The Fall of a Nation

So. The United States is being ruled by a corrupt, inept, incompetent, Russia-loving, lying, bloated, morbidly obese, narcissistic, orange-tinted, insecure, cheating grifter. 

He is backed up by a cabal of corrupt, Russia-loving, lying, cheating cabinet members and senators. His fondest dream appears to be to make himself king, or at least a dictator. Worse, if that is even possible, is that these corrupt people are aided and abetted by so-called evangelical Christians who support them and encourage their no-longer-disguised hatred and racism.

He has told more than 15,000 lies since his election, and he continues to add to that total on a daily basis. His incessant trips to his various golf clubs and resorts have cost American taxpayers well over $100 million. He has been impeached. He has brazenly tried to coerce a foreign government to dig up dirt on a leading Democratic political opponent in the run-up to the November 2020 election. He has dismantled environmental protections. He has appointed cabinet members who have a long-standing financial interest in undermining the agencies they are supposed to oversee. He has announced his love for some of the world's worst tyrants. He held a secret meeting with his Russian counterpart at which no notes were taken. He has abandoned our Kurdish allies to slaughter. He has insulted our (former) staunchest allies. He declared that the traumatic brain injuries suffered by 50 American soldiers in an attack by Iran -- an attack precipitated by his unhinged actions -- aren't serious and are nothing more than a headache. He pretends to be religious, but only to appease his 'base.' And this is just a small part of what he has done to destroy America.

People like me are scared. We are sickened. We are tired of the never-ending assaults on our country and on everything for which it once stood. We are tired of being ignored by our so-called representatives. And we are frustrated by our inability to peacefully bring about changes in the way our government is being run. Phone calls to politicians. Petitions. Marches. All are ignored by the Republican mob that runs our government. These self-serving clowns are not making America great again. What they are doing is lining their pockets and those of their cronies. They delight in removing health care from the elderly and the poor. They gloat as they discuss second-term plans to slash Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. They cut food stamp benefits.

Those of us who are scared for our country, who are watching the destruction of the American republic as it is turned into an autocracy, feel helpless to stop its demise. We feel powerless. "Make sure to register and vote in the November election," we are told. I have voted in every presidential election since I became eligible to vote. Sometimes, as in the last election, I have to hold my nose when I vote. But vote I did. I have a good friend who did not vote in the 2016 election because she didn't like either candidate. I have told her that she must register and vote in the 2020 election. Our country cannot endure another four years of the current clown show.

"Don't give up," we are told. "Keep on resisting," we are advised. "If we give up, they win." Well, we haven't given up, and they are winning. The cards are stacked against us. Those who hold power aren't going to give it up. It must be taken from them. The Senate has done nothing to help secure our elections against meddling by Russia or other nations. Ivanka Trump was granted a Chinese patent for voting machines.

How do we not give up hope, when the very people who are supposed to act on behalf of American citizens instead care only about holding onto power and enriching themselves? How do we continue to hope when the US Senate holds a sham trial and refuses to allow witnesses who have direct knowledge of the misdeeds of the president? How do I and others stop this run-away train while there is still a shred of hope left? How do we stop the destruction of our country, the environment, its relations with our allies overseas? How do we stop the growing overt acts of racism, anti-Semitism and anti-gay rhetoric and attacks?

I wish I knew how to do these things. I hope that the American people come to their senses and vote out of office every Republican in the November elections. Democrats certainly aren't perfect. Our entire political system needs to be thrown in the trash bin so we can start over and have a more representative government rather than a government run by the wealthy. 

Maybe then we can start to restore our country to what it once was.

Let Us Never Forget

Today, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camps by soldiers of the First Ukrainian Front of the Red Army.

Entrance to Auschwitz I. The sign says "Work makes you free."

Although there were more than 1,000 concentration camps run by Nazi Germany throughout its occupied territories, it is the camps known as Auschwitz that are most familiar to the world. Auschwitz was a complex of more than 40 concentration and extermination camps. Of the 1.3 million people sent to Auschwitz, some 1.1 million were killed or died of starvation or disease. Some 900,000 of those murdered were Jewish.

