Category: government

Hands Off!

Vote for Democracy #35

(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)

Tomorrow, April 5, 2025, there will be hundreds of gatherings across the United States for a Hands Off! day of action. There are even some events in other countries.

These nonviolent marches, rallies, and discussions are in protest of the way that Donald Trump and Elon Musk are gutting legitimate government programs that support the well-being of people and the environment, both in the US and around the world.

Many organizations are helping to organize these gatherings, all with the message of Hands Off! So, Hands Off Climate! Hands Off Health Care! Hands Off Hunger Programs! Hands Off USAID! Hands Off Education! Hands Off National Parks! and more. People will be making signs and creating chants across a wide range of issues that matter to them and to all of us.

While it’s unknown if these large numbers of people coming out across the country will have any impact on the cuts that Trump/Musk/DOGE are making, even when the courts say those cuts are illegal and Congress fails to act, it’s possible. Some cuts have been reversed or service restored after public outcry.

Part of this is to show the Republicans and the Trump administration just how appalling their actions are and how many millions of Americans object to them and want them reversed.

Ordinarily, I would be signed up and ready to participate in the local rally, but my health is preventing me from being there. It feels wrong not to be participating, but I have to trust that many others will be giving voice to my concerns in person, while I am confined to writing about it and calling my representatives. I’m also supporting some of the participating organizations.

I had intended to write more posts about what the administration was doing and the impacts of the insane cuts and policy changes; I just haven’t had the energy to do it. More tests and specialists coming up, so maybe things will get better – eventually.

With the country, I’m not so sure…

One-Liner Wednesday: Cory Booker

In gratitude for the witness, intelligence, fortitude, and patriotism of Senator Cory Booker (Democrat of New Jersey), who set a record for longest floor speech in the United States Senate yesterday evening at 25 hours, 4 minutes, during which he spoke against the immoral, damaging budget that the Republicans plan to ram through the Congress; the previous record had been held by Strom Thurmond, who in 1957 spoke against the Civil Rights Act, making it all the more fitting that Sen. Booker, a Black man who Thurmond would have wanted to keep segregated and poorly educated, was the one to so eloquently speak out on behalf of the American people, especially those most vulnerable.

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/04/02/one-liner-wednesday-what-the-heck/

One-Liner Wednesday: standing up to totalitarianism

“It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques—techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.”
~~~ Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-Maine), speaking out in 1950 against McCarthyism

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/03/26/one-liner-wednesday-coffee-2/

Twenty years ago

(Hearts by Angie Traverse)

Twenty years ago today, my friend Angie died.

We had met when we were volunteering at the middle school our children attended. Angie was kind and caring and funny and talented and we became friends, although she had a plethora of friends already. Because we were both doing volunteering and taking care of family, we had the flexibility to meet for lunch and chat or work on committee projects. Because Angie’s good will also embraced family, she got to know my parents.

We thought that, one day, we would become grandparents and have multi-generational hangouts.

Unfortunately, a nagging cough when Angie was 50 turned out to be stage 3 lung cancer. It was a shock because she had never been a smoker. Despite all the best efforts of her medical team, the cancer eventually progressed and took her life at 54.

March 25th was Good Friday that year.

There was a charitable fund set up in her name and, for years, I gave to it every year on March 25th and on her October birthday. The last few years, though, the website has disappeared. I think the fund probably had enough contribution for it to be endowed so its work can continue.

I’ve written about Angie before here at Top of JC’s Mind and even had a poem published about our friendship and her loss.

I didn’t know it at the time, but Angie’s death was followed by the loss of my long-time parish community and the death of B’s dad, the first loss of a grandparent for our daughters.

2005 became one of the worst years of my life.

I fear that 2025 may be even worse, especially when I look at what is happening in the United States as our democracy disintegrates and damages lives here and abroad.

Personally, this will be the year where we figure out what is going on with my health and address it or the year where I have to deal with giving up what I thought my life as an elder would be.

A small problem when people are dying or being threatened or losing family members because Trump/Musk/Vance et al think they can break laws, norms, and ethical obligations and concentrate all power in the executive branch.

I am sorry that I am too weak to be out on the streets for protests and have to confine my activities to online posts and messages and phone calls.

I’m hoping we can turn 2025 around after these horrible last couple of months.

Trying – while mourning for those who have been hurt.

And still, twenty years later, missing Angie.

One-Liner Wednesday: integrity

“If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”
~~~ Former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson, who passed away last week at the age of 93

Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/03/18/one-liner-wednesday-you-know-youre-getting-older-when/

5 years of COVID-19

(COVID Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash)

The COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns began in the United States five years ago this month. I’ve written a lot of posts about it over those years and I’m proud to say that they have been added to the archives of the Newark Valley (NY) Historical Society to be preserved for future research.

To date, there has only been one case in our household, when B contracted it at a work event in November, 2023. Fortunately, T and I did not get sick.

All three of us participated in Phase III clinical trials for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and have kept up to date on recommended doses as the virus has mutated into new variants over these past five years. We’ve also taken other precautions, such as masking and avoiding crowds when virus levels are high. Admittedly, it’s been harder and harder to get information about virus levels in our area as the public health emergency lapsed and reporting became optional.

I do still get some public health and long COVID newsletters that give some information. I found out today, for example, that there is a new variant, BA.3.2, in South Africa that has 50 new spike mutations. It could stay localized and fizzle out; if it out-competes other strains and spreads, it could create a wave similar to Omicron.

As far as the United States goes, I’m concerned that the vaccination rates are likely to fall even further with a vaccine skeptic now in charge of the Department of Health and Human Services. The United States has already suffered over 1.2 million deaths from COVID with millions more dealing with long-lasting health repercussions. Vaccines can help people avert more severe symptoms and decrease the chances of being infected but work best if a large proportion of the population are vaccinated. This also helps protect people who have more fragile immune systems, such as the very young, elders, and people with compromised immune systems.

I believe that information is power, but it needs to be factual information, not wishful thinking or political posturing. We can’t pretend that the virus doesn’t still kill or sicken people and that the United States is not continuing to lose hundreds of people each week due to COVID-19.

To deny the existence of COVID and/or its impact on our lives dishonors those we have lost, those who have been sickened by the virus, their loved ones, and their communities.

Take care of each other and do what you can to keep us all as healthy as possible.

Reblog: An Apology to the World

An Apology to the World for One-Liner Wednesday

I had to share this post from my blogger-friend JoAnna. She expresses what I and millions of others in the United States are feeling right now.

One-Liner Wednesday: more from Thomas Paine in 1776

“There are persons, too, who see not the full extent of the evil which threatens them; they solace themselves with hopes that the enemy, if he succeed, will be merciful. It is the madness of folly, to expect mercy from those who have refused to do justice.”
~~~ Thomas Paine, closing lines of American Crisis, 1776

This sobering 1+ liner comes to you as part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday series. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/03/05/one-liner-wednesday-bad-suggestions/

Sharing “A Ukrainian Prayer”

Image by Satheesh Sankaran from Pixabay

I wrote this post in April, 2022, in support of the Ukrainian people suffering the invasion of their country. It shares a recording of the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton singing John Rutter’s “A Ukrainian Prayer” which was written so that people around the world could offer a prayer for the Ukrainians.

I am appalled and sickened by the unconscionable abandoning of Ukraine by Donald Trump, JD Vance, and their administration. I know millions upon millions in the United States are also vehemently opposed to their abandonment of a sovereign, democratic ally in favor of a murderous, corrupt dictator who invaded a neighbor without cause.

I am grateful to the European community and our Canadian neighbors who are convening an emergency meeting to support Ukraine. I, along with the majority of Americans, will be supporting their efforts as we continue our resistance to the Trump administration here at home.

“A Ukrainian Prayer”

One-Liner Wednesday: Thomas Paine in 1776

“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.”
~~~ Thomas Paine, opening lines of American Crisis, 1776

This sobering 1+ liner comes to you as part of Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday series. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/02/26/one-liner-wednesday-useless-superpowers/