Watch the Fundraiser for Democracy, hosted by Lynda Carter, featuring Brad Meltzer, Mark Hamill, Jon Cryer, the casts of The Boys, Supernatural, and Star Trek, and other geeks and nerds who want this American experiment to continue.
I would recommend watching as much as you like, but please watch Mark Sheppard (the sci-fi king!) and Jim Beaver, from Supernatural as they express what many are feeling as only they can, as an immigrant and a veteran, respectively. They both gave a beautiful tribute to this country and freedom.
The end of summer has brought on several inspirationals including some exciting places to visit and collect pins from as well as a Kamala/Walz lawn flag in my neighborhood which made me slightly giddy! Our yard sign should be coming next week. Our neighbor had one that I really loved so I ordered the same one.
A few of the pins already belonged to me but a few are new from the trip, from the places we visited and a couple from my family from their day at Fan Expo Canada.
What are some of the things that inspired, and continue to inspire you this summer, and as summer comes to a close?
One neighbor’s flag. I’ll share our sign when it comes. (c) 2024
I’ll let you know what the pins are in the block below. (c) 2024
This quote is from the eleventh book in Louise Penny’s Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series, The Nature of the Beast.
The story itself centers on a play written by a serial killer, and Armand questions the appropriateness of performing a play written by someone with questionable to no morals in addition to his heinous actions. This is something that I sometimes struggle with, in the past, currently, and imparting my feelings to my children while letting them make their own decisions on the subject.
Armand and Reine-Marie seem to disagree in the quote below.
What do you think? How would you or how have you separated the art from the artist? Have you had to do this? Have you dropped someone or something completely because of that internal, moral struggle?
Think deeply and then write your thoughts.
“Should the creation be judged by its creator? Does it matter?”
…
““So it has nothing to do with Fleming and his crimes?” asked Reine-Marie. “Nothing to do with him as a man?” “It has everything to do with him,” said Armand, his voice clipped, strained. They looked at him. Never had they heard him come even close to being upset with his wife. “If John Fleming created it, it’s grotesque. It can’t help but be. Maybe not obviously so, but he’s in every word, every action of the characters. The creator and the created are one.””
On Tuesday, I had intended to begin the campaign season with a new Election Connection, and if I do, it will be links to Act Blue, Vote Save America, and the Kamala Harris campaign. (Any money that continues to go into Joe Biden’s official campaign account can be and will be transferred to Vice President Harris, so don’t stop donating.)
It’s currently Sunday afternoon, and when I first saw the news, I didn’t believe it. I went from room to room to chair to TV remote with my mantra, thisisbullshitthisisbullshitthisisbullshit, and apparently it’s not bullshit. That doesn’t make it okay. That doesn’t make me okay. I thought I might pass out.
I’m still shaking.
It’s 2:40 and the pity party is over. I don’t want to hear about proxies. I don’t want to hear about Republican unity candidates. I don’t want to hear about a contested convention.
THERE WILL BE NONE OF THAT.
Do you hear me?NONE.
Kamala Harris has been the Vice President for four years, she is on the ticket,
and she will make a superb President on January 20, 2025.
We have 103 days to get this right.
Vote like my life depends on it. And my daughter’s.
“Each of us is put here in this time and this place to personally decide the future of humankind. Did you think the Creator would create unnecessary people in a time of such terrible danger? Know that you yourself are essential to this world. Understand both the blessing and the burden of that. You yourself are desperately needed to save the soul of this world. Did you think you were put here for something less? In a Sacred Hoop of Life, there is no beginning and no ending.”
Nearly one year ago, I attended the first of what I hope will be an annual event at the National Shrine and Historic Site of St. Kateri Tekakwitha in Fonda, New York. It was World Peace and Prayer Day and was being held around the world on the same day, the Summer Solstice.
Please watch this video as told by Chief Arvol Looking Horse about how the day came to begin, starting with his own life history and the tragic past and present of the reservation system. The words are weighty, and the music only adds to the chills I felt, and I think you will feel as you watch:
In 1994, Miracle, a rare white buffalo calf was born in Wisconsin. It was the first white buffalo calf born since 1933. White buffalo calves are sacred to many Native American nations in the US and Canada. The World Peace & Prayer Day began in 1996 and for a time, rotated to different sites until expanding to individual events held at sacred sites globally. The Kateri Shrine is one of those sacred sites and why the administration decided to hold this interfaith prayer service. The Shrine is sacred to the Native peoples who lived and nurtured the land and there is a Mohawk community nearby as well, and it is also sacred to Catholics who believe the Saint Kateri Tekakwitha lived there in the village of Caughnawaga throughout her child- and young adult-hood. This village is the only fully excavated Mohawk village in the country. I’ve written before about my experience there and how profound it was for me and others who attended it.
