Are You Woke?

Do you even know what the word means? Is it part of your everyday vocabulary? If you use it, does it mean the same thing as when it is used by some right-wing TV commentator or a progressive newscaster? I wasn’t certain, so I did some digging around to learn the origin of the word. Of course, it is a variation of the word “awake”, such as the sleepy man awakened or he woke up in the traditional sense of the word.

But, over time, the colloquial use of the word has changed. In the New Yorker podcast by David Remnick, he discussed these origins with a linguist from the UK, Tony Thorne, who wrote The Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, and with some locally polled residents. Most thought it meant that the listener should be aware or put themselves on alert.

The Urban Dictionary defines Woke as being aware of current social issues or understanding the need to wake up. Others have defined Woke as arising out of the Black Lives Matter movement, noting the need to be aware of the issue of Social Justice. Some saw its’ use as a warning to be aware. Others noted its current use as a polemic. Some saw it as silly, a word with no real meaning. Progressives felt it was a word they once used whose meaning was co-opted by the right. Progressives believed being woke meant that one cared about the rights of others and inequities in our society, to mention a few issues.

But, as Thorne noted, a word that was once common to the Black or Southern community in a colloquial sense was changed intentionally to a pejorative word. He traced the modern use to a song in 2008 where woke was used in the chorus of Master Teacher by a Black female singer urging others to stay aware. Around 2014, the Black Lives Matter Movement started using the phrase after Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson. Even then the use was positive, connoting empathy and social awareness.

More recently, the right has twisted the word into a negative. To “Be Woke” is now a negative slur. Just as “cancel culture” and the Potato Head doll dominated conservative talk shows for a while, woke is now on the agenda. It, however, seems to have a greater staying power than the other crusades broadly shared over the years. Do you remember the Barney is Gay campaign or the attack on mothballing some Dr.Suess books? Right-wing commentators and pundits are all over this wokeness stuff. Gee, one would almost think it is a genuine issue! Political consultant James Carville recently was quoted about this topic in the Washington Post: “Few people can define woke but, due to propaganda, many are against it. For many, “woke” represents cultural resentment, and it is a shortcut for social elitism.

The article added: To him, the deployment of “woke” as a political attack represents the culture wars of previous eras — the latest version of dismissing coastal elites as chardonnay-swilling, latte-sipping liberals.

“It used to be that [Republicans] were kind of free traders and anti-Russia and pro-military and for entitlement reform,” Carville said. “Well, that’s all out the window. The only thing they have that unifies them is cultural resentment — ‘Let’s all attack the trans kid’ or ‘We shouldn’t tell seventh graders there are gay people because then they’ll never know.’”

 

Republican Governor De Santis of Florida recently promoted his “Anti-woke Campaign” along with his “Don’t Say Gay” campaign as he attempts to turn Florida into a totalitarian state. Not content to mess with elementary school curricula, school board membership, and library censoring, he is now turning to micro-managing college curricula. The decision by the AP college prep course team to change the Black history module for High School teaching after his criticism brought widespread condemnation when it appeared that De Santis drove this decision. Recently, some Florida college students marched in the streets to challenge moves the governor made in the governance of colleges and universities in the state and in issues for LBGTQ or trans students and civil rights history courses or those dealing with diversity, equity, and inclusion. Doesn’t that make one wonder just what is it about diversity, equity, and inclusion that frightens the governor so much? If we don’t teach history, will it go away? Already we have Congresswoman Greene showing that she doesn’t understand our Constitution or our history, and other Republicans not understanding the practices of governmental agencies. What can be next?

Thorne also discussed the weaponization of words. This is a tactic used effectively by the master of the dark side, Steve Bannon, in his several attempts to influence thought. Bannon does not simply use a word negatively, he uses it in such a manner that the opponent can have no valid rejoinder. He used words for full-scale destruction and to demonstrate overwhelming obliteration. Thorne discussed such concepts as contentious language, toxic terminology, and full-scale weaponization in propaganda wars. So when De Santis and other Republicans throw around the word woke, they are not just attacking a word; they are scatter-shooting any and everything that they have associated with that word. Issues such as social justice, inequality in employment, housing, and education, the history of Black people in America, and the era of Jim Crow. De Santis would not teach other truths such as the uneven American history of immigration and minorities in his Florida schools. For the mid-terms, school board memberships, and book banning were huge topics of wokeness as were the bogus bogeymen, CRT theories, and the 1619 project. It is easy to see how an ill-defined word such as “Woke” can be twisted to stand for good or bad and can be used for propaganda so swiftly. It sorta makes one think of Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, doesn’t it? Goodreads has a quote:

He said: “When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’

’The question is,’ said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’

’The question is,’ said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”

According to a column in the New York Times, Charles Blow reports De Santis is also trying to pit different ethnic groups against each other. As he says, De Santis is attacking marginalized groups on issues where they have divisions. It is no secret that all Hispanics do not think alike. Cubans who identify as white might not identify with poor Haitians or immigrants from Venezuela, even though some might have common afro-Hispanic roots. According to his practices of divide and conquer, conservative Black populations, who traditionally vote for Democrats, might be encouraged to shun members of the gay or trans communities and support Republicans who have the same beliefs.

So where do we go from here? As a progressive, I try to stay abreast of contemporary issues. I am aware of social issues and injustices, so I guess I have wokeness in the traditional sense. But, I am quite concerned at the use of social media and propaganda to flip the meaning of a word to cover up inequities and attempts at erasing Black history, and social engineering in our schools, workplaces, and public forums. Because of white flight, many urban schools that were desegregated in the 80s are again segregated. Will these schools again fall into the second-class education once seen in all-black schools? Whose job is it to educate these students? A governor should govern his or her state for all the population. (And in Virginia, the move to make female students report their menstrual history is scary; I do not know what to make of it. Does the Republican governor think he can smoke out secret trans students, find hidden pregnancies, or teens with aberrant hormones? Does he not know that some female athletes stop having periods when they train diligently?) What good purpose can be served by this move? And Youngkin thinks he should be president?

The right claims that steps President Biden is taking as he tries to make our government look like America is wokeness. Toward that goal, he has appointed more women judges and has a more diverse Cabinet and government than any predecessor. Is writing wrongs from the past such a bad thing?

Some other points from the news this week:

To mark the importance of American support for the Ukrainians on the first anniversary of this war, President Biden went secretly to Kyiv and strolled in the square with President Zelensky to demonstrate this solidarity. A brave move, done well.

