Inspired by Democratic vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz’s video of a campaign stop in Nebraska where he grew up, spouse B made runza for the first time.
He chose a classic beef and cabbage filling and made his own bread dough because that’s how he rolls!
They were delicious!
Thanks, Tim Walz, for introducing us to a Nebraska specialty and for your support of local businesses as you tour the country on the campaign trail!
(Cover Art by Charlie Scalia-Bruce <3)
I’m pleased to announce that my poem “Confessional” has been published in the annual print edition of The Sandy River Review. I admit that I love seeing my poems in print; the edition will also be available online at a future date.
Many thanks to the Humanities Department of the University of Maine at Farmington, their Creative Writing students and faculty, and the editorial team for including me in this beautiful volume of poetry, prose, and visual art.
“Confessional” was written in response to a July, 2020 Binghamton Poetry Project prompt based on James Wright’s “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota.” It’s about my first confession as a Catholic second-grader. In the spirit of no poem ever really being finished, a revised version is part of my full-length manuscript which I will begin submitting to contests and presses soon.
I’m still in a back-and-forth with WordPress about how to get my author site and blog configured correctly.
You may have had trouble accessing my latest posts yesterday due to a change they made. I’ve reverted back to the prior settings, which aren’t optimal but are functional.
If you missed yesterday’s post, you can find it here.
a changed landscape
(Photo by Lucas Sankey on Unsplash)
There has been a torrent of presidential election news since I posted Vote for Democracy #12 the day after the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. For those who may not follow United States election news, this post will try to fill you in on what has happened to change the presidential election so massively since then.
The Republican party held their convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, July 15th-18th. While it had been billed as being unifying in the wake of the assassination attempt, the message seemed to be welcoming only to those ready to believe the lies about the 2020 election being “stolen” and a lot of other lies about crime rates, immigration, the economy, and a host of other issues. Ohio Senator JD Vance became the vice-presidential nominee. At age 39, he is literally half Donald Trump’s age. He has only served in office for a year and a half and is better known as an author and venture capitalist. Trump gave the longest televised nomination acceptance speech ever at about 92 minutes. He started by recounting the assassination attempt but then veered off the prepared remarks into a version of his rally speech with a lot of rambling.
Meanwhile, President Biden was under increasing pressure to step aside from the presidential campaign, which he did on July 21st, putting his support behind Vice President Kamala Harris for the nomination. It is unusual for a US president to decide not to seek an additional term, especially this close to an election and there are reams of commentary about it.
Like Joe Biden, I’m Catholic and think about his decision to step aside as an example of servant leadership, a model that is exemplified by Christ. Too often, leadership in the Church has been dominated by clericalism and in government by authoritarianism, oligarchy, or other forms of being power- or wealth-hungry. Biden did what he thought would be best for the country, not seeking re-election to concentrate on his presidential duties for this last six months of his term or one-eighth of his presidency.
About half an hour after announcing his decision, President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the nomination. He asked the delegates pledged to him for the Democratic party’s convention to vote for her, although they were no obligated to do so. Harris declared her candidacy shortly thereafter. Because the campaign had previously been the Biden-Harris campaign, she was entitled to use the resources, including funds, on hand.
There was a groundswell of support for her candidacy. In the first 24 hours, her campaign raised $81 million. Within the first week, there was $200 million, 66% of it from first-time donors. Over 170,000 people had volunteered to help the campaign. Tens of thousands had registered to vote. Funds have also poured into political action committees to support her candidacy.
Meanwhile, Harris has gained endorsements from leading political figures, unions, and organizations. Importantly, the convention delegates have been meeting online to pursue a virtual role call for the nomination. This was the procedure they used last time due to the pandemic; they are using it this year because their convention isn’t until Aug. 19-22 due to the timing of the Republican convention and the Olympics. Some states have deadlines for ballot access earlier in August, so the nomination is being finalized online before the physical gathering in Chicago. In order to be placed into nomination, a candidate needed to have 300 delegates pledged to them. Harris is the only candidate to meet that threshold. She hasn’t yet chosen a running mate, but we expect that announcement soon.
While Harris has been joyfully and skillfully doing numerous speeches, fundraisers, and official appearances, such as greeting the American hostages returning from Russia, the Trump campaign has been confounded. They had apparently centered their strategy around attacking Joe Biden, which is now moot. The Trump campaign and Republicans have engaged in attacks on Harris that come across as misogynistic, racist, and anti-immigrant. They fault Harris for not having given birth, although she is an actively engaged stepmom to Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff’s two children. They mock her laugh. The daughter of a Jamaican immigrant father and Indian immigrant mother, Kamala Harris has always celebrated both her Black and Asian roots. Somehow, Trump can’t seem to wrap his head around that fact, which is bizarre to most of us who are or have family and friends who are multi-racial/ethnic. Trump has even tried to characterize Harris as anti-Semitic, although she is married to a Jewish man.
