Day 1829: Chaos in the Airports

On Friday at 4:45 pm, DT issued an executive order preventing all immigration from seven Muslim majority nations in the Middle East, effective immediately.  People in planes in departure cities were pulled off.  Those who made it to the US airport were detained.  Even people with green cards or dual citizenship were denied entry.  In my view, the order is unconstitutional, unjust, cruel and counterproductive.  It is the perfect way to give ISIL and recruiting tool.

Protests have erupted in all the major airports across the United States when immigrants and refugees generally enter the country.  JFK, Seattle, Boston, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami.  Crowds swept in and took over, chanting and shouting.  Swarms of young lawyers descended on the airports offering their services for free.  The ACLU filed lawsuits and secured the release of two Iraqi men who worked for the US government as translators.  Finally, a few federal judges issued orders that got those with green cards admitted.  Case by case, more have been released.

The order was so ill-conceived and poorly carried out that the entire world has been disrupted.  People who work in the US cannot return to their jobs, those in the US who have family overseas can't go visit.  Syrian refugees who have been vetted for years and were on their way to new homes have been turned away.  It's a major crisis and he's only been in office for ten days.  What more will he do to disrupt the world?

I took the day off from political action and worked instead on the bibliography.  I finished it, but in the process found a few errors and inconsistencies with the text.  The major problem is that I discovered that the CDC updated their recommendations on water storage containers.  Now I must go back to the equipment chapter and eliminate references to the bleach bottles!  What a pain!

These are from Saturday's Footloose rehearsal.

Backstage crew

Day 1828: Congressional staff

I did something new today along with forty other citizens.  Members of the Chautauqua County Women's Action Group attended the meeting with Congressman Reed's representative at village hall this morning.  Janet spoke first and she was burning with anger over the constant lies coming from DT.  She demanded to know what the Congressman was going to do about the steady stream of lies coming out of the White House.  I was quaking when I spoke next.  I read the first amendment outloud and asked what the Congressman was going to do about the gag rule that DT placed on the EPA.  

More speakers followed, each one calmer than Janet and me, and it became a productive discussion.  About ten speakers covered a variety of topics, although the ACA, the environment, the folly of the wall, free speech, Trump's failure to release his tax returns and his vast conflicts of interest dominated  the conversation.

Every day, more horrors.  He ordered the wall to be built at a cost of billions.  He's stopping all immigration for Syrians refugees and a four month ban on immigrants from specific Muslim countries.  He is cutting off funding for sanctuary cities which is another unconstitutional act.  He signed executive actions permitting the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone Pipeline.  Will the Congress fund any of these actions?  Will any Congressmen or women stand up to him?

I learned a great deal. First and foremost, I  have been too complacent, too casual and uninvolved for many years.  I thought keeping informed, reading and teaching were enough.  What a fool!  I've been too cautious, too reserved.  Because I wished to remain neutral for my students, I kept quiet.  The young woman who recorded our comments handled the crowd effectively and respectfully.  I realized she's doing a job and should not be the target of our anger.    She doesn't know when Reed will be hosting a town hall meeting, but we will be there whenever it is.

I've written three letters to DT this week and plan to continue.  No doubt they will be tossed in the trash, but I'm going to do it anyway.  He's cut off the White House comment line so we can't even call and leave a message.  He thinks he's king.

On the book front, in the last few days I've reviewed another nine chapters as I prepare the bibliography.  Should be able to finish by Sunday, especially since a huge lake effect snow storm is on the way!  It has hardly felt like winter.  64 degrees on Saturday, 45 today.  It's been lovely and we're going to pay for it now.   No such thing as global warming?  HA!  2016 was the warmest year on record!

Day 1827: Women's March on Washington

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the march.  I confess that I got so wrapped up in the events that I took very few pictures.  We departed at midnight Friday and returned home at 3:30 am today.  I'm beat, but exhilarated!

Our group of 54 marchers from the Fredonia area

All along the route to the rally point, we encountered women from all over the nation and world.

I was intrigued by the huge variety of signs which expressed so many of our thoughts on the issues. 

Lots of imagination and wit went into their signs!

This one spoke to my hopes for the future.

There is debate about the value of the march, but it seemed to me to be the beginning salvo in a long war to upend the old order.  Women are determined not to permit the injustices continue.

One of the signs said, "I can't believe I still have to protest this shit!"  It's a reflection of my generation's return to past conditions before the sexual revolution of the 1960s.  So many younger women have taken those gains for granted.  I hope they won't do so any longer.

As we marched by the Newseum,  I took note of the first amendment.

I am exhausted and will write more about this in the next few days.

#alternative facts

A view looking back at the massive crowd behind us.

Over 500,000 people!

I

Day 1826: New floor

We helped Terry this week to install the new floor in the living room.  On Tuesday we ripped up the old carpet, rolled it and hauled it outside, then did  the same with the padding.  The next step was to pull up the nailing strips all around the perimeter and scraped up the staples.  I cleaned and swept while they tried to get the first few courses straight.  Terry spent the whole time on his knees and Steve cut the pieces of laminate for him.

