Categories
Living in Society

Democrats are Positive

Blue Heron catching breakfast.

Below are two constituent newsletters received after each incumbent congresswoman won their re-election on Nov. 5. The first is from Democrat Jan Schakowsky of Illinois’ 9th District. The second is from Republican Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa’s First District. The first is positive. The second is crabby, and full of lies. Which woman would you prefer in the Congress?

Jan’s Plans & Pans – November 18, 2024

Thank you to the people of Illinois’ 9th Congressional District for once again choosing me to be your voice in Congress. It truly is the honor of a lifetime! The fight for equal rights for all, an economy that works for everyday Americans, not just the rich, reproductive rights, and environmental protections goes on. Keep the faith. Let’s get to work.

Just a friendly reminder, if you need advice on navigating the Social Security Administration, help on an immigration case, aid in obtaining a passport, or assistance with the IRS, my staff and I are here to help, no matter your political party or beliefs. We will personally cut through the red-tape for you, and if we are unable, we will connect you with the agency or level of government that best suits your needs. Do not worry, my office can often save you a lot of time and stress. 

If you have not done so already, please be sure to follow me on Instagram, X, and Facebook, where my handle is @JanSchakowsky, to keep up with my latest updates.

Be well, Jan Schakowsky

Rep. Miller-Meeks: A Mandate for Change – November 17, 2024

November 5th, 2024 is a day that will forever be remembered as the day the American people voted for a mandate—a mandate for change.

After nearly four years under the Biden-Harris administration, it is clear that America stands at a crossroads. The failures of the current administration have left our nation grappling with challenges on multiple fronts – with soaring inflation seen by high interest rates, gas and grocery prices, this economic hardship felt by families is undeniable.

At the same time, this administration has overseen an unprecedented border crisis, with millions of illegal immigrants crossing our southern border. This flood of people has brought deadly synthetic fentanyl, gang activity, individuals on the terror watch list, and placed a severe strain on public resources.

Beyond these crises, the administration’s policies have further weakened the fabric of our society. Rising crime rates plague our cities, often driven by left-wing policies that coddle criminals while undermining law enforcement and often at the expense of victims. Americans, especially women, don’t feel safe and secure.

Adding to this are the multiple wars that have erupted around the world following Biden’s attempts to re-enter the Iran nuclear deal and the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, which resulted in the tragic loss of 13 service members and emboldened our adversaries. It’s no surprise, then, that Americans are demanding change.

The Biden-Harris legacy is one of confusion, failure, and an abandonment of the values that have made America exceptional. But on November 5th, 2024, the American people voted for a new direction.

It is now time for America to return to the principles that have made it the greatest nation in the world: a strong economy, strong military, secure borders, safe communities, and a commitment to fairness and equal opportunity for all through merit. 

With President Trump’s leadership and majorities in the House and Senate, we can restore our nation’s greatness. Together, we will secure our borders, revive our economy, and put an end to the ongoing wars that have drained many of our resources and undermined our national security. More importantly, we will restore hope for the millions of Americans who have felt forgotten under the Biden-Harris leadership. The American Dream is not dead – together, we can and will revive and restore it. 

As we look to the future, I pray for President Trump’s health and success. I look forward to working with his administration to implement policies that will bring stability, security, and prosperity back to our nation. God bless him, and may God bless the United States of America.

Sincerely, Mariannette

I’m not ready to move to Illinois… yet.

Categories
Writing

Autumn Morning

Along the state park trail.

I spaded the garlic patch on Saturday. It was too wet to till. I’m not in a hurry, yet I’d like to finish planting garlic soon. Rain is forecast all day today.

On Sunday, someone who helped edit my memoir pointed out the whole book was an origin story. Upon reflection, that seems accurate. It takes my story from the earliest times up until my beginnings as a married person in society. After that point, I drew on the origin story, and still do. However, what happened afterward was built on the foundation of my origin story, and is much different from the earlier period.