After a shooting at Michigan State University this month, we learned that, for a few students, this was not their first school shooting. One student had been at Sandy Hook Elementary, another at Oxford HS. Can someone tell me again just why we are continuing to kill our students? Even now, some states are trying to either work around or not enforce the bare minimum national laws that were passed for gun safety last year.

Former President Jimmy Carter entered Hospice at Home as he nears the end of his life at 98 years old. My thoughts are with him and his family. He has lived a very long life well; more should follow his example.

'Til next week - Peace!

Depression Needs Therapy

Last week, writing in the New York Times, columnist David Brooks told of the death of one of his lifelong friends from suicide. Their friendship started in childhood. The man was a talented person, an accomplished ophthalmologist with loving friends and family, yet he became mired in a depression that he could not lose. He tried therapeutic options over the years; some worked better than others, but none was lasting. I believe everyone should read this article. You can find it here:

Brooks speaks about his friend and the ways he tried to make him feel better. He would remind Pete of his skills as a surgeon, his family, and all the good things in his life, but as he said, those were the wrong actions to take. The depressed person cannot see those things when their mind is cluttered with feelings of trauma and inadequacy or their body lacks the energy to even get out of bed.

Jen, Pete’s widow, noted that when she had cancer treatment, a group of clinicians planned her care, but when one has a mental illness, no such committee is in place. Friends and co-workers urge the affected person to “just snap out of it, and to look at all that they have going for them.” But, when that person feels unworthy or unmoored from daily reality because all they think are negative thoughts, those words cannot help. Some have described these feelings as looking at their life through a fog that obscures all that is good and magnifies the negatives.

Brooks further describes his dilemma: “Every case of depression is unique, and every case is to be fought with as much love and endurance and knowledge as can be mustered. But in this particular case, the beast was bigger than Pete; it was bigger than us.”

He spoke of his frustration in trying to converse with his friend. I commend Brooks for continuing to try, and for not giving up because depression is a condition of loneliness. The afflicted believe that nobody can understand their pain.

He described it thus: “Time and again Pete would talk about his great fear that he would someday lose his skill as a surgeon, that he would cease to be a healer, that he would lose his identity and self.

As Pete spoke of his illness, it sometimes seemed as if there were two of him. There was the one enveloped in pain and the other one who was observing himself and could not understand what was happening. That second self was the Pete I spoke to for those three years. He was analyzing the anguish. He was trying to figure it out. He was going to the best doctors. They were trying one approach after another. The cloud would not lift.”

Brooks was also a friend of the Washington Post columnist, Michael Gerson, who died last year from cancer. Before his death, he, too, suffered from a depression that tested him and his faith. Gerson spoke about his depression in a speech he gave at the National Cathedral. Brooks quotes Michael in his article:

“Depression, he said, was a “malfunction of the instrument we use to determine reality.” Then he talked about the lying voices that had taken up residence in his mind, spewing out their vicious clichés: You are a burden to your friends, you have no future, no one would miss you.”

As most of you know, my profession is nursing, and I spent my entire career in healthcare. I know that the healthcare industry does not adequately treat mental health conditions. We sometimes describe depression as a chemical imbalance in the brain. A recent medical blog from Harvard discusses the complexities of the condition below and reviews how two people in similar situations may have drastically different responses:

“It’s often said that depression results from a chemical imbalance, but that figure of speech doesn’t capture how complex the disease is. Research suggests that depression doesn’t spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. Rather, there are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, and stressful life events. It’s believed that several of these forces interact to bring on depression.

To be sure, chemicals are involved in this process, but it is not a simple matter of one chemical being too low and another too high. Rather, many chemicals are involved, working both inside and outside nerve cells. There are millions, even billions, of chemical reactions that make up the dynamic system that is responsible for your mood, perceptions, and how you experience life.

With this level of complexity, you can see how two people might have similar symptoms of depression, but the problem on the inside, and therefore what treatments will work best, may be entirely different.”

The Mayo Clinic defines depression as:

“Depression is a mood disorder that causes feelings of sadness that won’t go away. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of stigma around depression. Depression isn’t a weakness or a character flaw. It’s not about being in a bad mood, and people who experience depression can’t just snap out of it. Depression is a common, serious, and treatable condition.”

It further discusses some causes:

“While there’s no single cause of depression, most experts believe there’s a combination of biological, social, and psychological factors that contribute to depression risk. Biologically, we think about genetics or a family history of depression, health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, or thyroid disorders, and even hormonal changes that happen over the lifespan, such as pregnancy and menopause. Changes in brain chemistry, especially disruptions in neurotransmitters like serotonin, that play an important role in regulating many bodily functions, including mood, sleep, and appetite, are thought to play a particularly important role in depression. Socially stressful and traumatic life events, limited access to resources such as food, housing, and health care, and a lack of social support all contribute to depression risk. Psychologically, we think of how negative thoughts and problematic coping behaviors, such as avoidance and substance use, increase our vulnerability to depression.”

Depression has also been in the news this week, as Senator John Fetterman announced he was entering Walter Reed Hospital for treatment of clinical depression. It has been public knowledge that during the mid-term primary season, Fetterman suffered a severe stoke and was also diagnosed with an ongoing cardiac condition. Fetterman is a large man, six feet, eight inches tall, and who admits that he worried little about his health, despite medical advice. He was famous for his wardrobe of Hoodies and shorts and for his tattoos. As with many men, his wife had to convince him to get check-ups. When he had his stroke, it was she that recognized the symptoms and got him to a hospital; she probably saved his life by doing this.

The most important fact about strokes is that they can be best treated if treatment is received within the first hour. After his stroke, he returned to the campaign trail as soon as he could, again against medical advice, because he had an election to win. The stroke left him with a lingering aphasic condition that affected his ability to process conversations. He now uses a device that translates for him and changes words into text. He can speak, but sometimes has a problem finding the correct word.

According to Healthline, depression after a stroke is quite common and usually affects more women than men. Healthline notes that strokes with aphasic components lead more frequently to depression. Aphasia is a loss of cognitive functions in communication, such as the ability to speak and hear or process what is heard or said.

They describe the after-stroke depression as:

” Every case of post-stroke depression can have different symptoms and duration. Most symptoms appear between three to six months after a stroke. However, the onset can be as early as a month and as late as several years after a stroke. This difference in onset times may be due to two factors — biochemical changes that occur in the brain following a stroke and changes in mood and personality that occur over time.”

