Author: Joanne Corey

Please come visit my eclectic blog, Top of JC's Mind. You can never be sure what you'll find!

Vote for Democracy ’24 #20

Aftermath – part 1

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

My apologies for the long gap from United States Election Day and this post. We’ve been having a lot happening on the health front here and my limited brainpower had to tend to that over blogging. This post will concentrate on the aftermath of the election itself, not dealing with things like Trump’s staffing decisions and policy pronouncements for his impending administration.

If you have been reading this series, you know that I am upset and worried that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz lost the election. I am, however, grateful that my district (New York 19) elected Democrat Josh Riley over incumbent Republican Marc Molinaro and kept in place State Senator Lea Webb and Assemblymember Donna Lupardo, both of whom were instrumental in the passage of the ban on carbon dioxide fracking in our state.

While I am very worried about the impact that Trump and MAGA Republicans will have on the country, I was encouraged by the reaction from organizations with which I am involved, commentators and experts that I read, and from Vice President Harris herself that we would all continue to work to protect democracy, people, and the planet, especially those who are most vulnerable. Because I have a long history working on environmental/climate and social justice issues, I was comforted to receive so many supportive messages from trusted people and organizations. Many are already making plans within their expertise to protect our civil rights, enforce environmental laws, expose corruption, etc.

I have been somewhat puzzled by those who are saying that the Democrats failed in their message and policy ideas. They tend to say that the Democrats should have talked about fighting inflation, increasing affordable housing, health care, labor issues, and affordability in general, but the thing is, they were talking about those things – over and over for months. Somehow, though, these people missed it.

I think the biggest reason for Trump’s victory, narrow as it was in that more people voted against him than for him, is that there was a massive amount of mis- and disinformation in the campaign. Much of it came directly from the Trump campaign itself but there was also a lot coming from our Republican campaigns, PACs and superPACs, and from foreign entities, including Russia, China, and Iran. For example, Russia put out a fake video purporting to show non-citizens voting in the state of Georgia in the days before the election. There was also a flood of mis/disinformation coming through Elon Musk’s X, as well as other online platforms. Besides Musk, other billionaires and rich heads of companies spent heavily on behalf of Trump and Republicans.

Because our NY-19 House of Representatives district was so hotly contested, we saw this sort of misleading information effort in action. We got mail every day for weeks with lies about crime statistics, immigration, economics, reproductive rights, and more, trying to get votes for the Republican incumbent. Everything was designed to invoke fear and grievance.

Enough people in our district saw through these tactics to elect the Democratic challenger, who was also able to tout his hometown roots, but, nationally, the disinformation held enough sway that Harris lost. There also appeared to be a lot of voters, especially non-college-educated, young, male, lower-income ones, who voted for Trump without having much information at all. One of the most popular Internet searches on election day was about if Joe Biden was running, which seems incredible to those of us who follows news consistently, but apparently there were a lot of people heading to the polls without even knowing who the main party candidates were. There have also been reports of many Trump voters being surprised to find out that he actually intends to follow through on his rhetoric regarding tariffs, deportation, cutting government services, etc.

I can understand how some of the Trump voters fell for the lies and felt they needed a strongman to protect them from these perceived, if not actually real, threats. Unfortunately, fearmongering and grievance can work. I am disturbed, however, by those who voted for Trump because the racism, sexism, and/or Christian nationalism appealed to them. There was so much hateful rhetoric during the campaign and there have been increased threats and harassment against women, people of color, non-Christians, and members of the LGBTQ+ community both during the campaign and since the election. Some of this has impacted people that I know personally while others have been large-scale, such as threatening texts and emails sent with racist or homophobic messages.

I am grateful that the Biden-Harris administation is dedicated to the peaceful transfer of power and we don’t have to worry about violence in the streets or in Washington from Harris’s supporters as we saw from Trump’s after his loss in 2020, especially on January 6, 2021.