Last week I visited the new, multi-story University of Iowa clinic at Iowa River Landing for the first time. My physician and attending staff seemed competent. The facility is very nice. I noticed the presence of double-wide chairs in the waiting room and in the examination room. That furnishing is making a statement about the obesity epidemic in the United States. It’s not subtle. It did feel like I was smaller than I am when sitting in those.

I have been visiting various clinics a lot the last 3 months since I had COVID. It took me 2-1/2 hours to read everything that documented my visits and make a plan to heal. With that kind of time commitment, no wonder folks don’t always follow doctor’s orders. It’s a long and complicated process if done right. I noticed physicians often pointed to me as the decision maker. I mean, what do I know about whether I should take a medication or not? I ended up asking a lot of questions.

If you are an Iowa Democrat, Sunday’s front page article in the Cedar Rapids Gazette is worth reading. I believe much of what was said is wrong, especially the assumptions about how messaging functions in politics. All the same, one has to understand the establishment viewpoints if we want to change our politics to regain the majority. The authors rounded up the establishment for us. Here’s a link to a printed copy of the article.

On Sunday I called my Aunt who lives in Southwestern Virginia. According to my phone, the call lasted 37 minutes and 51 seconds. We had a good talk. The last time we visited in person was more than 40 years ago. We shed the preliminary pleasantries and got right into the conversation. That’s how we did it back in 1983. Unfortunately, I couldn’t answer some of the questions she asked me about my grandparents. What she asked was never discussed.

She refreshed my memory on some of the old stories, like the “Dude Hole” where the three boys (my father and his two brothers) would swim in a creek next to the railroad tracks, then hop on the train as it passed to ride through town. They found it to be fun, she said. We recounted the story of my grandmother’s death in Summer 1947. My grandfather was away in prison so they split the three boys up among grandmother’s siblings. “You can imagine, three boys! There was not enough food (to keep them together).” My great aunt and uncle adopted my aunt, who was much younger than the other three.

We retold the story of the coal mining company that strip mined the valley near my great aunt’s home. They augured out the coal from the high wall and spoiled the well. The family got no money from the mining company for ruining the water. For years my aunt hauled jugs of water out to my great aunt so she wouldn’t have to use the “sulfur water.” She updated me during the call that she had paid the fee to run clean water out to the property. Her daughter now lives there.

We discussed a number of other topics of a kind that is best left within a family. At the end of the call she said “this call isn’t over.” I agreed and made a note to call again before the end of the year.

Categories
Writing

A Writer’s Outlook

Trail walking along the state park trail.

I come to a breaking point in the narrative of the United States. When we married, Ronald Reagan was in the second year of his first term in office. He was a popular president, garnering the electoral votes of 49 states during his 1984 re-election campaign. Reagan won 58.8 percent of the popular votes that year. What he and his minions did to our country is unforgivable. This year, Donald Trump won re-election. Votes are still being counted, yet it appears he will win the popular vote at or slightly below 50 percent of those cast. Trump is expected to change American society even more than Reagan did, if that’s possible. My chosen role is to write about something other than the decline of the United States. I’ll need to write about other topics. Here is what’s on deck for 2025.

My main 2025 writing is continuing with my autobiography. This involves a daily writing and editing commitment. Sometimes I post chapters here to get feedback or to work with the language. In addition, sometimes I learn more than is needed in a chapter. The excess material can often make a solid blog post.

News not reported in other media is always popular. There will be a school board election next fall. Information I gather locally about national issues is another source for posts. Likewise, issues about Lake Macbride, public lands, extreme weather, and such are also potential topics.

I sense another transition in my views about local food, gardening, foraging, cooking, and food shopping. Cooking is a constant learning process, so there will be posts about that. I set a goal to redesign our garden and grow one again in 2025. This has been and will continue to be a rich topic.

Book reviews, rites of passage within my circle (mostly deaths of friends), travel reports, and reports on local activities of significance beyond the region are all likely subjects.