About half a century ago, Senator Thomas Eagleton was selected to be the Vice-Presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket with Senator George McGovern; when the news was released that he had been treated for severe depression with shock therapy, McGovern dropped him from the ticket. (There were not the ranges of therapeutics now available, such as SSRIs, SNRIs, MAOIs, or others then.) As Eagleton described it, he had been pushing himself too hard and became exhausted and could not continue when he was diagnosed and treated. The stigma of the treatment alone, in that era, despite the effective way he served as a Senator, was too great to allow someone with that condition to be this close to the president. Eagleton served several terms as a respected Senator from Missouri, following this incident. A few years ago, this issue was reviewed by NPR.

I certainly hope that in 2023, we have come a long way toward understanding depression better. Certainly, Fetterman has been receiving encouragement from both sides of the aisle as others told their stories of depression. However, we have not come that far in preventing severe depression or preventing suicides that result from this condition. We have not done very well in addressing familial or cultural tendencies toward depressive illness. As a society, we must do better.  About one out of every six Americans will be treated for depression; we must remove the stigma and find effective treatment.

Now for a few PSAs!

Signs of a stroke: Think of the acronym: BEFAST

Loss of Balance, headache, or dizziness?

Eyesight changes?

Face drooping?

Arm weakness?

Slurred Speech?

Time to call 911

Don’t sit around and wait to see if the feeling will go away.

Remember, strokes can often be reversed if one receives treatment in the first hour. NIH notes that treatment within one to three hours is imperative.’ Time is brain’, as they say. A stroke deprives the brain of necessary oxygen.

Suicide Lifeline:

If you or a loved one is suicidal or has expressed thoughts of suicide, there is now a national three-digit number to call that, just like 911, is available 24/7/365  and is staffed by trained counselors. That new Lifeline number is 988. The old number  (1-800-273-8255) is also still operative.

That’s all for now.

“Til next week-Peace!

The State of the Union is Good

President Biden went to speak before a joint session of Congress this week to give the annual State of the Union speech. The speech was well attended, so he had a full house to hear his words. Plus, most networks carried it, so a nationwide audience heard what he said that evening. According to Forbes, over 23 million viewers watched the speech, although that number does not include streaming. Among the major outlets, Fox led with somewhat over 4 million viewers.

The president gave a wonderful speech, as usual, he stumbled a few times with the written speech and the teleprompter, but his delivery was spot-on. His audience was engaged and rose to generous applause many times. Even the Republican side and the Speaker rose in applause a few times. State of the Union Speeches are sometimes defined by those the president chooses to have in his group on the balcony. There was the Ambassador from Ukraine to underscore the US commitment to that country. The entertainer and activist, Bono, to commemorate the anniversary of a successful campaign against HIV/AIDS with PEPFAR which was started by former President Bush. Paul Pelosi, to highlight how political polarization in hate speech against Speaker Nancy Pelosi lead to an attack on her husband. The parents of Tyre Nichols, to emphasize that the attack by the Memphis police that led to their son’s death should not have happened. I think one of the most memorable moments of the evening came when the president spoke about “the talk” that parents of color have with their children about what to do when stopped by the police. (Note that I said when, not if, as statistics show these drivers are stopped much more frequently than white drivers.) The young man from a Monterey Park California Dance Hall,  who stopped a mass killer from killing more as he disarmed him; emphasizes that mass killings are harming the fabric of our communities. The father who wrote him a letter about his daughter’s death from a Fentanyl overdose, to emphasize the 100,000 drug overdose deaths in the US each year. The High wire Union iron worker, a woman, to bring forward the revitalization of our industries, unions, and infrastructure from the bi-partisan infrastructure Bill. This led also to the mention of the number of good jobs created since he took office (800,000) and the low unemployment rates. He mentioned the CHIPS bill to bring chip-making home to America, so we would not depend on an interrupted supply chain in future global crises.  Certainly, I have just summarized his remarks here, I could not capture everything he said in this column.

And, of course, there were a few moments of high drama, which I must discuss. He began his remarks by saying kind words to both Democratic and Republican leaders. Biden emphasized the bi-partisan bills that Congress passed since he was elected. He indicated that, even with a divided Congress, he hoped for more. He discussed how COVID numbers are down and how it no longer rules the daily lives of many. Inflation was a problem, he acknowledged, but it is coming down, as are prices for food and gas. He mentioned the extension of broadband even to far-flung places so kids would not have to sit in the MacDonald’s parking lot to do their homework. Biden also spoke up for our democracy and noted that it was on a safer footing now, but that there were still pitfalls, should we drop our guard.

He challenged the Republicans who voted against infrastructure funding and told them he would see them at the project ground-breaking, as they tried to look as if they had voted in favor of the project at hand. Throughout his speech, Rep Greene of Georgia, (MTG) sat at the far back of the Chamber, and Lauren Bobert was nearby. Others of the contrary caucus that gave Speaker McCarthy his election problems were nearby. Speaker McCarthy had reportedly asked his caucus to sit back and not comment out loud; all could see him several times trying to shush the outliers, to no avail. Greene shouted out that the Fentanyl deaths were the president’s fault and called him a liar when he said some Republicans wanted to sunset Medicare and Social Security every five years and re-authorize their funding. Many Republicans call these programs entitlements. But that is not true, workers pay into them with payroll deductions or self-employment fees every working year. When the Republican side of the room shouted out their disagreements with his statements on funding, he asked everyone who supports funding these programs to stand up. Of course, all did, and he capped the discussion, by saying then we all agree, we will not cut Social Security and Medicare. He also asked for extensions on the drug cost caps for Insulin, now allowed for seniors, to be expanded to all residents.

He ended his speech by saying that the state of the union is good with catcalls from, as used to be said, “the peanut gallery or backbenchers.” Some pundits likened these actions to those often seen at the British House of Commons. Maybe we’ll find another definition for common here. Even the House of Commons, as pointed out by the New York Times, does not allow name-calling or expletives. The next day, the president distributed copies of Republican pamphlets, which he said spelled out the restrictions that Senator Rick Scott, a Multi-millionaire, wanted to impose on the so-called entitlements. Scott, according to required filings, is worth more than $300 million. Doesn’t it offend you, that the Senate, which is composed of many millionaires, is so eager to restrict benefits that working people rely on? Politifact said that the statement that two-thirds of the Senate are millionaires is mostly true.