I appreciate Harris’s political savvy in being able to briefly address the lies about her but then carry on with her own skills, history, and policy provisions, defining herself for the public rather than letting her opponents put her in a box.
The contrasts between her and the Trump/Vance ticket are stark. Trump and Vance have 5 1/2 years of public service in elected office between them. Harris has held elected office since 2004 as San Francisco district attorney, California attorney general, United States senator, and vice president, giving her twenty years of experience across three branches of government. Harris is an experienced prosecutor who brought cases against fraud and sexual abuse while Trump is a convicted felon who has also been found libel for financial fraud and sexual abuse. If elected, Harris would make history as the first woman and the first person of South Asian descent to hold the US presidency. If Trump is elected, he would be the oldest president at the time of election and the first convicted criminal in the office. Harris is committed to the Constitution and the rule of law and wants to uphold democracy at home and among our allies. Trump has espoused authoritarian ideas, tried to stay in office after he lost the 2020 election, fomented an insurrection, stolen classified documents and other presidential papers, and admires autocrats.
Trump uses lies and manipulation to spread a message of fear and grievance. Harris uses her experience and intelligence to bring a message of hope and strength.
She has earned my support.
I urge all eligible Americans to make sure they are registered and look at the facts and the positions of the candidates for president, Congress, and any other elections and propositions that may be on their ballots in November.
Vote for democracy ’24!
They say that patience is a virtue.
Sometimes, I’m better with it than others.
I’ve been wanting to write a long, catch-up post for my Vote for Democracy ’24 series because so much has happened, but I haven’t had much good-quality brainpower to do it.
Sorry about that.
I hope you have more patience with me than I have with myself.
Just a quick note that I am working on re-configuring my author site and blog.
I’m in a bit of a tangle with WordPress support in how to actually implement what I thought I had done when I acquired joannecorey.com as my custom domain last September.
For now, please note that what had been the main menu items for Top of JC’s Mind are now in a drop-down menu. I’m not a fan of drop-down menus but I haven’t yet figured out how to retain the prior look of topofjcsmind.wordpress.com under the joannecorey.com domain.
If I can’t figure it out, you may have to put up with some more finagling in the coming days. I’m hoping not to have to change my theme because it suits me and is, I think, easy to read.
Stay tuned…
I thought I’d do a brief update on my health status, despite still being in the middle of the diagnostic swamp.
When I wrote my last update, I had not yet started vestibular therapy or had my hearing test. The hearing test ruled out hearing loss as a cause for the tinnitus. I’ve been making progress with vestibular therapy and my balance is improving, although fatigue or being out in the summer weather aggravates things considerably.
It’s looking increasingly like the basic problem may be in my neck, so I have just begun physical therapy on my neck and we are looking into referrals to specialists who might be able to arrive at a diagnosis.
Meanwhile, I’m continuing to operate at diminished capacity. The tinnitus remains constant. There is still a lot of fatigue and brain fog and some periods of fuzzy vision. The neck pain, headache, and tingling come and go. I have to be careful not to do too much on any particular day and sometimes need naps. I am cutting back on my responsibilities and activities, which is frustrating.
Stay tuned…
“Meister Eckhart instructs us that to ignore our capacity to give birth, to run from our responsibility to create, is to run from goodness itself: If human beings have something that they do not bestow on others, they are not good.”
~Matthew Fox
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesdays! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/07/03/one-liner-wednesday-did-you-know/
One of the substacks I read regularly is Joyce Vance.
She is a lawyer and legal scholar whose commentary I hear often on television. She writes long and thoughtful posts about the current legal issues in the United States, of which there are many.
To lighten things, she also posts about her hobbies.
She will show us what her latest knitting project is, for example.
The thing other than law about which she posts most, though, is her chickens.
She and her family keep a coop with several varieties of chickens. She posts about what she is feeding them. Their interactions with the family’s dog and cat. Their new coop. What they are doing around the yard. How they hop up into her lap sometimes.
She will also occasionally post photos of their eggs. Because there are different breeds, the eggs are various colors and sizes.
The chickens bring Joyce comfort and joy, which she shares with her readers.
I admit that I have no desire to care for chickens myself, but I appreciate Joyce’s sharing her love with all of us.
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday this week is “chicken or egg.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2024/06/28/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-june-29-2024/