Aging in America has become an important personal topic. I will have a few things to say about health, medicine, chronic illness, Medicare, Social Security, and adjusting to getting older.

Few people in Iowa are reporting on nuclear weapons and nuclear power issues. A group is advocating for the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo to reopen their nuclear power plant to generate electricity for data centers. It is an important issue where I can add to the public discussion.

When I finished my graduate degree in 1981 I was increasingly aware of racism in America. It seems evident that issue is not going away. The protections of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution remain the centerpiece of our lives. In Iowa, racism isn’t talked about enough, even though it runs right below the surface of what used to be called “Iowa nice.”

2024 was a presidential election year and 2025 is not. I hope to decrease my posts about politics unless it impacts one of the other topics listed above.

Lastly, I will write about the craft of writing and what I am learning about it.

These topics seem like a lot. Hopefully they will organize my thinking for the coming year and help produce a blog worth reading.

Categories
Living in Society

Angering the Gods

Tulsi Gabbard in the author’s neighborhood. Photo by the author.

Tulsi Gabbard was one of the first female members of the U.S. Congress with combat experience. I interacted with her twice: once at a 2016 event hosted by then Congressman Dave Loebsack, and again in 2019 when a neighbor hosted an event within walking distance of my driveway. Gabbard’s campaign for president was gasping for oxygen the day I last saw her. I baked an apple crisp for the event. She took the leftover dessert with her and dropped out of the race the following week.

That Gabbard is a combat veteran, and was a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, the House Armed Services Committee, and House Homeland Security Committee, does not qualify her to be Director of National Intelligence (DNI) as was announced this week. In 2022, Vladimir Solovyov reported on Russian media Gabbard was Vladimir Putin’s agent in the U.S., according to Julia Davis who monitors Russian media.

The staffing announcements by the president-elect this week were a continuous showing of bad hires for jobs that take real skills. It is no wonder he bankrupted so many of his businesses. That Gabbard is suspected of being a spy while potentially being DNI is just scratching the surface of how bad the next administration will be for the United States.

What does that mean? We engaged activists need a new approach to dealing in public with the new administration.

On Feb. 1, 2017, my guest opinion, “What if the jobs don’t come back?” appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette. The mistake I made then, and won’t make again, is treating Donald Trump like a normal president, instead of the criminal he is.

In her Nov. 13, Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson said this about the president-elect:

Trump has made it clear that his goal for a second term is to toss overboard the rule of law and the international rules-based order, instead turning the U.S. government into a vehicle for his own revenge and forging individual alliances with autocratic rulers like Russian president Vladimir Putin.

With four years of experience and frustrations, the president-elect can now move immediately to implement his agenda. With Republican majorities in both the U.S. House and Senate, and with the full backing of right wing billionaires and the Heritage Foundation, I expect he will move quickly. He already asked the U.S. Senate to forego confirmation hearings on his nominees so they can be appointed according to Article II, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution:

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen during the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall expire at the End of their next Session.

That means without the advice and consent of the U.S. Senate. Or, as Rachel Maddow put it:

I hope not to anger the gods and get on the president-elect’s or his minions’ hit list of people against whom he wants revenge. I have enough energy to roll this thing forward one more time, so I’d better make the most of it. So, should we all.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Autumn Yard Work

Burn pile Nov. 12, 2024

Now that the election is over, I’m motivated to work in the garden. If all goes well, I’ll plant garlic before the snow flies. The weather forecast looks good to get it done this week between planned activities off the property.

Because it’s been raining, I felt okay about burning brush. I need a place to store fence posts and chicken wire fencing. I burned it today and got the mower out to run over the tall weeds and make room.

Fallen leaves have blown off the plot where the garlic will go, so all I have to do is turn it over, fertilize, and run the rototiller through it. The hardest part is turning the soil over. I feel like working on it, something I could not say during the run up to the election.