Some pundits claimed the speech was the prelude to a Biden re-election campaign; others said they hoped not, because of his age, as Biden is already 80 years old. From what I see, the Democrats do not have anyone in the wings at this time. Some pundits have mentioned Governor Gavin Newsom of California, but he says he is not running. There are currently no known Senators, Governors, Statesmen/women, or other Democrats that seem to be in the running currently. If YOU know of any, please let me know. If Biden ultimately decides not to run, then all those who come forward will be at a disadvantage, because they have much less time than usual to set up a forceful campaign on the left of center, which is where most Democrats are. Independents seem to be on the other side of that scale.

Kamala Harris is not likely to challenge Biden; she continually receives bad press; others claim she might not be on Biden’s ticket next time, but I doubt that. Politico also doubts that and said in a recent article: “Since the fall, Harris’ trajectory appeared to be improving to political observers. “People around her feel like she’s been able to exert more independence and has started in earnest to dig out from the painful early months marked by uneven performances and staffing troubles,” Daniels wrote in November. They also note that since the Democrats are no longer relying on her to be the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, she is not tethered to Washington and can get out and about the country. Harris has become the administration's voice on abortion which she can defend and finds that is easier than the immigration and voting rights portfolio she once had to support. Democrats who can rally behind her on that issue find she speaks to their concerns. So, I mentioned that there was a great turnout for the speech; most of official Washington was there, including Ambassadors, top military brass, cabinet members, and the Justices of the Supreme Court. (Well, several of the Justices came-Alito, Gorsuch, Thomas, and Sotomayor did not. Two retired Justices also attended, Breyer and Kennedy.)

The beleaguered Congressman Santos attended and tried to shake the hand of the president, who avoided him. Senator Mitt Romney apparently spoke sternly to Georgie or whatever his name is and said later that he was a sick puppy and should step down. I guess time will tell. Senator Sinema was there in a bright yellow dress with winged shoulders; perhaps she thought this was a tryout for the New York Spring Fashion Shows! Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene attended dressed, someone said, as a chinchilla, wearing a white ensemble with a fluffy furry collar. Others compared her to Cruella de Vil and Sinema to Big Bird! Oh well, what can one say? Apparently, according to the Guardian, Jill Biden was supposed to be defining the Unity of red and blue in a purple dress. Greene’s white outfit symbolized the white Chinese spy balloon that was shot down a few days ago. She walked the halls of Congress carrying a white balloon. Is this what the voters expected when she was elected? A spectacle? Oh, I get it now; I think! This isn’t about doing the people’s business, it is all about making a show so DJT will choose her to run with him as his VP.

Tonight, the Kansas City Chiefs won the Super Bowl. Kudos to them! I do hope that no one was seriously injured. I have been turned off the sport since that young player, Damar Hamlin, had his cardiac arrest. I am not sure I can watch it the same way again. How about you? 

Oh, and there are more balloons or strange flying objects getting shot down; now a total of four over eight days. Who knows what this is all about, not me!

This is Black History Month; a Frederick Democratic Party meeting I attended had a very good interpretative enactment of the life of Harriet Tubman, an enslaved person born in Maryland, who went on against great odds to lead many in her community and elsewhere to freedom in the 1800s. I wonder how places such as Texas and Florida, so given to the “happy slaves dancing around the bonfire” stories would deal with telling about her life?

I guess before I end this note tonight, I must mention the strange speech given by Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee in the Republican response. It is said that she was speaking only to the MAGA base of the party, but it was a speech based on an alternative reality. And when she said: “We are told that we must partake in their rituals, salute their flag, and worship their idols,” I had to wonder just what universe she lived in. I salute the American Flag and as far as I know, we have only one, so what flag does she salute?

“Til next week-Peace!

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a super spy balloon!

All eyes have been skyward this week as a large Chinese Spy Balloon was traveling some sixty thousand miles above the United States. Although the Chines government claimed that it was a weather balloon gone awry, that does not seem to be the case. The trajectory carried it close to the jet stream but also over significant bases along our missile defense system. According to reports, it first approached the continental US after crossing over Alaska and parts of Canada. The military said it was tracking it and jamming systems so that it could learn little from trying to detect electronic data from the bases it flew over or elsewhere.

Republicans were making wild claims over this balloon, demanding that the President order it shot down. The former president’s son urged people in Montana to run outside, fire into the air and take it down. Of course, even an AR-15 does not have that kind of range, so I am uncertain what he thought he was accomplishing by that message. It was true, however, that the right wing was going kinda bonkers here. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs explained the balloon weighed over 1000 pounds and could not be easily taken down over occupied territory since they expected a wide litter field and did not know the makeup of the payload. Despite the criticism from the right, President Biden agreed with his military and told them to shoot it down when it could be done safely. Senator Tom Cotton, (R-AK) who has been said to have Presidential ambitions, strongly criticized the President for not immediately ordering the balloon shot down.

So, finally, on Saturday, the balloon crossed the coast of South Carolina and was over the Atlantic Ocean, the military planes shot it down with a rocket. The debris landed close to shore in about 47 feet of water, which the military claimed would make retrieval easier. The litter field was about 1200 feet wide. So the issue was handled carefully and safely and not histrionically, as some would have wanted. There will be a fall-out diplomatically, of course, for as President Biden said, China invaded our nation’s sovereignty. European nations and Canada supported his actions. Canada also reported that its’ sovereignty was invaded. At the same time, another Chinese balloon was traveling across South America.

After taking office, the Biden administration learned that Chinese balloons traveled across America at least three times during the previous administration. Neither the State Department nor the Pentagon shared this information with the American people when DJT was in office. Possibly those balloons were not as visible to the naked eye on a clear day as this slow-moving balloon was as they were said to be fast-moving. DJT of course, denied that this ever happened as he said the Chinese had too much respect for him to do this. Even so, today’s Pentagon confirmed the flights occurred then.

