Bill's Focus

There are great ideas out there – if we looked

“American Exceptionalism”. We think we are special and the best. America IS a wonderful place. But it has a lot of work to do if it wants to catch up with other nations with regard to healthcare, housing, education, retirement and yes…democracy.

So many of our national challenges could be better met if we surveyed the well run systems of other nations.

The US is proudly a nation of successful businesses. And every smart business person I have encountered looked around at his/her industry, copied good ideas and then attempted to improve on them. That is part of the “business 101” I was trained in decades ago.

Today’s letter is about democracy’s essential tool: voting. Do you think there will be a high turnout in 2024? I think there is “energy” out there that suggests yes. But I also worry about a lack of youthful participation. This research from Tufts offers encouragement and despair.

This NY Times opinion piece (paywall bypassed) is about the missing Constitutional Amendment that would provide a universal right to vote. I found this inspiration within the comments section. I suspect that the commenter wouldn’t mind having his views spread more widely. Feel free to scroll right down to the 7 ways Australia has a better democracy.

David Sciascia

Sydney Australia Jan. 16

After returning to Australia after 20 years working in the USA my friends ask me, “Why are Americans so dumb that they continue to support Trump, or, don’t ban semi automatic weapons, or restrict access to abortion, or don’t support a move to universal healthcare?“ I have to remind them that most Americans are no more dumb than the average Australian, in fact large majorities of Americans all over the country would support these reforms. But the structural and political roadblocks in America’s electoral system prevent those reforms ever seeing the light of day. I’ve come to believe that it’s pure luck that our constitution was drawn up in the early C20th and amended well before the 1990s to include critical electoral safeguards, because I don’t think constitutional amendments would be possible in today’s polarised environment.

Australia’s electoral safeguards:

1. An Electoral Commission that runs our state and federal elections, draws up our electoral districts

2. Automatic voter registration (when someone turns 18) with names held on a national database

3. Elections are held on a Saturday so the whole community can turn out with their families to vote. (Which is compulsory anyway)

4. A preferential or ranked choice voting system (similar to the one adopted by Alaska last year. (Already in place in Maine and moving forward in Massachusetts.)

5. A far more democratically representative senate

6. Term limits on High Court Judge appointments (our SCOTUS)

7. Strict limits on political ad spending

How could anyone object to any of these seven concepts?

From the Australian government website:
”If you have received a notice for not voting at a federal election, by-election or referendum and wish to pay the $20 administrative penalty, you can do so online using the Government EasyPay service.”

IMO, not much of a penalty. But it sets the tone, doesn’t it?

Voting in America should be easy, safe and compulsory (see #3). One could check the box that says “none of the above” or write in Taylor Swift. But at least we would know the voter thought about their obligation as a citizen for a few minutes.

Read further if you are interested in the status of voter participation in the US compared to other nations.

From the Pew Research Center:
”More than 158.4 million people voted in that election (2020), according to a Pew Research Center tabulation of official state returns, amounting to 62.8% of people of voting age, using Census Bureau estimates of the 2020 voting-age population.

The 2020 voting surge followed unusually high turnout in the 2018 midterm elections, when about 47.5% of the voting-age population – and 51.8% of voting-age citizens – went to the polls.”

“U.S. voting-age population turnout is still behind many other countries despite its recent rise, though registered-voter turnout is remarkably higher.”

That’s not good enough for me. How about you?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_exceptionalism

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/16/opinion/voting-rights-constitution-28th-amendment.html?unlocked_article_code=1.PE0.oQ-F.iKs5FwJ7Q7aN&smid=url-share

https://circle.tufts.edu/2024-election-youth-poll

https://www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/upcoming/rankedchoicefaq.html

https://www.aec.gov.au/Elections/non-voters.htm

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/11/01/turnout-in-u-s-has-soared-in-recent-elections-but-by-some-measures-still-trails-that-of-many-other-countries/

Take a break from politics and think like a dog

This letter is an update on Sophie. I wrote about her origins – how we met – a couple of years ago. I think the best way to describe life with Sophie is to say: “We are a pack.” Sophie, Bonnie and Bill. Not sure who “the leader of the pack” is – but we are all happiest when we are together. Sophie’s dinner ritual involves us sitting near her while we have a glass of wine. We applaud as she woofs everything in her bowl. Then she gets a taste of our cheese appetizer. She loves cheese.