The Shrine is planning a second World Peace & Prayer Day service on the Summer Solstice, June 21.
Two days ago, it was revealed that another rare white buffalo was born in Montana, in Yellowstone National Park and according to Lakota prophecy and tradition this foretells better times coming as well as a caution that more must be done to protect the earth. This new calf and Miracle are said to be true white buffalo and not albino – they both have a black nose, hooves, and dark eyes.
In the article I’ve linked about this recent white buffalo calf, there is discussion about the killing and removal of bison every winter to keep the herds at about 5000 animals. There is opposition to increasing the numbers in herds from ranchers and the governor, but I don’t see any input from local tribes or from across the nation. Perhaps because they also oppose transferring the buffalo to the tribes. I wonder why they can’t go back to having the Native tribes participate in their traditional hunting of buffalo which kept the population manageable naturally.
That political segue is important to be aware of, but a digression to this joyous event of another white buffalo calf.
Whatever you’re doing and wherever you are on June 21, take a moment to pray on the continuing vitality of the earth, our home, and all of those who live here. I will be at the Kateri Shrine in Fonda participating in the ceremonies and listening to the prayers both spoken through the participants and in the air swaying the trees.
Earlier this week, the Reverend James Lawson passed away at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 95. He was a large part of the non-violent civil rights movement, learning that hatred and violence are not the way to bring about change. He learned this from his mother when he was a child and she asked him “what good that [his hitting another child for calling him the N-word] served,” and from Gandhi when he studied in India under his philosophy. As his mother suggested, he found a better way.
I first heard Rev. Lawson speak as I watched Congressman John Lewis’ funeral, and I was spellbound by his words and his reach through the television screen. He used the word ‘providential’ and that is what I felt listening to him. It was providential. And inspiring.
One year, on our way to Canada, we stopped in Rochester, New York. My boys wanted to visit a comic store (of course), and since we were in Rochester, I suggested we visit Susan B. Anthony’s gravesite (Section C, Plot 93). I wanted my daughter to see a symbol of one of the pioneers of suffrage and women’s right to vote. Especially because when I mentioned that she had been on the dollar coin, there was a little confusion and looking up the difference between the Anthony dollar and the Sacajawea one. Driving to Niagara Falls and the Canadian border, west on I-90, there are several signs for women’s history from Seneca Falls, NY (birthplace of women’s rights) to Auburn, NY (home of Harriet Tubman).
I’ve written before about Susan B. Anthony and suffrage. They can be found by searching my tags in the search bar to the left. Below find some places to visit related to Susan B. and women’s rights as well as the surrounding area.
Two races I’d recommend getting involved with are Harry Dunn and Eugene Vindman in Maryland and Virginia, respectively. These two names may seem familiar.
Eugene Vindman is a retired Army officer targeted for retaliation by the Trump Administration when he and his brother, Alexander, also an Army officer at the time came forward as whistleblowers when the then President Trump extorted the Ukraine government. Eugene is now running for Congress in the 7th District in Virginia.
Harry Dunn for Maryland’s 3rd Congressional District. 2024
Eugene Vindman for Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. 2024
A family piece that’s come down from my mother. A Rabbi, praying. (c)2024
This is the first part of a three-part series. The impetus was something I read in Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, which I will reflect on in the last part. Part One delves into my childhood, growing up Jewish in what I consider a fairly religious household, although it was less religious than my grandparents’ households that my parents grew up in. Looking back, it is certainly more religious than I raised my own kids in, and that will be discussed in Part Two. Part Three, funny enough is the part I wrote first, but then kept expanding and writing and re-writing, and realized there was more backstory than I could fit into that section. I hope you enjoy reading about my past lives, and my reflections and reconciliations with who I am today and how I became that person, at least in this one aspect of my life.
Griffins and Ginger Snaps 