This week was to have been the first time that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken traveled to China and met with the leaders of that country. Now, because of this balloon flight, that trip is canceled, and no one knows now when it will be rescheduled. Initially, the Chinese authorities apologized; after the shooting down, they were not conciliatory. China has been making aggressive moves in the South China Sea in recent years, building fake islands and creating bases on what the rest of the world considered international territory. Recent flights close to Taiwan were considering menacing. While these things were happening, the US has been beefing up military assistance to Taiwan and encouraging the Japanese self-defense units. Just this week, we announced we would increase our military presence in the Philippines. None of these moves have pleased China. The US has also worked with the SEATO nations in considering mutual defenses and recently held exercises with South Korea, which were met with rockets fired by North Korea. There have been reports that a similar type of Chinese balloon crashed into the sea off Hawaii recently.

So, while we have been mostly focused on the War in Ukraine, China is once again reminding us they are also a nation to be reckoned with. Russia has been pushing for a greater relationship with China, which has disapproved of the Ukraine war, by asking for a personal visit later in the Spring by leader Xi. The Washington Post reported this week that Russia is trying to go on a charm campaign and visiting nations in Africa and elsewhere to gain their support. Many African nations have lucrative mining, construction, and defense contracts with both China and Russia and do not freely speak out against either country.

Speaking of China and Canada, I read this week that Canada has agreed to take in 10,000 Uyghur refugees, living outside of China over the next two years. The US has not agreed to take any. It is well known that China is increasing the pressure on this Muslim minority in their country to give up their religion and become more Chinese. They are trying to erase the Uyghur culture and indoctrinate the residents into the communist way of life. Women have been forcibly sterilized. Hundreds of thousands were removed from their homes and forced into labor camps. The US has refused to allow goods or crops from that part of China to be imported, as we assume they made most of those products with forced labor. Much of the world has criticized these practices as genocide; China responds it is dealing with terrorists in its country and will not accept any criticism about their efforts, so this is quite a sad situation.

When we look at countries that do not follow international law, we generally call them rogue countries. We often count countries such as North Korea and Iran in that category. However, we are increasingly seeing countries disregard the common courtesies of international diplomacy. We have long left the era where state leaders are said to not read each other’s mail. Spying is a given in this competitive world, so we see industrial espionage, spying for strategic gains such as about weapons and nuclear capability, and spying to gain an edge either on defense or offense. Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, but the world cannot stop it with moral authority, so the authorities are taking photos and securing evidence toward the time they hope will be soon when Russia loses and can be held to account. Certainly, kidnapping children and taking them from Ukraine into Russia to repatriate them, as they claim, is against all law and is comparable to what the Chinese are doing. Russia wants to erase Ukraine, China wants to erase the Uyghurs, and Myanmar wants to erase the Rohingya. Iran and Afghanistan want to erase the presence and independence of women in public.

Somehow the world seems incapable of using moral force to stop these abuses, so what is the answer? I do not know, except that as I see more and more countries bending to authoritarian rule, I do not think this bodes well for the future. As a nation, the US does not want to go to war with either China or Russia, that would be devastating. But as we continue to arm those seen as enemies to each nation, it brings us closer to moving proxy wars into actual wars. Now, I agree that arming weaker nations when threatened by bully nations is correct, but what is the long path? Soon we will reach the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine has hung on, defeating a much larger force with tenacity, patriotism, and arms from other countries. No one expected it would last this long, but how long is too long? Again, I do not know the answer. Already the Republicans in the House are discussing reducing the aid to Ukraine and saying we should not be in this effort at all.

I hope that President Biden will address our role in these international crises when he gives the State of the Union address. The moral force of the US still means something across the world, so he needs to speak out. Of course, he also needs to speak up about so many other issues, where do I start? Biden can brag about the jobs he has created, but he also needs to speak out about the moves to deny Black history and to “not say gay” such as is seen in Florida. He needs to speak up for the George Floyd policing bill, even though it probably won’t go anywhere in the House. Those who won't raise the debt ceiling need to be chastised. He needs to address the goodness of Americans which has been shoved under the rug while all the haters stoke fears of those who are “other”. I hope he also speaks up for democracy and how we should treasure it. There have to be some better angels somewhere!

Today, Pope Francis, the Anglican Church Leader, and the Presbyterian Church Leader joined in speaking up for the rights of gay people across the world in their religious life and in their communities. They were speaking out together on a plane as the Pope finished his tour and was leaving Africa, where the LBGTQ communities are often criminalized and persecuted. That is an example of using moral authority.

“Til next week-Peace!

A Death in Memphis

This week another mother is weeping. Another child will not know his father as he grows. Another city is troubled by the actions of some members of its police force. The actions of rouge police officers taint good police officers everywhere.

In 2022, gunfire killed 64 officers according to an article in USA Today. Seventy others died from COVID and 56 others were killed in various car or truck crashes. There are far too many guns in this country and police should be concerned about guns being pulled on them in certain circumstances, but not always.

But we still need to ask questions, as statistics show that over 1000 people are killed annually by police officers from the over 18,000 police units in this country. That averages out to over three deaths a day and officials claim that not all are reported. Do we need to ask more questions? Do we need more training for law enforcement? Could they have prevented any of the deaths? Were crimes involved or were there mental health issues in play? Was de-escalation attempted in those instances?  

Law enforcement officers used to be called peace officers and were seen as “Officer Friendly” in schools or public safety classes teaching crossing at the crosswalk and other traffic rules. Now they are dealing with drugs in schools, carrying Narcan for overdoses, and hunting down ghost guns, so I know times have indeed changed. But I guess we need a balance, somehow.

This brings me back to the horrific murder in Memphis. Thankfully, there were some officer body cameras in use; other stationary cameras captured the events from overhead. Not all involved had their body cameras on.

Where do we go from here? How do we address the death of a young Black man, an employed worker, skilled photographer, father of a toddler, and skateboarder driving in his neighborhood and minding his own business? A death that was at the hands of a unit of five Black officers in a special anti-crime unit?

First, we need to realize that the initial police reports were not truthful. I did not watch the videos, not any of them, but I have read reports of the discrepancies between what the police were saying for the record; (they started the coverup even before the ambulance arrived), and the events shown by the cameras.

The cameras showed officers out of control. They demonstrated that not one police officer tried to stop these unlawful actions. Even the police chief agreed that the excuse of “reckless driving”, which was ostensibly used for the traffic stop, was untrue. The police, were at no time, in any danger from Tyre Nichols. He was polite, he complied with their instructions until they lost their self-control and started to assault him. He then tried to run toward his mother’s nearby home, but the team caught him and knocked him down. He, as the videos presented, was beaten, pepper sprayed, tasered, hit with batons multiple times, and kicked over the space of several minutes. Once he could no longer move purposefully and kept falling over, while complaining of chest pain and calling for his mother, the ambulance was called.