Overall, Sophie is doing well. But just as with all of us, as we age, a few conditions develop. One is arthritis. We recently began her on a new drug called Librela. It has produced amazing results. Most of her limping is gone and she is bounding around like a puppy! Here is a video on Librela. It has been used for cats for several years. Not shockingly, Europe has employed it for a few years already. In March of last year Librela became available for dogs in the US. It IS revolutionary. It means that dogs can enjoy their later years in a new and wonderful way. Less pain and more activity. If there are human trials for this…sign me up!

I also thought some of you would be entertained by Sophie’s DNA results from “Wisdom Panel”. Read below. Try to imagine the various dogs listed here getting together over the generations to produce such a creature. The most perfect dog ever, of course.

We detected 16 breeds in Sophie’s DNA.

• Sporting

  • 24% Labrador Retriever

  • 2% American Cocker Spaniel

  • 2% Golden Retriever

  • 1% Flat-Coated Retriever

• Hound

  • 20% Beagle

  • 3% Basset Hound

• Guard

  • 12% Boxer

  • 7% American Pit Bull Terrier

  • 2% American Staffordshire Terrier

• Herding

  • 5% Australian Cattle Dog

  • 4% German Shepherd Dog

  • 4% Great Pyrenees

  • 3% Australian Shepherd

• Mountain Dogs

  • 7% Saint Bernard

• Asian and Oceanian

  • 2% Siberian Husky

• Companion

  • 2% Shih Tzu

Mostly Lab/Beagle/Boxer/Shepherd – but Saint Bernard and Shih Tzu?

So you might get terrific pictures of coastal Maine from Heather Cox Richardson or beautiful chickens from Joyce Vance. From me it’s dogs and vegetables. Woof.

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https://www.fda.gov/animal-veterinary/cvm-updates/fda-approves-first-monoclonal-antibody-dogs-osteoarthritis-pain

https://www.wisdompanel.com/en-us

Letters from an American

A newsletter about the history behind today’s politics.

By Heather Cox Richardson

Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance

Worried about the state of the republic? Get the legal knowledge & analysis you need to be an advocate for democracy, along with a dose of savvy optimism.

American Exceptionalism strikes again

I wrote recently that our news feeds are flooded with atrocities and atrocious humans that distract us from the most important issues facing the planet – like the Climate Crisis. What follows is another subject that has been pushed off the page. I am attempting to put it back on a front burner. Lives are being lost for profit.

The American Healthcare System is very sick. Michael Moore wrote about it years ago. He created a documentary that could have moved us towards progress. But it didn’t. Because the oligarchs who PROFIT from our illnesses convinced Americans that private healthcare was the “American Way” and that competition would lead us to being the best. That a national healthcare system for everyone was “socialism”. Pure Bullshit.

As an American, I find the chart above to be embarrassing and humiliating. And horrifyingly sad. Why isn’t this talked about with a determination to change it? Some Americans are obsessed with preventing abortions (women’s reproductive freedom). Where are those voices on this subject? Don’t moms and babies have a “right to life” after leaving the birthing room?

Please look at any column on the chart below. But perhaps, to feel the most shame, zoom in on the two right hand columns. Compare the United States with other “developed” nations and shed tears. Then slide back to “Total Healthcare Spending Per Capita…”. This is where you are allowed to be angry.

Our profit driven, millionaire creating, cruel and deliberately bureaucratic health (care?!) system is a perfect example of American Exceptionalism gone crazy. That is the theory that the United States is either distinctive, unique, or exemplary compared to other nations.