It was backbreaking work.  It made me think about Terry spending the last thirty years working on selling and installing floors in all kinds of conditions.   It's taken a terrible toll on his body.  We planned on helping to reduce costs and he's our retired friend.  If we hadn't pitched in, it would have taken another day or two.   So, now we'll take a week off and then he'll be back to start the kitchen.

I've been glad to have a distraction in the week leading up to the inauguration.  I've watched many of the hearings for the cabinet nominees and was horrified by their incompetence, conflicts of interest and agendas.  Billionaire Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Education Secretary, was one of the worst.  Her family has donated over $200 million to Republican candidates including $9.5 to Trump.  She's an activist from Michigan who has spent her career promoting charter schools and serving on a board that works against the LGBTQ community.

Her answers were ridiculous!  Most of the time she avoided answering directly and simply repeated the same line.  "I believe in accountability."  She would not guarantee that she would enforce the same standards for public and charter schools or that she would make certain federal laws were enforced to guarantee equal access to education for handicapped students.  But the worst comment was related to Chris Murphy's question about her position on having guns in school.  She wants to leave it to the states to determine.  She's sure guns are necessary to fight off the grizzly bears!

I'm all ready for our trip to Washington for the Women's March.   We board the bus at 11:30 and depart at midnight.  The plan is to arrive between 7 and 8 am and pick up breakfast.  The rally starts at 10 and the march at 1:15.   We estimate that we'll return home about 2 am.  I've never done anything like this and it's about time!

Women are banding together to demand equal rights and protest the treatment of women.  There are 616 sister marches taking place in every state and around the world!

New floor! 

Day 1825: China cabinet treasures

As I cleared the china cabinet in preparation for tearing up the carpet tomorrow, I couldn't help but wonder what will happen to all the treasures I have stored away inside when we are gone.  Fragile antique glasses from Steve's mom, silver bowls given as wedding presents that have been wrapped and unused for many years,  rich red dessert bowls, two sets of Christmas glasses, an exquisite Irish Belique sugar and creamer set, Japanese bowls from our Japanese hostess Kumi, and gorgeous trivets and dishes I picked up in Portugal and Spain.

They are too lovely and full of memories to part with in such a callous way as selling, but I doubt very much that anyone in the family today would want them.  We should use every single piece rather than have them tucked away.  Next time I have Penelope, I'll set a fine table and enjoy them!

The last few days were very productive.  Yesterday, we met with ten of our most loyal adult leaders and gave them an update on all that's happened with Quest over the last seven months.  The most momentous news was the new storage space.   They were delighted to see all the equipment packed neatly and securely.  Together, we tackled the job of evaluating all the packs and tents.  They broke into teams, examined each piece and catalogued each item's condition.  Now we know we have 37 packs and 30 tents all ready to rent out.  It was a huge help!

I ticked off nearly all of the items on the long list of jobs I made for today. The most exciting was to make reservations for our trip to California in April!  By then, we'll be dying for warmth and sunshine.  Hooray!

Day 1824: Sick to my stomach

Horrible dizziness and nausea, so bad I couldn't lift my head from the pillow yesterday.  Flu?  Or maybe disgust with the repeal of the ACA, the hearings held for cabinet appointees, DTs first news conference, the GOP refusal to pursue the Russian interference in the election or any number of other nefarious acts.

But there is hope in action.  I attended the meeting of  CC WAG and am inspired by the passion and dedication of the members.  A full bus load of 64 women from Fredonia will be traveling to Washington to march.  Very exciting!

Then we attended the Fredonia-Pomfret Democratic association meeting, elected officers and began planning for the future.  I've never attended a party meeting before and have only been to three caucuses. The first two were when Steve was nominated by Kara for village trustee and the last when Kara was nominated.  I made more calls to Tom Reed and talked volunteered to serve as as Education Secretary.  As I told his clerk, every single teacher in the entire country is more qualified to serve than she is, except of course, we aren't millionaires who have donated vast sums to DT.

So, what about the book?  I did most of the bibliography on Tuesday.  Since they are not searchable, the format is very simple.  I went through all the transcripts of the interviews and cited the person and date of the interview.  It turned out that I cited about sixty people.  That's not as many as I thought, but still a decent number.

I don't know how much will get done on the book in the next week because new flooring is being installed in the living room from Monday to Thursday.  Over the weekend, strip the room.  On Monday we're ripping out the old carpet, putting down underlayment on Tuesday, then installing the laminate on Wednesday and Thursday.  We're helping Terry to decrease the cost.

Finally started eating this evening and began with ritz crackers.  They aren't on my diet, but I figured since I didn't eat at all yesterday, I could indulge.  YUM!




 

Day 1823: The Manchurian Candidate

One of the horrifying realizations of Nov. 9 is that the world has been turned upside down.  So self-centered, vane, stupid and power hungry, DT is already blundering our nation into monstrous problems.  Instead of of DT, I should call this the Putin-Trump regime.  It's been confirmed by the FBI, CIA and NSA that the Russians interfered in the US election.  Putin believed that Hillary Clinton was responsible for the protests against him just after his 2011 election and sought revenge.