The photos from the hospital showed Nichols unconscious, with a battered and swollen face, and intubated to help him breathe. Physicians said his death two days later, was from internal bleeding.

The authorities fired the officers involved and later charged them all with murder. In general, the public should expect accountability; we shall see. As of now, all these special crime units known as SCORPION in the city have been disbanded.

What kind of training did these units receive? Most involved were young and had not been on the force for a long time, a contrast from what one might expect from a supposed elite force. Are special units screened for coping with extraordinary circumstances? There were several of these units in Memphis assigned to high-crime areas; officials staggered their terms of duty to give monthly breaks between assignments.

The New York Times ran an extensive investigation on Traffic Stops that led to deaths. This is an excerpt from that article:

“In case after case, officers said they had feared for their lives. And in case after case, prosecutors declared the killings of unarmed motorists legally justifiable. But The Times reviewed video and audio recordings, prosecutor statements, and court documents, finding patterns of questionable police conduct that went beyond recent high-profile deaths of unarmed drivers. Evidence often contradicted the accounts of law enforcement officers.”

As long as counties and cities get revenue from traffic tickets, there will be traffic stops, I guess. But should traffic stops lead to deaths? Some have suggested that there be specific traffic cops who write tickets and don’t carry arms or create confrontations. In a gentler world that might work. I know that in European countries, traffic stops don’t lead to deaths. I don’t have answers, but I know that too many drivers innocently running errands get killed.

As a white woman, I would expect that Black officers would be more understanding to Black residents, but commentators this week say this is untrue. Some claim that once on the force, even Black officers adopt the departmental attitude of ‘them against us’ and see the blue uniforms as their work families. Others said that Black officers are tougher on members of their community.

James Baldwin wrote an article in The Nation about a man who questioned police who were beating a bunch of kids. They then beat him so badly that he lost an eye. He discusses the issue of police brutality as he saw it in 1966, a different era, but was it?

“No, I am writing a report, which is also a plea for the recognition of our common humanity. Without this recognition, our common humanity will be proved in unutterable ways. My report is also based on what I myself know, for I was born in Harlem and raised there. Neither I, nor my family, can be said ever really to have left; we are—perhaps—no longer as totally at the mercy of the cops and the landlords as once we were. In any case, our roots, our friends, our deepest associations are there, and “there” is only about fifteen blocks away.

This means that I also know, in my own flesh, and know, which is worse, in the scars borne by many of those dearest to me, the thunder and fire of the billy club, the paralyzing shock of spittle in the face, and I know what it is to find oneself blinded, on one’s hands and knees, at the bottom of the flight of steps down which one has just been hurled. I know something else: these young men have been in jail for two years now. [he was discussing the Harlem Six- young men jailed at the time.] Even if the attempts being put forth to free them should succeed, what has happened to them in these two years? People are destroyed very easily. Where is the civilization and where, indeed, is the morality which can afford to destroy so many?”

You can read the entire article here:

Another quote dealt with Black police officers and the Black Community; I wonder if this still holds today?

“Black policemen were another matter. We used to say-if you must call a policeman-for we hardly ever did-try to make sure it is a White one. A Black policeman could completely demolish you. He knew far more about you than a white policeman could and you were without defenses before this Black brother in uniform whose entire reason for breathing seemed to be his hope to offer proof that although he was Black, he was not Black like you.”

He also said:” It is certain, in any case, that ignorance, allied with power, is the most ferocious enemy justice can have.”

But, if one goes back to the earlier paragraph, Baldwin discusses allowing and viewing others with basic humanity. This is what the officers denied to Tyre. They did not accept him as a person to be respected but, rather, as someone to be subjugated to the group concept of ‘one who must be controlled’. Once that mentality was in place, they seemed to no longer respect his humanity. Social scientists have said that men in groups act differently than they might act alone. So, while groups can give each other courage to act positively, groups can also act with mob-like behaviors.

Several who viewed the video mentioned above likened it to a Rodney King moment; that incident in the 90’s when Los Angeles police severely beat a Black motorist they had stopped after a chase. A civilian captured the incident on his video camera and an uproar ensued after it was shown that the white police officers needlessly beat and stunned the inebriated King. Afterward, several of the officers were tried and acquitted of using unnecessary force. Following their acquittal, Los Angeles saw severe rioting. Later on, they convicted some officers of Federal civil rights violations. Confrontations between police and Black citizens were common at that time, but many people were caught up in King’s plea, “can’t we all get along?” That incident was thirty-some years ago; have we learned anything new?

How many more moments will we have before we can stop killing people for traffic stops? No one has established a rationale for stopping Tyre on his drive; what made the unit stop him? Were they just bored? Why did these officers act this way; maybe we will never know.

Mrs. Wells, Tyre’s mother has called for peaceful demonstrations after the videos were shared and, so far, protests across the nations have been calm. She was invited to be a guest of the President at the upcoming State of The Union address. The President has called again for the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act which stalled in Congress previously.

This past Friday was Holocaust Remembrance Day. Hitler convinced his followers that the Jewish people and others he imprisoned and killed were not worthy of life or the same privileges as his ‘pure or Aryan Germans’; in short, he denied any common humanity with them. Until we can all see each other with a sense of brotherhood, sisterhood, and common bonds of humanity, we will fail as a nation and a world.

“Til next week, Peace and compassion to all.

It was Quite a Week!

This was a week to celebrate, commemorate and consider.

In Maryland, we celebrated the inauguration of the first Black Governor in the state's history-Democrat Wes Moore. (There have been two Black Lieutenant Governors, both Republicans and three black candidates for governor over recent years. Michael Steele ran on the Republican side and Anthony Brown and Ben Jealous ran for the Democrats, but none were successful.) In his victory, Moore becomes the third elected Black governor in US history. Virginia elected Democrat Doug Wilder decades ago. Deval Patrick, a Republican, recently stepped down from his post in Massachusetts.

Moore's choice of Aruna Miller as Lieutenant Governor marks her as the first immigrant in that office; Miller, an engineer, and former delegate immigrated from India as a child.

Brooke Lierman, in the office of Comptroller, is the first woman ever elected to serve in that position while former Congressman Anthony Brown is the first Black Attorney General in MD.