We spend twice as much on trying to stay healthy and we get half the care – and we don’t live as long – compared to other developed countries. We use our Emergency Rooms for primary care. It’s stupid and wasteful. It’s expensive.

Michael Moore and many others have asked us to look around the world for countries that have better health care systems with better results for less money. It wasn’t hard to find. They are everywhere. None of the countries have perfect programs. There are long waits for some procedures. There are problems with funding. But none of these issues are unsolvable. They all have one thing in common: everyone is included. Because in their nations every human has a right to healthcare. Not a privilege or a benefit or a perk. A right.

When Russia launched “Sputnik” we took it as challenge. When a hockey team challenges us for the Stanley Cup, we get physical and fix it. And we are Olympic fanatics. Go for the gold! Why won’t we compete in the game of life and death? Where is our national pride when it comes to our health results?

You don’t have to watch the documentary to get the message. Just look at the charts. It should make you feel sick. Women and babies are doing worse living (or dying) in the Good Ole US of A. Much worse.

Apparently, American Exceptionalism knows no bounds. We are willing to accept the needless suffering and deaths of our fellow citizens. Isn’t that more bullshit? Where is our national outrage?

Universal Healthcare is a human right. Say it. Or consider our less fortunate fellow citizens – mothers and babies – to be disposable. Or accept the fact that EVERY other developed nation cares more about health results for its residents than we do. I can’t do that. That’s not the America I was taught to love.

Finding the money to save the lives of mothers and babies is my kind of “choice”. That shouldn’t be too hard. The chart below is average wealth – as if it were distributed equally. Ha. But here is where the money resides to save lives in America the Exceptional.

We are the richest nation to have ever existed on this planet. But 400 morbidly rich people own as much wealth as about 200,000,000 of us in this “land of opportunity”. I think that qualifies as extreme hoarding.

https://healthsystemsfacts.org/?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiAtt2tBhBDEiwALZuhANaUnUmpnNQJuee0cQ80oen6o7P2Gd3PFour2rsSgB5ns5JHr-ZCSBoCbiQQAvD_BwE

https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/chart-collection/infant-mortality-u-s-compare-countries/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/noahkirsch/2017/11/09/the-3-richest-americans-hold-more-wealth-than-bottom-50-of-country-study-finds/?sh=3200a72f3cf8

https://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/

Dig deeper if you wish:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28363132/

Appalling facts, sensible solutions

“ I’m not any more altruistic than the next guy.
I’m just greedy for a different kind of country. ”

MORRIS PEARL, CHAIR, PATRIOTIC MILLIONAIRES

Thanks to Daniel Solomon. He and I are often involved in the same substack comment boards such as HCR’s “Letters from an American” and Hubbell’s “Todays Edition”. Daniel turned us on to this website:

Mr. Pearl testified at a Senate hearing and here is an excerpt from the video:

”The original sin of our tax code is the way we value money and wealth over work and wages. Your constituents who work for a living have taxes deducted from their paychecks every single week. I earn money by just watching the numbers on my brokerage statement go up, and I can decide to have that income become taxable if and when I feel like it. We do not tax capital gains until the time of sale, which means for people like me, taxes become essentially optional. We can take out low-interest loans to fund living expenses, never realize the capital gains so never pay taxes on them, and when we die, thanks to the step up in basis, we’re able to pass that wealth on to the next generation completely free of income tax…”

Please watch this:

About 2/3 of our economy is driven by consumers. People buying food, paying rent, purchasing the products we have learned to want or need. A TV, a cell phone, a game console – or medicines and medical care. If the bottom 90% of Americans have much less to spend than a few years ago, what does that do to the “economy”?

The extreme anger felt by MAGA followers is partly fueled by the fact that they are losing financially. They are suffering. And they are RIGHT to be angry.

But the morbidly rich have redirected that MAGA anger at immigrants (who are NOT stealing their jobs) and Democrats (who are NOT telling them how to worship or who to have sex with or what books to read) and the government (which is NOT the problem – Reagan lied).