I’ve been busy inside as well. Organizing stuff, getting rid of stuff, consuming stuff, recycling stuff. It’s been a week of stuff. There is too much of it and it prevents me from focusing on what is most important. Funny how quick;y the recycling bin filled today.

For the next while, my posts are going to be short and to the point. Increasingly, that’s the way I like them. So it will go.

Categories
Sustainability

COP29

Image of Earth 7-6-15 from DSCOVR (Deep Space Climate Observatory)

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accords, as he did during his first term. His re-election cast a pall over the 29th Conference of the Parties which began Monday in Baku, Azerbaijan. The United States has been a world leader in mitigating the worst impacts of climate change. Trump’s direction of breaking down the international order where the United States is a leader seems clear.

Azerbaijan is the third consecutive petrostate to host the conference, and arguably intends to stop decarbonization if they can. The work must continue, yet it is expected to slow because of the prospect of the U.S. intentionally hobbling it. In an email this week, the Climate Reality Project said, “Wealthy petrostates and fossil fuel companies are misleading the public, lobbying country leaders, and taking over the COP process, trying to stop progress every step of the way.” Addressing the climate crisis will continue to be an uphill struggle.

Based on the seven days since the election, Trump seems better prepared to implement policies the Heritage Foundation handed him in the form of Project 2025. I must pick which parts of society in which to exert my personal influence. I need more dust to fall and settle before deciding what to do. The climate crisis ranks highly on my list.

Categories
Living in Society

Armistice Day 2024

Flags at Oakland Cemetery in 2012.

Remarks as prepared for the Armistice Day observance in Iowa City on Nov. 11, 2024.

Thank you for joining us during this observance of Armistice Day. My name is Paul Deaton. I was a founding member of the Iowa Chapters of Veterans for Peace. When we organized the chapter, we had veterans from every armed conflict going back to World War II. Some of our members have died, and I ask for a moment of silence in their honor.

I intend to keep my remarks brief. Some of you who know me may realize how difficult that will be for me. Nonetheless, let’s get started.

In World War I we find the beginnings of the misinformation and disinformation that became so prevalent in our society. There are 5 things I would like to say about that.

Point 1: There were conspiracy theories about the war.

Was World War I a hoax? No, yet conspiracy theories were prevalent. During the War, the American home front was awash with them alleging internal German enemies were intentionally spreading disease among both human and animal populations, most egregiously during the 1918 influenza pandemic. While false, these stories nevertheless revealed Americas’ shifting relationships to the environment, warfare, and the federal state. They channeled immediate fears over what type of war, and what type of enemy, the nation faced, as well as deeper, Progressive-era anxieties related to the dramatic expansions of government and scientific expertise in American life. It underlines how the war permitted individuals to discuss, denounce, and contest state and scientific authority at this moment in the early twentieth century. In my view many of the conspiracy theories we hear today have their roots in this.

Point 2: Allied Propaganda

Propaganda was used by both the allies and the Germans during the World War.

Allied governments launched propaganda efforts in the days after the invasion, pushing out terrifying, often untrue tales, published in newspapers, fliers, and pamphlets. There were stories of bayoneted babies, mass rape of girls, and old men who obediently turned over useless rifles, and were shot on the spot by heartless “barbarians.” No doubt the intent was to stoke the fire of support for the war.

Point 3: German propaganda.

For the Germans, the goal of propaganda was to make the war seem less devastating than it was. More soldiers were needed at the front, so government officials downplayed the number of casualties to recruit them. The truth about the scale of casualties – an estimated 40 million civilian and military personnel dead and wounded – could only be kept secret using propaganda. The total number of deaths includes more than 9 million military personnel. The civilian death toll was between 6 and 13 million. Disease, including the influenza pandemic, took about a third of these lives. World War I ranks among the deadliest conflicts in human history. Suppression of this fact was a goal of German propaganda.

Point 4: The Armistice.