Moore campaigned on leaving no one behind in Maryland and echoed those words in his inaugural speech. He wants to have a state that works for all of its people, not just a few. The public expects him to look acutely at poverty in the state and issues involving criminal justice reform. Maryland has had several high-profile cases recently where prisoners have been released after years of wrongly being incarcerated. In one of his first acts as Governor, Moore released millions of dollars allocated by the legislature for creating a structure for the business of marijuana dispensaries and funding education for additional providers for abortion services, that former Governor Hogan would not release early. The funds covered other legislation as well.

According to Pew Research, Maryland is eighth in the number of states with significant populations of eligible Black voters.

“As of 2020, eight states are home to about half of all Black eligible voters in the United States. Texas has the largest number, with 2.7 million, followed by Georgia and Florida (each 2.5 million). Rounding out the top eight are New York (2.3 million), California (2.0 million), North Carolina (1.8 million), and Maryland and Illinois (1.4 million each). Together, these states account for 52% of Black eligible voters in the 50 states and D.C.”

And, according to the Washington Post, Black voters turned out in high numbers to elect Wes Moore, who got 53% of the white voters in pre-election polls, and 80% of the black votes in the same polls. Moore won with a margin of 64% of the total vote, beating his ultra-conservative opponent by over 30 points.

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This week also saw Americans remembering the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the anniversary of his birth and the holiday that commemorates it. Across the nation, people engaged in service projects for their communities in his honor. President Biden spoke at church services in Atlanta at Dr. King's church, Ebenezer Baptist, where Senator Warnock now preaches. He mentioned the voting rights legislation that John Lewis had supported before his death. I doubt that anything will be done in Congress to pass meaningful legislation. I believe that was a big failing of Senator Schumer and President Biden, that they did not get these voting protection bills passed. According to CNN, polls have shown that Black voter participation was lower in the midterms. Was it because of voter suppression, apathy, or poor candidates in some races; I do not know. I believe Georgia was an exception to this statistic as Black voters showed up for the general election and the run-off. If the President runs again in 2024, he will need Black voters, especially in urban areas to show up at the polls and be surrogates for his campaign.

Interesting note: After two run-offs in which the Democrats won, Governor Kemp in Georgia has proposed doing away with the requirement for a run-off if no candidate gets less than 50% of the vote. They originally established the law to suppress the Black voter turnout.

Another interesting note: In Mississippi and Alabama, they know the holiday as King-Lee Day as the day jointly celebrates Confederate General Robert E Lee along with Dr. King. Hey guys, you lost the war! Get over it!

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Issues to consider: In an interesting article in The New York Times, environmentalist and director of The Third Act, Bill McKibben writes he believes that older Americans who usually vote Republican are switching away from Republicans, such as Florida's Villages! He contends that:

"But in the 63 most competitive congressional districts, the places where big money was spent on ads and where the margin in the House was decided, polling by AARP, an advocacy group for people over 50, found some fascinating numbers. In early summer, Republicans had a sturdy lead among older voters in 50 of those districts, up 50 percent to 40 percent. Those had Republicans salivating. But on Election Day, voters over 65 actually broke for Democrats in those districts, 49 to 46."

He believes the issues such as climate change and environmental concerns, as well as the Dobbs decision, were major reasons voters changed their minds. Exit polls showed that for women over 50, the Dobbs decision influenced their vote to choose a Democrat 2 to 1..  Of course, the Republican demands by Senator Scott of Florida to weaken or reauthorize Medicare and Social Security every five years were also major concerns. Medicare and Social Security have been described as the third rail of politics, the place where it is suicidal to go, but some millionaires in the Senate such as Scott and Ron Johnson do not seem to care. McKibben notes that for 40% of all retirees, Social Security is all they have for income. Another significant measure mentioned by older voters was the threat to democracy they perceived.

He concludes by noting that ten thousand Americans turn 60 every day and that today's older voters are not your parents' grandparents!

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On that note, this week also saw the 50^th anniversary of the Supreme Court's original decision on Roe. For many, that used to be a day to celebrate, no longer. Washington DC has long seen those opposed to the Roe decision come to DC every January to march against this decision. Area Catholic and other religious schools have bused students in to march in what they call pro-life demonstrations. This year they were still here but, sadly, were celebrating. There were small counter-demonstrations here, but larger ones across the country where marchers supported Roe. The pro-life demonstrators were calling for a nationwide abortion ban, while their opponents were marching to codify Roe options in state constitutions where abortion is still legal since an attempt to do so at the Federal level last year failed.

I do not understand why the same people who want to prohibit choice in pregnancies are also the ones who do not support Medicaid funding or Snap funds or daycare options for working mothers. According to the 19^th a news site, legislators in Oklahoma are planning to introduce felony penalties against pregnant women who take abortion pills; although some claim that the law will just target providers. A similar law proposed in Louisiana did not pass. Just today, President Biden loosened restrictions on medication abortions and made the medication (Mifepristone) available without an in-person physician visit. Misoprostol is the second medication and like Mifepristone can now be dispensed by pharmacies with valid prescriptions, instead of only in clinics. (The two medications are taken in sequence days apart.) States, where abortions are banned, are currently trying to work around mail-order prescription availability. Some have even tried to determine who was ordering the medications and make that illegal. Kaiser Family Foundation discusses the issues here.

Meanwhile, horror stories continue as providers are afraid to treat women with tubal or ectopic pregnancies or care for those having first-trimester miscarriages in states such as Texas with strict bans. Did none of these legislators ever have a spouse who had a miscarriage? Do they not understand these are not unusual occurrences? They occur in one out of every three pregnancies or, according to NIH, about 26% of all pregnancies before 20 weeks, with most occurring in the first trimester. The medical terms "spontaneous abortion" and "miscarriage" are used interchangeably. Legislators who either do not care to understand pregnancy, do not know what causes pregnancies, or have never been pregnant should not try to legislate areas where they know little. And women who know better should act better.

‘Til next week-Peace!

Send in the Clowns!

Every circus needs clowns, isn’t that correct?

Now I am not inviting the ghost of Emmett Kelly or the spirit of Ronald MacDonald to visit the House floor, but that sorry bunch of House Republicans showed us this week that they do not understand how to govern. If one looks at the bills submitted this first week alone, one would get an idea that their platform is more social engineering than real policy. Their plan remains to help the rich get richer and to let the middle class fend for itself, and to forget the poor. I saw a lot of bobbing and weaving, ducking and covering, posturing and mumbling happening, but no legislative initiatives for the people they were elected to serve.