The bottom 90% of Americans are suffering because the oligarchs and uber rich have used their lobbyists to write a tax code that allows them to pay very little or nothing at all. THAT is where the anger should be directed. The Republican response to that tax revenue shortfall is – guess what? – cut social programs for the 90%. Cut food assistance for the working poor and their kids, cut child care help, cut help with educational debt, cut help with health insurance, cut Medicaid, cut Medicare, cut Social Security. Cut, cut, cut!

America doesn’t have a “spending problem”. It has a revenue problem. And a few very rich people have a better idea. Tax them appropriately!

https://patrioticmillionaires.org/

https://proudtopaymore.org/

https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/charts-that-explain-wealth-inequality-in-the-united-states/

Did spaghetti really originate in China?

Was the path of pasta from the Far East to Europe and then – gratefully to America? Should we be thanking Marco Polo for our penne? Perhaps. But if he was responsible, maybe he brought something other than noodles or seeds of wheat!

Proper grating

https://culinarylore.com/food-history:marco-polo-and-chinese-pasta/

https://www.food.com/recipe/creamy-garlic-penne-pasta-43023

From Incredible Opportunities

What’s the greatest crime committed by the monsters of the world? What do Putin, Trump, Orban and all the other dictators or wannabe kings have in common? Aside from being self absorbed and vicious?

Answer: they distract us from focusing on the issue that threatens every living thing on this planet. Every minute we think about Trumps trials or Putins bombing of civilians is a minute we are not devoting time to saving the planet. Isn’t that the biggest crime in the history of humanity?

Let’s start with this article from the New York Times. (paywall bypassed).
”Carlo Buontempo, the director of Copernicus, said that average temperatures his team had documented were the highest in the climate organization’s records dating back to 1850. But evidence suggests, he added, that Earth hasn’t been this warm in at least 100,000 years.”

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post writes in her article titled “Will We Turn Away from Fossil Fuels in Time? (paywall bypassed)
”There are several selfish reasons we — as Americans, as humans — should be motivated to accelerate this process. The obvious one is the already apparent rise in deadly and costly heat waves, drought, famine, hurricanes, floods, infectious diseases. As well as the destabilizing mass migration that accompanies climate change. Americans have already begun seeing the consequences of failing to act, both at home and along our borders. Furthermore, building out our renewable-energy infrastructure would make the United States less vulnerable to the whims of oil-rich authoritarians.”

Need any more reasons to act as fast as possible?

There is progress. U.S. electricity generated by wind and solar is forecast to surpass coal-fired power in 2024

But it’s obviously not enough. Not enough, not fast enough.

I have always been a “No Nukes” person. True, power based on nuclear fission is not warming the Earth. But it’s just too expensive and too dangerous. It takes decades to create a nuclear power plant and we still haven’t figured out what to do with the deadly material it produces. Would you like radioactive waste that will be lethal for thousands of years buried in your state? While it would be foolish to abandon the nuclear power we have now, we can replace it. Someday, far away.

But don’t wallow in despair, there is a glimmer of hope. Long term, big hope. Can we think long term? Can we care about what the planet will be like in 2124?

My brilliant wife (some who know her well will not be surprised) sent me an article recently that sent me on an exploration of what could and can be a world altering project.

There is another form of nuclear power on the horizon that doesn’t have such dangers and that has the potential to replace fossil fuels. Nuclear Fusion is about to happen. Not immediately. But based on what you will read next, there is the possibility that a completely safe and very powerful form of “fusion” will power our infrastructure – our lives. Everything has its downsides and drawbacks. But this one could be Earth altering – in the most positive way.

”Fusion reactors are not subject to catastrophic meltdown.^”

For a deep dive into Nuclear Fusion, you can go here. Beware, it’s deep 🙂

There are currently 25 Fusion projects around the world. 8 of these are in the US. And the Department of Energy has awarded each of them $46 million to continue their research. One of them is a short drive from our home near Boston! Read about our local project here: “Commonwealth Fusion Systems”

This Scientific American article provides a realistic assessment of the future of fusion as an answer to our energy needs. It’s not going to happen soon. But it may be our only hope in the long run. Can we think about the long run? Or are we just going to be totally and continuously distracted by our greedy, murderous, headline grabbing monsters?