He directed operatives to disseminate propaganda, false news stories and hack emails in order to damage Clinton's reputation.  He sought to undermine American's faith in our democratic system and hired social media trolls to plant false information.   Although they hacked the Republicans too, they never released those findings in order to sway the electorate toward Trump.   Now he is the Russian puppet, the "Manchurian Candidate."

DT is crazed, of course.  For years he questioned the legitimacy of President Obama by constantly challenging his place of birth.  Now, he is truly an illegitimate president.  He won't accept the official report and tweets that the pursuit of Russia is a "witch hunt."

I rarely took political action in the past for fear of compromising my neutral position as a teacher.  That's over.  I spent a lot of time calling Rep. Tom Reed and Speaker Paul Ryan to protest the repeal of the ACA.  I've been collecting information to use as ammunition when I speak.  This week I learned about Indivisible, a Practical Guide to Resisting the Trump Agenda written by former Congressional staffers to help us organize and protest.  It's an extremely helpful guide for the novice protester like me.  

So, many political problems, so much distrust and fear.  I can only chip away a tiny bit, but if each of us in the resistance does the same, we can upend the world again.  Many will be hurt along the way, there's no doubt.  The figures for the job losses and insurance losses just from repealing the ACA are terrible.  And many more issues related to the environment, LGBTQ rights, security, women's rights and on and on.  Every day, fight!

I also read volume one of March, by John Lewis.  It's a simple graphic account of the story of his life and how he became an activist in the civil rights movement.  At the end of their successful Nashville lunch counter sit-in, Martin Luther King, Jr. came to Nashville on May 10, 1960, and spoke.  Some of the things he said remind me to be hopeful, "No lie can live forever."   "Let us not despair."  "The universe is with us."  "Walk together, children."  "Don't get weary."    Simple, true statements that have helped me cope and become more resolute.

On the book front, I am hoping to contact the No Frills Press in Buffalo this week.  All week I've been reading chapters to prepare the bibliography and reduce the number of names.   That's about half done.   I also had Bismarck check the pages I wrote about his story and he loved them!  That's a relief cause I was afraid he might be a bit embarrassed.  It's a beautiful story and he inspired many other hikers with his courage.

In planking, we are up to 45 seconds.  I am surprised I've been able to manage it.  Also, cut back on bread and other carbs.  Trying to limit sugar intake to under 25 grams.  It would help our fitness to be outside, but it's been snowing constantly for days!

First dance rehearsal for "Footloose!"

We got about a foot of snow over the past two days.  It's beautiful!

California has gotten significant snow, too, which is great for restoring their water table, but there's so much that now the fear is flooding.

Back on Wednesday!

Day 1822: Back at it!

I really miss this!  But, I am disciplining myself to spend my time more productively, so I will adjust. My goals for the book are being met, but slowly.  I'm again reviewing each chapter in order to prepare a bibliography.   Very little content is drawn from outside sources, but I do refer to a number of books that Lee and Dave depended on in the early days of Quest.

There are several references in the history chapter to a leader's manual that Lee created as well as early parent letters,  memos and a couple newspapers articles.  I have to research how to cite those items.  The big question is whether it's necessary to list the names of all the people I interviewed over the years or those who completed a questionnaire.  That would probably be close to 200 people!  I've often attributed quotes directly in the text, but sometimes I paraphrase their comments.  What do I do about that?

As I finish each chapter, I am exporting it to a word file so it can be more easily shared.  Once I finish that, I will make a new file linking all the chapters so I can format the whole book.  A major lake effect snow storm has struck so I'm sure we won't be traveling to Orchard Park tomorrow.  Instead, I can knock off a few more chapters.  It should be finished by the weekend.

I have cut nearly all sugar from my diet this week and have been cooking healthy meals with primarily protein and vegetables.  Unfortunately, I had to request a new Silver Sneakers card because I lost mine, so we have not yet signed up for the fitness center.  If we are going to continue with Quest for a few more years, we have to be in good shape.  The side benefit of searching for the card was that it forced me to clean my desk.  Another bit of progress!

Last night Josh delivered the Silver Creek student leader applications and there were five, not three as he had reported.  So, that gives us 48!  It's so hard for me to say no to any of these kids, but we simply can't take twenty of them!

I won't discuss politics tonight because the situation is so awful!  However, I did see interviews with both Chuck Schumer and Bernie Sanders that give me a tiny bit of hope.

Unfortunately, these last five days have been so difficult since our friend's death that it's been hard to concentrate.  Yesterday we went to the funeral home to visit the family and were completely overcome.  Shane collapsed into Steve's arms and sobbed like a baby.  Then he did it again with me as did his mom who is also a dear friend.  Everyone in the place was crying and in shock.  His poor father is 91 and I'm certain never expected to outlive his son.  I won't talk about the circumstances, but it was profoundly sad and unsettling.  We love Shane like a fourth son and my heart is broken for him.

So, I wil report again on Saturday or Sunday.