You can find here a recent summary of all bills introduced so far in this first week of the new Congress here:

Oh, sure, they passed a bill providing criminal charges for any provider who allows an aborted fetus that was alive, to die, but that is already the law. Of course, they knew it as the “Born Alive Act”.

They introduced another bill that banned insurance coverage or state Medicaid payments for abortions. The ban on Medicaid coverage had been in effect for a long time. It even already prohibited states from using their own money for this purpose in specific circumstances. Services vary from state to state.

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation:

It depends on where you live. Because federal law only allows the use of federal funds for abortion in cases of rape, incest, or life endangerment of the pregnant person, in most states, Medicaid coverage for abortion is limited to these circumstances.  Many of these states have banned abortion and it may be difficult to locate a provider to obtain an abortion even in cases of rape and incest. 

Maryland law allows for some Medicaid funding, but it is income based.

Yet, a third banned the Federal Government from prohibiting the use of gas stoves. (This was apparently based on rumors after Governors in New York and California mentioned phasing out the use of gas stoves in coming decades.) The uproar, that this is happening now, fanned by Fox News, of course, was untrue. Some states were planning a gradual phase-out by partially disallowing new hookups in future years. (I have never understood why an earthquake-prone state such as California allowed home use of gas lines.) President Biden even denied that his administration was even considering this at a press opportunity recently.

We can see some of the upcoming administrative changes in the rules rescinding some powers of the former bi-partisan Ethics review committee that would make referrals to the House Ethics Committee. The January 6^th committee referred several members of the current House leadership (McCarthy and Jim Jordan were two who ignored the committee subpoenas) to the full Ethics Committee of the previous Congress, but this leadership will probably ignore those referrals.

There is now talk from McCarthy and others that they are out for revenge. After first saying that he would allow Democrats to select their committee members, McCarthy now says he will strip the Select House Committee on Intelligence of two long-term members,. Both Congressmen from California who served on the impeachment committees for the former president, Adam Schiff, and Eric Swalwell, were mentioned. And, in payback for the Democrats taking committee assignments away from Marjorie Taylor Greene for her offensive behavior, he plans to remove Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from her committee seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

Does anyone know if these steps result from promises McCarthy made in his play for the post of Speaker? No, we, the general public, do not know and probably won’t get to know just how much of his authority was bartered away in his power quest. So, who is actually running this session of Congress? Is it Matt Gaetz who is now roostering his way onto the airways? Or perhaps Marjorie Taylor Greene, who went from opposing McCarthy to being a huge booster for his speakership? What role was she promised, aside from a return to having committee assignments? Will Qanon advocates now be running the place? Does anyone know just what the new rules for Congress are? As I noted earlier, only one week in, and already it is a three-ring circus.

There are bills, of course, to reduce taxes and defund the FBI and IRS. Republicans claim that both Federal agencies are out to get ordinary Americans. Erroneously they state that the additional employees at the IRS are going after the average Joe and will audit his taxes when what the employees are needed for is to upgrade the departments, deal with the backlog of returns, answer the phones, and yes, go after the top 1% who evade taxes year after year because the IRS doesn’t have enough staff to chase them down. They accuse the Department of Justice of weaponizing the FBI such as in its actions at Mar-a-Lago, and will try to defund certain aspects of that agency. Some members promise to target specific employees and negate their salaries.

Now, we all know that most of these wild schemes will go nowhere in a Democratic Senate and that a lot of rhetoric is being tossed around for the Republican base. Even so, all of this further serves to divide Americans and make finding common ground more difficult. The New York Times carried a recent discussion between two of its conservative columnists today, (David Brooks and Bret Stephens), where they discussed why they cannot support this current Republican Party. It provides some very good perspectives on how America got to this point. They point to the actions of Newt Gingrich, CPAC members, and Pat Buchanan as some people who started the demise of the party as they once knew it.

Bret says: What’s different this time is that populist feelings were never harnessed to pragmatic policies. As you say, it’s just populism in the service of nihilism.

As Brooks puts it: “then the congressional Republicans began to oppose almost every positive federal good, even George W. Bush’s compassionate conservatism. Trump brought the three horsemen of the apocalypse — immorality, dishonesty, and bigotry.”

While both saw some good in the populist movement, they both also decried the Republican move toward authoritarianism and could not support that.

Of course, the Santos problem will not go away, it just gets murkier and murkier. The public does not know if anything he said is true. Generally, no one is sure of his name, his job, his education, or even his address. The campaign finance report he submitted where he loaned himself $700,000 is thought to have major errors in the required reporting, which is against the law. Some have questioned whether it was money laundering or came from a donor PAC to shield major Republican donors who had maxed out their party contributions. That, also, could be illegal. Hopefully, someone somewhere is investigating these issues. I don’t see how he might bully his way through these messes and stay for his full two-year term. Time will tell. McCarthy will not consider kicking him out unless he is criminally charged; he needs his vote to stay in his position.

The debt ceiling is a topic for another night.

I guess I can’t leave without mentioning the Biden classified documents issues. I think it is a shame that this happened. Biden claims that the document removal was an error by his staff when his materials were being packed up or stored, at either his home or former office, so I'm pretty sure that's probably what happened. These concerns are not parallel at all to the incident of the Mar-a-Lago documents. DJT refused for months and months to turn over a significant number of vital and classified documents, while Biden’s papers were few and were turned over to the Archives when found. They were not important enough to even have been missed by the department. I do not believe that this issue is a major concern or threatens national security as many of the papers are several years old or date from the Obama administration. Consequently, I do not believe that this issue needed a special prosecutor, even if the man chosen is upright and impartial. AG Garland probably thought that since there was a special prosecutor for DJT, he could not avoid one for Biden. I disagree, but he probably did this to reduce Republican criticism. These two cases are as different as apples and elephants. As always, the proof of the pudding is in the eating as they say; I know Democrats do not want SP Hur to turn into Ken Starr, which is what they fear unless his powers are limited somehow.

A few words of congratulations for the new and returning legislators who took their seats in Maryland last week. I wish them an interesting and productive session. Our new governor and his administration take office this week. Governor-elect Wes Moore has chosen a diverse cabinet and staff and has an ambitious agenda. I hope that they all succeed in these new roles and with their new ideas. I thank Governor Hogan for his eight years of service; I shall not miss him.

“Til next week-Peace!