I visited the Glade of the Armistice while I lived in Europe. It’s in the French Forest of Compiegne where the Germans and Allied Supreme Commander signed the Armistice we commemorate today. They used a rail car for the ceremony. Years later, in 1940, Hitler used the same rail car to accept the French surrender. Hitler had obvious propaganda reasons for doing so. I saw a similar rail car in France while I was there, although not the same one used in 1918. The original disappeared after the Nazis took possession of it. I remember how quiet it was in the forest that day. It was a day filled with meaning.

Point 5: Living History

Veterans of World War One are deceased. The veteran I knew was my Grandfather who never spoke to me of the war. We were more concerned with his black lung disease contracted during decades of coal mining in Illinois. Family lore is Grandfather arrived in France shortly before the Armistice and did not see conflict. He was there six months waiting to return to Illinois. If you have a memory of the war and its veterans like mine, today is a day to remember.

As living memory fades let us hope and pray that the World War I dead shall not have died in vain.

In conclusion, I’d like to read a poem used by the allies to recruit soldiers. The idea was for new people to take up arms to replace the fallen. You may know this one. In Flanders Fields is by Canadian physician John McCrae, published December 8, 1915.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
    That mark our place; and in the sky
    The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
    Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
        In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
    The torch; be yours to hold it high.
    If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
        In Flanders fields.
Categories
Living in Society

A Long Way Home

Trail walking on Nov. 10, 2024.

I’ve been trail walking earlier in the day since the general election. To make it a better form of exercise, I pick up the pace to get my heartbeats per minute elevated enough to do some good. I don’t know what I will do for exercise once the snow flies and I’ve shoveled the driveway. If autumn continues the way it has been during the hottest year in recorded history, I may not have to worry about it as we could well skip winter.

On Saturday I made a stew with plant protein meatballs. I found some old carrots and celery in the vegetable drawer and wanted to use them up. After peeling the carrots and cutting them into big chunks, they went into the Dutch oven with the chopped celery. I added the rest of the small-sized garden onions, and peeled and halved a pound of garden potatoes. I covered everything with vegetable broth and seasoned with bay leaves, salt, pepper, oregano, dried parsley, and powdered garlic. Once the root vegetables were fork tender, I made a slurry of corn starch and vegetable broth to thicken the stew. Toward the end, I added the meatballs and a couple handfuls of green peas. It came together well. With my spouse away from home, there will be leftovers for days. The flavor reminded me of a dish Mother made using beef. I took that memory into the next day and made rice over which to ladle leftover stew for lunch. It wasn’t her cooking, yet her presence was strong that day.

It seems doubtful I will reconcile with the Iowa Democratic Party. Donald Trump grew his support in the most liberal county in Iowa from 21,044 in 2016, to 22,925 in 2020 to 26,069 in 2024 or a total of 23.9 percent growth during the eight years. Democrats here walloped Trump with Clinton getting 50,200 votes in 2016, Biden 59,177 in 2020 and Harris 58,772 last week. The strong Johnson County performance this year did not win the election in the First Congressional District. Winning there takes gains in the rural vote which wasn’t there in sufficient numbers. Trump increased his winning margin in Iowa overall. We knew we had to do better than this after the results in 2020. Everyone I knew, including me, was doing work to get Democrats elected. The electorate was not receptive to the Democratic presidential candidate this year or since Obama won in 2012. Iowa certainly is Trump country today. More’s the pity.

I will continue to take walks along the state park trail. I will continue to cook a lot of our family dinners. I will work more on my physical and mental health, and overall wellness. As a septuagenarian, I realize there are only so many years left. There is not enough time to spend on activities that don’t produce needed results. For now, and maybe permanently, politics can take a holiday.

The Republicans I know are, for the most part, good people. Misinformed, yet the kind that will help a neighbor or contribute to community projects. There is some racism and misogyny as there has always been locally and in American society more generally. Any improvements I make in my politics will be close to home, among people I know well, and despite our differences.

