge and ideas ceases to exist; when someone is being verbally (and sometimes physically) attacked thinking logically often flies out the window and the result is usually anger, yelling, cursing and insults that have no bearing on the original disagreement.

So let’s discuss the issues and stay informed, but leave the fighting elsewhere.

By the way, the next United States Election Day is ‎November 3, 2015. Have you registered to vote yet?

Without a Voice

After catching a bad upper respiratory infection (aka the common cold) I developed a severe case of laryngitis. This is not the scratchy throat and sound like a frog kind of affliction, this is total loss of voice – I cannot even grunt! I’ve been like this since last Sunday and while my husband is pretty much overjoyed, my doctor says I need to rest my larynx. Believe it or not even whispering puts a strain on the voicebox I have been unable to speak for the better part of a week and it’s been very frustrating.


An almost full week of silence got me thinking of women who are denied the opportunity to voice themselves. Some of the female characters I’ve included in my books have been denied the right to speak for themselves for one reason or another. In Bartlett’s Rule Paige was denied the right to say “No” when an ex-boyfriend viciously attacked her; In A Chaunce of Riches Samantha was blackmailed into silence about who she really loved; and in Hyphema Seudah was raised a Muslim Pakistani woman in a place where some women are still forced to hide behind veils and are not allowed to talk for fear of offending the men.


Although the things I’ve been able to do have been seriously curtailed without having a voice, I’ve been lucky to have friends and family who have been patient and willing to interpret hand signals, read hastily scribbled notes and crane to listen to a few whispered words. My silence has lasted a week and I have reasonable expectation of once again being able to talk for myself, hopefully soon. But what of those women who live lifetimes without the ability to say what is on their minds, to voice their feelings, to be heard and be allowed to matter.


This past week has given me a mere glimpse into their frustration. It is difficult to tell folks your needs when you can’t speak. In the United States the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was signed, recognizing women's right to vote on August 26, 1920. There has been progress worldwide over the right of women to have voices about family, religion, politics and health. But there are still lands and social situations where women are not afforded the right to have a say. This is a subject that should concerns us all; when human rights are denied to any person(s) it is an affront to us all.


Read up on women’s issues at these sites:

http://www.now.org/ National Organization for Women (NOW)

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/ Womenwatch: A United Nations project

http://www.wedo.org/ Women's Environment and Development Organization

http://www.hrw.org/home Human Rights Watch

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