“…the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”
~~~ US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, 1938
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The overhead warning signs on Route 17/86 near Binghamton, New York flashed this message:
Slow down you must.
Arrive safely you will.
They were channeling Yoda because today is May the fourth, the tongue-in-cheek day to celebrate the Stars Wars franchise because the dialogue sometimes included the phrase, “May the force be with you.”
I thought I should provide the explanation because some readers would have no context on this, due to their generation, cultural background, or obliviousness to Star Wars. 😉
(Image by martin from Pixabay)
When a people agree to form themselves into a republic … it is understood that they mutually resolve and pledge themselves to each other, rich and poor alike, to support this rule of equal justice among them … (and) they renounce as detestable, the power of exercising, at any future time any species of despotism over each other, or of doing a thing not right in itself, because a majority of them may have the strength of numbers sufficient to accomplish it.
Thomas Paine (1776), giving us a timely reminder on the eve of Law Day in the United States
Join us for Linda’s One-Liner Wednesday! More info here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/04/30/one-liner-wednesday-all-in/. My apologies to my email subscribers who probably received this post yesterday when I mistakenly published it on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. Brain fog is a thing…
On this day, I would like all of us to hope anew and to revive our trust in others, including those who are different than ourselves, or who come from distant lands, bringing unfamiliar customs, ways of life and ideas!
From Pope Francis’s Easter message, April 20, 2025, which was proclaimed on his final full day of life
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“I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.”
~~~Abraham Lincoln, first Republican president of the United States
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In the first few seasons of The Late Show, Stephen Colbert did a recurring skit, then a best-selling book, called Midnight Confessions, in which he “confesses” to his audience with the disclaimer that he isn’t sure these things are really sins but that he does “feel bad about them.” While Stephen and his writers are famously funny, I am not, so my JC’s Confessions will be somewhat more serious reflections, but they will be things that I feel bad about. Stephen’s audience always forgives him at the end of the segment; I’m not expecting that – and these aren’t really sins – but comments are always welcome.
On April 6, 2025, Pope Francis appeared in public for the first time after returning home from his long hospitalization. It was at the end of a special Jubilee liturgy for the sick and health care workers and others who care for them. He had written the homily and a special blessing for the mass, although they were read by others. Francis wrote:
In this moment of my life I share a lot: the experience of infirmity, feeling weak, depending on the others for many things, needing support. It is not easy, but it is a school in which we learn every day to love and to let ourselves be loved, without demanding and without rejecting, without regretting, without despairing, grateful to God and to our brothers for the good that we receieve, trusting for what is still to come.
I am currently entering the second year of dealing with a complex medical situation that has not yet been fully diagnosed. I don’t know if I will be able to be adequately treated or if I will continue to see progression in my symptoms.
It’s hard.
I confess that I am not always gracious in this situation. I manage to let others do things for me and to ask for accommodations if I need them, but I find it difficult to set aside regret and to trust in the future.
This is especially hard for me in regard to my future as a poet. I don’t know if I will regain the creativity I’ve lost to brain fog and fatigue. I’m even losing the concentration and attention to detail needed to do submissions for my already existing poems and manuscripts.
I’m trying not to get to the point of despair.
These next few weeks are important in that I have a new batch of tests and specialist visits coming up.
Maybe having some more information about what is happening will help me to be better with being sick.
Maybe not.
I’ll try.
(I realized when I went back in my blog to find the number confession this was that this confession is, in a way, a continuation of #30.)
Sign that a friend made for the Hands Off! gatherings on Saturday, April 5, 2025 with a quote from Cory Booker‘s record-breaking speech in the United States Senate: “This is a moral moment.”
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“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
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“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
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The sign at my church, St. Francis of Assisi, this weekend:
D E I is what the kingdom of God is about.
Amen!
Joanne Corey 