”Even if fusion can’t save us from the immediate climate crisis, over the long term it may be the best option to satisfy our energy needs without destroying the planet.”

There is a race to bring this source of power on line. Huge fortunes will be made and lost. I think that an interesting and revealing way to view all this is to tell you that one of the major investors in this technology is Chevron. Yes, the same company that is all about extracting oil and gas. Another investor is Google.

So here is an idea. What if Congress authorized a VERY large amount of funding for this effort. What if it became a “Manhattan Project”? What if we performed a quantum leap ahead of other nations again? I think Einstein and Oppenheimer would be proud.

In my opinion, if we are ultimately to be thought of as an intelligent species, we will walk and chew gum at the same time. We can fight authoritarianism, defend democracy – and plan for a world our grandchildren and great grandchildren can thrive in. Do you think we can do that?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/09/climate/a-new-era-in-global-heat.html?unlocked_article_code=1.M00.qwDJ.o6DtJFWbCk9Y&smid=url-share

https://wapo.st/41WEBfy Rampell

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusion_power

https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/20/climate/nuclear-fusion-energy-breakthrough-replicate-climate/index.html

https://www.energy.gov/articles/doe-announces-46-million-commercial-fusion-energy-development

https://cfs.energy/

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/19/google-chevron-invest-in-fusion-startup-tae-technologies.html#:~:text=Google%20and%20Chevron%20were%20part,a%20total%20of%20%241.2%20billion.

Too much money, too much evil

Nobody really needs “X” – the stupid new name for Twitter. And if you have any admiration for a guy who is smart enough to make electric cars and send satellites into space…you can be forgiven now if you would like to send him a goodbye message.
If there were ever an example of a disgusting human who has too much money (and power) here ya go.
Please consider what a bigoted billionaire could do if so inclined. IMO, too much power, too much influence, too much hate. Please consider “X” in the same category as InfoWars or Mein Kampf. Sure, there are good folks on this platform. But participation equals support.

From the Atlantic:

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society “likes to bring invaders in that kill our people … Screw your optics, I’m going in.” Those were the last words posted online by Robert Bowers before he massacred worshippers at Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life synagogue in 2018. It was the single deadliest anti-Semitic attack in American history. In previous postings, Bowers explained the grievances that led him to commit mass murder. He shared meme after meme asserting that Jews were conspiring to flood the country with brown people in order to oppose and displace the white race. “Open you Eyes!” declared one. “It’s the filthy EVIL jews Bringing the Filthy EVIL Muslims into the Country!”

On Wednesday night, the world’s wealthiest man affirmed this same conspiracy theory on X, formerly Twitter, the social-media site he owns. Like so many of Elon Musk’s acts of self-immolation, it happened in the space of a tweet. The incident began with a post from a conservative Jewish user who complained about anti-Semitic content on social media during the current Gaza conflict. “To the cowards hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and posting ‘Hitler was right,’” he wrote. “You got something you want to say? Why dont you say it to our faces.” A small-time white-nationalist account soon responded by attributing this anti-Semitism to minorities, and blaming it on the Jews:

Jewish commun[i]ties have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them.

I’m deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities that [they] support flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.

You want truth said to your face, there it is.

This exchange would have languished in obscurity had Musk not replied to this bigoted bromide with six words: “You have said the actual truth.”

It should not need to be said, but sadly it does: Jews—a famously fractious people that includes Jared Kushner, George Soros, Bill Maher, and Noam Chomsky—do not have a shared consensus, let alone a collective conspiracy to subordinate white people through immigration policy. And even if there were a unified Jewish agenda, it would make absolutely no difference. That’s because, contrary to deranged delusions of anti-Jewish conspiracy theorists, public policy is not set by the 0.2 percent of the world population that is Jewish, but by the 99.8 percent that isn’t.

