There is no one but us to form a human barrier between our cherished country and 45's fascist takeover of it.

All: we need to circle the wagons around our Postal Service, period.

I've already called my elected representatives (congressional switchboard phone number: 202-224-3121) and strongly urged them to stand up for our Postal Service, and against 45's fascist ruination attempt of it. And, I swear here in writing, if somehow I am near the stand-alone mailbox nearest to my home, and anyone tries to take it away, as was done in other states but, thanks to a hue and cry, that has been stopped--for the moment--I will physically place my body between all comers and that box and they will have to take me with the box to wherever they are taking the box, while I am videoing them with my phone and simultaneously figuring out how to livestream.

We are living in the midst of a fascist takeover attempt. We've already had babies in cages in for-profit concentration camps, kidnapped from their parents illegally, tortured and traumatized, in actual violation of international, let alone national, law. We've already had the complicit Republican Senate turn a blind eye to abuse of power and treason by 45 and rule that he is above the law/constitution. We've already had so much more that I could list but you know. You know. And now we have the same POTUS responsible for all that actively trying to ruin the United States Postal Service, which--if he is successful--will hurt all American citizens and our country, and he is openly stating that he is doing it to SUBVERT THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION--to suppress the vote, to stop American citizens from voting: he has stated this. This is treason. This is abuse of power. Call your Senators and Congressional Representatives now and demand that they stand up to it/to 45. Tragically and sickeningly, the majority party will not. They are complicit traitors. Therefore it is up to us (but CALL THEM anyway and demand that they do something, even though most of the Republicans will not):

If they won't impeach, convict and remove this treasonous traitor, we have to remove him ourselves: request a mail-in ballot if you have not done so yet, so that you can safely vote in the upcoming November election. When you get the mail-in ballot, VOTE, vote, VOTE like you've never voted before! I'm talking VOTE. Then either mail your ballot in immediately, same day you get it and vote it, or take your ballot to a secure drop-off location.

Don't stop there. Continue to call, write and show up at your elected representatives' offices and town halls--demand that they protect our Postal Service and fully FUND it. DEMAND that the sorting machines that 45 has had removed in his bid for fascism be put back immediately. Volunteer as a poll worker if you are healthy and have no pre-existing conditions, as many poll volunteers are seniors and may not feel safe volunteering this year. Offer to help your friends, neighbors and co-workers--everyone you know--to register to vote, request mail-in ballots if they want to vote by mail (and we all really should be this year, given the pandemic), or to give them a ride to the polls by if they want/need that.

We may need to form human circles around mailboxes in the near future. This is no joke. This is a President of the United States attempting to move us from the transition to fascism which, I have news for you all, we are deep in the midst of, thanks to him, to being a fully fascist country.

There is no one but us to stop this man, and his complicit band of traitors. There is no one but we, the people, to do it. We have to rise to this occasion. We are enough, if we choose to be. We can, and must, do this. The constitution and our laws are powerful but only if we continuously fight for them. We are their fuel. The most powerful and well-designed car on earth cannot run without fuel.

When 45 comes for mailboxes, you know he is closing in on crossing the finish line to fascism. We have to form a human barrier of we, the people, between him and said line. NOW.

Read this link (to an excellent Facebook post by a US Postal Service worker):  We must save our Postal Service

TREASON!

"Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."

Treason is giving aid and comfort to an enemy of the United States. But what do you call a President of the United States who actually, openly, IS that enemy? He's treasonous and even beyond treason because he not only gives aid and comfort to an enemy foreign power (Russia, if you're listening...), he's also the enemy himself:  he's now openly attempting to ruin the United States Postal Service, disrupt the mail, and thereby violate/hurt every American citizen, the functioning of our country, and, oh yeah, also the sanctity and function of the upcoming election, in the middle of a lethal pandemic in which going to the polls in person is deadly.

At what point will the COMPLICIT Republican Senate finally stop turning a blind eye and, to use phrases harking back to Nazi Germany, being "good German citizens", and "just following orders"? At what bleeping point will the entire Senate finally stand up and shout "TREASON!", and impeach, convict and remove this utterly corrupt, power-abusing, constitution-flouting, enemy of the United States of America?