I’m afraid that Trump will pardon all the people who committed crimes in connection with Jan. 6th, which he has re-cast as a “day of love,” even though we all saw the violence and destruction in the Capitol that day.

Don’t fall for Trump’s lies.

Find knowledgeable, factual sources and stand up for truth.

Millions of others will be standing with you.

Happy (US) Thanksgiving!

(Photo by Pro Church Media on Unsplash)

Wishing everyone celebrating Thanksgiving today a meaningful experience. We are lucky to have my older sister and her husband here visiting for the holiday. For various reasons, we are forgoing the traditional turkey in favor of roast beef and popovers. B, however, did make the traditional apple and pumpkin pies.

B’s nod to turkey was to craft one with his knife while venting the apple pie.

Daughter E is making a more traditional Thanksgiving meal “across the pond” in London where she lives with her family. It’s nice that our dual-citizen granddaughters are growing up with the tradition of Thanksgiving from the United States, even though it’s just another autumn Thursday at school there.

Here, we are having some wet snow for the holiday. It’s been a strange fall with an unusual level of drought, relieved some lately by wet snow and rain. Not sure what will come next.

Wishing everyone some special moments today, whether you are celebrating a holiday or not.

One-Liner Wednesdays: Lessons and Carols on Dec. 1

Binghamton NY area folks, please join the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton for our annual presentation of Lessons & Carols for Christmas on Sunday, Deceember 1st at Trinity Memorial Episcopal Church.

Please join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/11/27/one-liner-wednesday-gasp/

SoCS: a new wrinkle

I just finished writing up some notes on a problem I had at physical therapy yesterday.

We were trying to tape my upper back/shoulders and inadvertently caused symptoms in my neck and made my tinnitus louder.

We immediately removed the tape but I’m still having some aftereffects today.

We are still looking for a diagnosis that explains all my medical weirdness but we aren’t there yet.

Meanwhile, I appreciate everyone’s graciousness and patience in waiting for my posts to appear. It’s been an intense few weeks, as you might have guessed in that I still haven’t done a post-election entry. I’ll get there eventually.

I’m trying to extend the grace and patience people are showing me to myself. Sometimes, I even manage it…
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is to use the word “just” in the first sentence. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/11/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-23-2024/

One-Liner Wednesday: Joan’s birthday

in honor of what would have been my friend Joan’s 65th birthday, I’m sharing this post I wrote about her when she passed away in June of this year with love and fond memories.

Please join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/11/20/one-liner-wednesday-my-cup/

“Hello, I Am Not a Soldier” by Abby E. Murray

Rattle Magazine has an ongoing series called Poets Respond which publishes at least one poem a week based on something that happened in the news in the last week.

Today, Rattle published a powerful poem from Abby E. Murray. I happen to know Abby because they did their doctoral work at Binghamton University where they served as director of the Binghamton Poetry Project when I first became involved with it.

The poem “Hello, I Am Not a Soldier” comes from Abby’s reaction to the incoming Trump administration’s nomination for various positions, especially defense secretary. You can read the poem at the link above, as well as hear Abby read it.

The lines that are resonating particularly with me this morning are

… I ration false comfort by knowing

it has never not been this way

What about this poem resonates with you?

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash. Due to Instagram requirements, I needed an image to go with this post and opted for my standard Vote for Democary ’24 image. Tags are also broken at WordPress right now; I hope to add some later when that function is fixed.)

SoCS: security blanket

I don’t remember if I had a security blanket when I was little but I could sure use one now…

Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “blanket.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/11/15/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-nov-16-2024/ (Admittedly, this is a very brief excursion in stream of consciousness, but I am really struggling with brain fog and fatigue lately and I figured a short post was better than no post.)

One-Liner Wednesday: back to bird feeding

We are finally able to go back to feeding the birds in our backyard, although putting out just seed and not suet in hopes of not attracting bears. (Photo is from a few years ago.)

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/11/13/one-liner-wednesday-motherhood/

another tribute?