America’s most famous entrepreneur.

More than an hour later, after it became clear that Musk’s missive was doing profound damage to his already dented reputation, the billionaire attempted to clean up his claims about the Jewish community’s perfidy by saying that he was only referring to the Anti-Defamation League—as though being anti-Semitic toward one group of Jews is somehow less objectionable. (It’s not.) In any case, the walk-back lasted five minutes. After another critic complained that it was “not fair to say or truthful to say that ‘Jewish communities’ promote dialectical hatred towards white,” Musk replied: “You right that this does not extend to all Jewish communities, but it is also not just limited to ADL.”

None of this is new. It wasn’t the first time Musk echoed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories from his social-media bubble. And it wasn’t the first time he blamed anti-Semitism on Jewish actions, pinning the prejudice on its victims. After months of marinating in the most conspiratorial cesspools of his own site, Musk arrived today at his inevitable destination.

But just because Musk’s affirmation of white-nationalist ideology was the unsurprising outcome of his online radicalization spiral doesn’t make it any less devastating—or dangerous. Anti-Semites believe that a minuscule Jewish minority controls the direction of the non-Jewish majority. But the truth is the opposite: The fate of the tiny Jewish community rests in the hands of non-Jewish society. Whether the anti-Jewish ideas of Musk and others become the new normal is not up to Jews; it’s up to everyone else.


https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/elon-musks-disturbing-truth/676019/?utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share

It’s up to US.

Many Christians are actually “True Christians”!

Many Christians honor the Constitution.

In a recent chat exchange on a substack letter I asked where the real Christians were and why they weren’t vocal and active in opposing the White Christian Nationalists? The people like House of Representatives Leader Mike Johnson who have left Jesus and his teachings in the dust. The fascists who want to establish a National Religion that opposes tolerance and teaches hate of the “others”.

I was raised as a Christian. But I am a “None”. I have eschewed organized religion. The horrors perpetrated by “God Fearing” folks are the stuff of our human history. But there is always danger in sweeping generalizations.

I received an answer to my question from Melinda Quivik. A Lutheran pastor, in MT, MN, MI. PhD (worship and preaching), a former seminary prof. Her latest book is: “Worship at a Crossroads: Racism and Segregated Sundays.“

Melinda taught me about efforts to reassert a classic principle of separation of church and state – by Christians. Which should be one of everyone’s favorite principles.

Please explore this website. I think you will like it no matter what your spiritual orientation is. I feel better for experiencing it. Thank you, Melinda.
https://www.christiansagainstchristiannationalism.org/

And I encourage folks to support “Americans United for Separation of Church and State”

https://www.au.org/#

My personal “faith” is simple.
Golden Rule. We’re all in the same boat. Try to think like a species – not a tribe.

Try to leave the Earth a little better than you found it. Pick up litter.

Listen to your mate. She is usually right.

Volunteer for something. Adopt a dog.

Analyze your upbringing and choose to emulate the best parts of your parents – not the worst. Think of yourself as an example for the next generation.

Grow some of your own food. Teach kids where food comes from.

Try a little optimism and try to be nice.

Too few

The events of October 7th and since have washed over me like a tidal wave. I have written some substack articles in the last few weeks. But I haven’t published them. I have felt too helpless, appalled and completely overwhelmed to comment on the atrocities unfolding in the Middle East and in our nations Capitol.

I have not buried my head in the sand. I remain informed. I start with Heather Cox Richardson, then Robert Hubbell. Joyce Vance for the legal angles. Diane Frances and Tom Friedman for the international focus. Thom Hartmann and Robert Reich for the latest in the dismantling of the American Dream. I am aware.

As the farming/gardening season has wrapped up, I have had more time for reading. Heather’s latest book, “Democracy Awakening” is excellent. Especially if you want to be reminded that the forces of greed, lust for power and political chicanery have always been with us – since well before our founding as a nation. She reminds us of two things.