I know it is only a few months until the election. Still: it's the principle and the reality of the thing: he must be removed. And, since the complicit Republican Senators apparently have NO limit to their blind eye turning, from babies in cages, to being in bed with Putin, to Emoluments Clause violations to now openly trying to bring down the United States Postal Service and thus openly trying to disrupt the upcoming election and currently in process primary season (I just mailed in my local primary ballot this week--I wonder if it will get there), we, the people, must remove this treasonous traitor in November. PERIOD.

Wake up, before we slip surreptitiously into fascism.

Lights

Went to the Lights for Liberty event here in my city (St. Petersburg, FL) last night. It was raining. I had just worked a full day. I didn't feel like going. But I went, for the children. I went for my people, because never again. I went because this is happening in my country, my beloved United States of America, and it is outrageous, horrifying and unacceptable. I went because of something one of my heroes, Gandhi, said, which I thought of (and posted) just before leaving, and which was then said by another attendee at the event later, last night: "You must be the change you wish to see in the world." But, back to the children: mainly I went because there are children in cages. Babies. In cages.

I thought: okay, even though it's raining and I don't feel like it, I *have* to go, because what if there is media coverage and only a few people show up? That would be awful. I have to go.

Well, as I approached the church at which the event was being held, my heart swelled up and almost burst. I felt exactly as I had in January 2017 at the very first ever Women's March: I realized, oh my God, there are *so many* GOOD people! So many good people in America! (Also eff the electoral college, because clearly the majority of Americans are NOT being represented by our presidential election results--sorry Mom, I know we disagreed on this, and I've thought about your excellent arguments for it for many years, but I'm sure now: I'm against the electoral college! But I digress...) The whole street was jam-packed with cars, trying to get to the event, and trying to find parking! There were people directing traffic!

The entire church parking lot was full. That particular church has a (large!!!) overflow parking lot, which was also completely full. "We're telling people to park in the neighborhood", said one of the people directing traffic to me. So into Allendale I went, along with a whole line of cars. Block after block into the hood I went, the residential street I was now on was completely lined with cars. Not ONE spot.

Luckily, I'm from St. Pete--well, not originally from St. Pete, but I mean, I've lived here for 25 years. And my current house is just minutes from Allendale. I know how to find a parking space: so I kind of went the long way around the church, to the street behind it, and kept going and finally found a street that had spaces, which was actually not a far walk from the back of the church.

As I walked on the signature, beautiful brick streets of my city, rain drizzling down, I flowed into a sea of other people. Each one of them had put children ahead of avoiding going out in the rain. So many people SHOWED UP. Again, my heart felt, well, heartened! Just like at the first Women's March, I was so very heartened and hope-infused by all the PEOPLE!

The sea of us flowed into the church, which was full. No seats in the huge sanctuary. The program was about to start. We were initially told to go up to the balcony. But no, wait, it was full, too. It was standing room only. Okay, the children are all crowded into cages. I can stand in a church for a few hours. "It's better to show up than to give up", as another hero of mine, Bernie Sanders, often says. So many people showed up. My heart was in my throat, before the event even started.

Suddenly a voice from the stage, way far away, "If the ushers would bring people up to the front, there are seats in the front row." I found myself in a stream of people being led to the front row. Unfortunately, my seat was waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to the right side, so my chiropractic adjustment of a few days ago ended up getting a little jiggered out of wack by the end of the thing, as I had to turn my neck waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to the left the entire time, as guess what side of the stage the podium was on. But it's okay. The children. My neck is fine. Also, it was hardest on my ENT situation with all the lit candles, particularly this guy behind me who kept his lit the entire time and the smoke was really bothering me, but it's okay. It's a few hours, I kept telling myself as I coughed and sputtered. The children. You need to be here.

The event was extremely hard to sit through. There were cages on the stage, replicating the cages at the concentration camps (I call them what they are, not detention centers). The first thing that happened was some people--some adults, mostly, and some teens and kids--a large group, went up on stage, behind the fencing, each wrapped in a thin Mylar "blanket", just like the ones that the children have. And then, the really though stuff began: each person up there read from something written by people--adults and children--in the camps, which had been obtained by a group of attorneys who had gotten in to see them. It was terrible. Terrible to hear, in the first person, what is going on in our country, in our name! These are concentration camps and children are being tortured, period.

No one (but other detainees) is taking care of the babies. They are not being given diapers or beds, toothbrushes, showers or medical care when they are sick. One girl said that a guard asked them "Who wants to care for this two-year old?" A person had said she would, but that person (another child) got tired of it after a few hours, so didn't take care of the two-year old anymore. So the person who wrote this note, this first-hand account, for the lawyers, stepped up and did so. She takes care of the two-year-old now. There are no diapers, no clean clothes. And the two-year-old "never talks."