Last week, I attended a choral concert at Binghamton University that had been billed as a tribute to Dr. Bruce Borton, who had served in the music department for almost three decades and who passed away in August.

I wrote here about the concert that the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton presented last month and had hoped that the concert at the University would address Bruce’s legacy there, but I was disappointed. It seemed that the choral groups had prepared their fall concert as usual and just tacked a couple of pieces on the end that they tied to Dr. Borton.

The most direct tie was the combined choirs singing “Bogoroditse Devo” from the Rachmaninoff All-Night Vigil. I had sung the piece with the now-defunct University Chorus under Bruce’s direction and this particular movement additional times. It was chosen because Bruce was a scholar of Rachmaninoff and loved this work in particular.

It was difficult for me to listen to it. I knew it well and could notice the differences in interpretation but the most glaring difference was the lack of maturity in the sound, especially from the basses. It’s not, of course, the singers’ fault that their voices are still maturing, but it demonstrated the reason that University Chorus, which included students, staff, and community members, was so important to Bruce. A more age-diverse choir can produce a richer sound and excute a greater expressive range than a younger choir. This might not matter with some repertoire, but it does with Rachmaninoff.

I was disappointed that they hadn’t reached out to the University Chorus alums still in the area to join the students to perform this piece. It wouldn’t have taken much rehearsal to include us as we know the piece well and it would have been very meaningful for us. I wish they had also reached out to us or a faculty member who worked with Bruce to speak about him. As it was, the only spoken tribute was from a former graduate conducting student, read from a cell phone by one of the conductors.

The concert intensified my feelings of loss, not only of Bruce but also of University Chorus, which was so dear to his heart and to our community.

Merrill Oliver Douglas and Suzanne Cleary at BCAC!

Yesterday, it was my pleasure to attend a reading by my fellow Grapevine and Boiler House Poets Collective friend Merrill Oliver Douglas and Suzanne Cleary at the Broome County (NY) Arts Council.

Merrill and Suzanne met decades ago in Binghamton, where Suzanne grew up and where Merrill re-located for graduate school and then settled. Merrill grew up in New York City and Suzanne has lived in that area for over thirty years. Their mirrored biographies drew together a fun mix of people in attendance, including Merrill’s Grapevine poet-friends and some of Suzanne’s high school classmates. We filled the Artisan Gallery at the Broome County Arts Council, commandeering extra chairs as needed. Bonus: In addition to poetry, we enjoyed the BCAC Members’ Juried Exhibition on display this month.

The impetus for the reading was the release of Merrill’s first full-length poetry collection, Persephone Heads for the Gate, winner of the Gerald Cable Book Award published by Silverfish Review Press. We were treated to several poems from the new book, including the title poem, as well as a number of more recently written poems. As always with Merrill’s work, I was impressed by her ability to bring a unique but no-nonsense perspective to everyday objects and occurrences, curating just the right details to reveal the essence of her subjects. Persephone joins Parking Meters into Mermaids (Finishing Line Press, 2020) on the shelves at the Artisan Gallery. For those outside our area, they can also be ordered through the provided links.

This was my first opportunity to hear Suzanne Cleary read in-person and I loved it! She somehow manages to maintain energy and insight in longer narrative poems, a skill that I much admire but doubt I will ever attain. In honor of reading back in her hometown, Suzanne chose some poems with local ties, as well as those relating to different time periods and circumstances. Some were from her prior books (listings with ordering information here) while others were newer work. We all loved the first poem she read, which was about her experiences with reading Merrill’s work! We were also thrilled with the news that Suzanne will have a new book, The Odds, published in Spring 2025 by New York Quarterly Books. It was chosen by poet Jan Beatty as winner of the 2024 Laura Boss Narrative Poetry Award. Updated information should be available through the links I’ve provided or ask at your favorite bookstore.

Merrill and Suzanne answered audience questions and then engaged in conversation and book signing. It was a wonderful experience! I encourage you all to check out their work and enjoy!