We are Still We the People

 “Close your eyes and dream that when the electorate in this great nation repudiates this putrid regime, my brother, the day that happens there will be a joyful noise from the bowels of this great country that makes Hungry repudiating the Orban will look like an Amish Sabbath.”—Jon Stewart

 

The day Hitler’s war ended is stamped permanently on my consciousness. Our street was electrified. A taxi driver, horn blaring, his shirt flapping out his window as though shot from a canon, barreled bare chested down our street. My mother was racing around the house, preparing to go to town, where there would be a great celebration with the soldiers stationed there, and with her girlfriends, and the soldier she was dating. I begged to go along. I had never asked before. I thought war was the very worst thing that could happen. It took my father away. It made us ration our food and some of our clothing. People sacrificed, bought war bonds to help fund it. It killed people. I saw newsreels of it at the movie theater. It was terrible. But we were going to celebrate its end.

 

Thank You

 

Each of us is one, but together we are many.

While we were attending the No King’s March on Saturday, the dogs kept the home fires burning. Of course, if we had left a fire in the fireplace, they would have been sleeping in front of it. However, they kept to their job of guarding, sleeping, and greeting us when we came home, excited as though we had been gone for 6 months. Don’t you love enthusiastic greetings?

 

 The treats came from our visiting daughter. Her dog is in the middle. 

   

Hey, I’m as happy to see you here as fifteen otters using a muddy creek bank as a slip and slide.💗💗💗💗💗

 

When my spirit grows weary, I remind myself of Margaret Mead’s quote:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

—Margaret Mead

 

Last Saturday, thousands gathered peacefully in Springfield, Oregon, for a No Kings March. I even heard strains of the 60’s “This land you land, this land is our land, from California to the New York I- land…”.”

We gathered to state our case and to tell the establishment that this is what Democracy looks like—

 

And to remind everyone who will listen that what Abraham Lincoln said in a two-minute speech in Gettysburg still rings with the force of angels singing: “That the government of the people and by the people shall not perish from the earth.”

                                                              From my perspective

 

There I am by the Public House that looks like a church in the upper left-hand corner of the picture.

 

I left carrying HOPE. She doesn’t weigh much, and she is sweet and generous.

 

(Well, after the previous No Kings March, the President published a meme that showed him Crowned as a King flying a plane over the marchers and dumping excrement on them. (Oh, there is an entire AI-generated video—that’s totally gross.) That’s what he thinks of his constituents and anyone who dares oppose him. And, this man was somehow given the position of CEO of this country. What an opportunity to do good, to bring “we the people” together, and to guide honestly and honorably. He could have built a laudable legacy for himself and a future we could be proud of. Well, folks, he blew it!)

But we came back stronger on the second march. Eight Million of us! And I have gotten the message that Freedoms unless constantly guarded can and will, if given the opportunity, be taken away from us.