There is no going back to what was. Today, it seems like a long way home.

Categories
Living in Society

Into a Landing Zone

Along the state park trail, Nov. 8, 2024.

I changed my digital footprint now that the election is past. I deleted some social media accounts, reduced the number of friends in the remaining ones, and evaluated how I get news. It is part of a self-care process to improve my physical and mental health after the recent traumatic revelations about American society. I feel better already. It was a suitable landing zone after the election.

Journey Home is a public blog and I intend to keep it that way. Writing here helps me develop narratives that can be used in other parts of my life. It is part of a process of understanding the world and society. It also provides a constant struggle to say things better with fewer words. My typos here are frequent, yet I eventually catch most of them. Each of us needs a way to think through the experiences we have and this is mine.

I resisted the recent reaction to Jeff Bezos putting the kibosh on Washington Post political endorsements before the election, and kept my subscription. Subscription to a national newspaper is needed for someone like the author of this blog. All the other national newspapers have similar problems and I don’t want to punish the reporters because of what their owner did.

The Cedar Rapids Gazette has done a good job in 1). staying in business, and 2). creating a diverse community of readers. One sees this by reading the editorial page, or what they call “Insights.” Liberal advocates, conservative crackpots, and everyone in between abound there. I welcome them all. Usually, because of their printing schedule, I hear news they report from other sources because that’s the kind of society in which we live. Subscribing to a newspaper is about the writers: local reporters, syndicated columnists, and readers who write letters to the editor and guest opinions. I wouldn’t miss some of them if they were cancelled, yet we also need them all.

For social media, I’m down to: Goodreads, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads. Goodreads is how I keep track of my reading and find new books. Facebook is people I know from my experiences in the real world. Instagram is a place to post photos and auto post them to Facebook. Threads is a way of live blogging my life. For now, this is enough to manage. I deleted my BlueSky and LinkedIn accounts this week to reduce the clutter.

People know me from writing in public and tell me so when we meet in person. Unless we enter a police state where political enemies are harassed by the government, and citizens spy on and get nasty with their neighbors, I will continue. What else am I going to do?

Categories
Living in Society

The Sun Rose in the East

Sunrise over Lake Macbride on Nov. 6, 2024.

The morning after the 2024 general election I went walking on the state park trail at dawn. It was light enough to see the ground, and the sun rose in the east as I entered the main part of the trail. The air was clean and I took deep breaths. I needed that a few hours after reading the general election results.

I was as prepared as I could have been for Trump to win. As a result, I am weathering the aftermath reasonably well. I can’t say that about everyone else to whom I spoke in the last two days. Some were on the verge of tears over the disrespect to women the majority demonstrated by voting for Donald Trump. The country has descended to a very different place than we thought we were.

Something needs to change in my life. The best advice I give myself is to take time to plan effectively.

It has been two months since I tested negative after suffering from COVID-19. While the main symptoms are gone — the constant coughing, particularly — there have been substantial changes in my muscles, blood pressure, and the tests the clinic does for diabetes. Things are not normal so my plan is to evaluate my health today. That’s going to take a while and a better action plan. It is not only me that needs to change.

To return to a majority, Democrats need to change how we live. We must recognize that political campaigning is a subset of everything else we do. We must build relationships more broadly than within our small coterie of like-minded people. We value our relationships, yet to succeed in politics new ones must be in our collective future. My modest proposal is to blow up the current organization of the Democratic Party and start over. We do not understand the electorate and need to. The bonds of affection we developed over years are hard to break, yet we must.

I have gotten good at picking myself up after failing to effect needed change. At some point, our goals for society need calibration. Our methods need to change. It makes little sense to get back on the same horse to keep riding when what we need most is to send the beast to the glue factory. Doing this is harder than we think.

I have a long to-do list today. I expect the sun will rise again in the east. It is time to dust myself off and get back to work building new goals and a new way to achieve them.