After the first-hand accounts, one after the other after the other, there were speakers, and a musician, and break-out groups at the end, so that we would not leave without knowing things we can actually DO to try to help. There was a legislative action break-out group, and something else, and a "Homestead" group.

I went to the Homestead group, for people interested in possibly going down there, to the Homestead, FL facility. But when I actually heard what it would be like, what it would consist of, now I'm not sure. I don't want to just wave at children who are captives in concentration camps, and hold up a heart. I don't think the younger ones are going to understand anything but BEING REUNITED WITH THEIR PARENTS, or other family. Being freed. If I go down there, I am breaking these people the BLEEP out. Because, if I were in Germany, 1944, I'm not just going to stand there holding up a heart and waving.

So that doesn't feel like the thing that I want to do, though God bless those who are bearing witness, and bringing attention to the camps, and trying to help in that way. But I think that I would get myself killed (being dead--no pun intended--serious here) by trying to break in and free the people. I'd be shot on sight, or jailed. Because no way am I standing on some ladder and waving and holding up a heart. The thought of that, as they were talking about it, made me sick.

One woman (who had gone, who had been there) said that "When it hits you, when it punches you, is when they wave back." NO! I thought: no. To me, the whole description of going there just sounds too much like going to see animals in a zoo or something, and these are children. Again, I would NOT--I'm telling you right now--just be able to stand there and hold up a heart and wave, although I think those doing so are admirable, loving, courageous, beautiful souls. But again, I would get myself arrested or killed, I'm 100% sure of it, if I went there. Because my Mom's side of the family is Jewish, from *Germany*. And these kids are being traumatized, tortured really, in concentration camps, *right now*, *in my country*, and, there is an actual group with this great name: NEVER AGAIN IS NOW!

So, I'm glad I choose the Homestead break-out group, out of the three or four different ones, thinking, that's what I want to do, I want to--I NEED to--go down there. Because, had I not listened to the first-hand accounts of what that entails, I would not have learned that NO, no you don't, Edi. You are not going down there. Not to just stand there on a ladder and hold up a heart and wave, anyway. If I go down there, it will be to go INSIDE and not leave there without CHILDREN. Because it would kill me, one way or another, to just stand there and wave. Maybe the older ones understand what that is--that we are sending them love, that we care, that we are TRYING--but the little ones? All they are feeling is: "Why is no one HELPING us? Where is my PARENT?" And unless I can go down there and get them OUT of the concentration camp and/or reunite them with their family, I can't go, I tell you. I will have to help in other ways.

So last night was terrible in the sense that the whole situation we were there about is terrible. Yet last night was, just like the Women's March in 2017, only even more so: profoundly heartening and hope-renewing. Why? For the simple reason that so many, many, many, MANY people SHOWED UP.

In the front row, at one point I turned and looked when everyone was holding up lit candles. A full sanctuary. A full upper balcony. Standing room also all full. A sea of lit candles. A sea of souls who care. Who came out on a rainy night for the children. Folks: America is still good. Right now, evil is being done in our name, on our watch, by our representatives, but we will stop it. We will.

Which Side Are You On?

I just ended a friendship with someone I go back many decades with, and who is very special to me. Someone I loved with all my heart.

But this person doesn't seem to have a problem with 45 kidnapping babies and children, separating them from their parents, orphaning them, and traumatizing them in cages in concentration camps. I've been aware of this for a while, but I tried very hard to not let it come between our friendship. However, the thing is, this is one of those times in history when you HAVE to choose sides. And there is no middle ground. Not only is there is no being okay with children in cages, in concentration camps, obviously, but for me, there is no being okay with anyone who IS okay with that. No matter who that person is.

There's a line and you are either on the right side of it or you are not. So if anyone is okay with Trump separating children from their parents, not documenting who they belong with (and/or, in some cases, even when "US PARENT" and a phone # is written on the child's arm, the administration isn't even bothering to make a phone call to reunite the children with the family member), and keeping the children in cages, in concentration camps, please unfriend me now. We're on different sides of history. And there is no reaching across, on this one, for me. Not for anyone. Because if you choose that side, I can no longer see that you have a heart or soul.