First, there were no “good old days”. We ARE making progress. The references to making America great again are a sick joke. Things were great in the 50’s and 60’s if you were a white male. For the rest of America, forgetaboutit!

Second, we are on a precipice. America is straddling the positive long term trend towards equality and less crime – and the potential collapse of democracy itself. The United States is a much better place than it was 100 years ago. But we could slide back to something akin to Germany in the 30’s and 40’s overnight. Or America in the 1860’s or 1890’s.

For a terrific recap of where we are, please watch Judy Woodruff’s interview with Professor Richardson on the PBS News Hour.

But I have also been reading some fiction. I have discovered an author that I am astonished I hadn’t followed earlier. He is part of the writing team that gave us two of the finest TV shows in my life time. “The Wire” and “Boardwalk Empire”. Recently, he gave us a very well written show called “Blackbird”. An uncomfortable but riveting project.

Dennis Lehane has written more than a few highly popular and critically acclaimed novels. His latest is called “Small Mercies”. Not a long book. You will fly through it. Perhaps what I enjoy the most about his writing is the elaborate portrayal of a time we could learn from. In Small Mercies we revisit the era of school busing in Boston. A judge determines that public schools must be integrated. He orders that children from poor Black neighborhoods be shipped to poor White neighborhoods – and vice versa. No rich suburbs involved!

That’s the vivid backdrop for a story about a mother, her daughter and an Irish mob that is loosely based on a real gangster from Boston. For me, what makes a story good is the growth of the main characters. What are they learning? How does their life view become affected by their experiences and do they find an ounce of empathy for someone else. Dennis Lehane is an artist at blending historical background with personal challenges. And he builds a story alternating between parallel journeys that ultimately collide.

Small Mercies was SO good, I went back into his archives and just completed “The Given Day”. The first of three in the Coughlin series. Wow. Boston again. Lehane is from Dorchester. For those familiar with the area, that explains a lot. This book gives us Babe Ruth, the birth of the NAACP, the first police union in America, issues of immigration, and the Great Molasses Flood of 1919! All with fascinating character development and descriptive genius. I could almost smell the smoke in the “Boston Social Club”. I could feel my legs buckling under the dense warm molasses rushing down the street – smashing in store fronts, kneecapping horses, overturning delivery trucks and leveling buildings.
A volatile love story is a continuing thread. Isn’t it exciting to find an author who just grabs you by the shirt and drags you back to the pages?

Wouldn’t it be nice if today’s leaders who have brought us the murder of innocent civilians would pause and offer their victims some small mercies? Wouldn’t it be nice if some politicians would put the welfare of the nation ahead of their personal religious zealotry? On November 17th, millions of Americans may begin to suffer enormous financial loss because one man would put his outrageous and extreme agenda ahead of the American people. I don’t believe in devils, but I might be changing my mind 🙂

Michael Johnson is a fake Christian. A monster who twists a religion to use as his personal bludgeon of bigotry. Someday, an author as good as Dennis Lehane will use his story as a backdrop for a great novel. The man from Louisiana will be the obvious villain. The gangster.

https://dennislehane.com/

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/717588/democracy-awakening-by-heather-cox-richardson/

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/12/books/review/democracy-awakening-heather-cox-richardson.html

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/

https://www.npr.org/2023/11/04/1210528749/house-speaker-mike-johnson-evangelical-christian-republican-party

Labor Day is about Laborers

I was reading the comments section of Heather Cox Richardson’s Letters from an American today. As usual, her letter was spot on. But a guy named Gary Loft ended his comment with “I dreamed I saw Joe Hill”

I can’t think of a more beautiful or appropriate way to honor LABOR to day. Here’s “Joe Hill” rendered by one of the most beautiful voices America has ever experienced. We need some more Joes and another Joan. Now.

The music begins quickly – the awful ad can be skipped in a few seconds. Enjoy.