My group of 10 Americans and one Canadian visited Berlin and Oswiecim, Poland, to learn about the roots and history of the Holocaust. After a few days in Berlin, we traveled to Poland, where we spent several days delving into the history of the camps, getting in-depth tours, and going behind the scenes to talk with archivists and conservators who work to preserve everything left behind when the camps were liberated. We spent an entire afternoon with a local Polish guide touring the original camp, and another full afternoon walking the much larger Birkenau camp. The scope of this camp left us all stunned and silent as we tried to imagine the horrors and suffering that took place there. A gloomy and rainy day only added to the sombre nature of our visit. 

I have read dozens of books about the Holocaust, among them works by some who survived the horrors of the camps. I visited both of the main camps very briefly a few years ago. But nothing could have prepared me for the reality of life and death at Auschwitz. Even then, because Auschwitz has been preserved as a museum, the true horror of the camps is evident only in the imagination.

We did a service project at the original camp that consisted of raking leaves and reviewing English-language displays for damage and for correct word usage and punctuation, as they had been translated from Polish. These tasks, while mundane, made me feel that I was in some small way atoning for what others had done. Knowing that I have German ancestry made me wonder whether any of my relatives took part in the atrocities. My paternal great-grandparents had immigrated to the US before the war, but I wonder whether I have other, distant relatives who were there.

Entrance to Auschwitz-Birkenau camp

This was without a doubt the most moving, impactful and emotionally and physically draining trip I have taken. The one question that remained unanswered was "Why?" Why did this happen? Why did most of the German people turn a blind eye to the atrocities taking place in their name? 

Now, more than 80 years after the start of the war, those questions, despite years of study, still have no answers.

Our group leader asked us one evening during our daily reflection and discussion about what we had seen and experienced that day, what would we do with the information and experiences of this trip once we returned home.

Writing about my experiences in this blog, which I did previously and now again on this sad anniversary, and sharing a few of the many images I gathered, is my attempt to encourage others to never forget.

Each of the members of my group, whether Jewish or not, reacted differently to what we saw, heard and learned. Some explored their family history and looked for relatives lost to the Holocaust. Some, like me, simply have an interest in learning more. But the memories of this trip will remain with me forever. Members of our group still stay in contact.

Being so deeply immersed in the story of the Holocaust on several levels was incredibly overwhelming. We struggled to describe the trip. Saying that it was a 'great trip' somehow seems inappropriate. It was intense. It was overwhelming. It was mind boggling. And yet, what we saw is, in reality, a whitewashed version of the enormity and depth of the horrors that confronted millions of people. My mind struggled to comprehend the atrocities that took place in the camps we visited. I didn't shed a lot of tears, but what I saw and heard kept me awake at night. Even as we raked leaves and picked up trash, we were reminded of prisoners forced to work outside in all kinds of weather. We, someone pointed out, were dressed properly. We had suitable shoes and gloves. And if we got thirsty, we could take a break for a drink of water.

All of us who shared this trip are joined by a common experience. Our backgrounds, our family histories are different. But I think I can speak for all of us when I say that we will never be the same after this experience. 

Brick barracks at the original Auschwitz camp were previously used to house the Polish army.

The Joys of Travel

I love to travel. And my travels have brought opportunities to do some things I never have done before.

Here are some of my top experiences (in no special order).

• Ride a camel (in Jordan and in Morocco at sunset)
• Go snowshoeing in Yellowstone National Park
• Touch a baby elephant
• Get 'kissed' by a Rothschild giraffe
• Have tea with a Bedouin family
• Fall asleep to the sounds of lions roaring, hyenas laughing and hippos snorting
• Hear wolves howling from both sides of a road
• Ride in a helicopter over northern Kenya with the side door open
• Visit the Sphinx and the pyramids of Giza, Egypt
• Stand just yards away from a mother grizzly bear and her two cubs
• Do a service project at Auschwitz death camp
• Visit the Church of the Nativity in the Palestinian Territory
• Ride in a restored, hot pink 1957 Chevrolet in Havana, Cuba 
• Walk on Omaha Beach, France, scene of the D-Day landings in 1944
• Sit among a large group of gelada monkeys in Ethiopia
• Watch a tiger from just a few yards away
• See two lionesses catch and kill a wildebeest (not something I want to see again)
• Spend days learning about the Auschwitz death camps and going behind the scenes to learn about preservation and archive efforts
• Be in a 4x4 vehicle as it was chased by an angry bull elephant
• Live in a private home with a Cuban family
• Stand just a few feet above polar bears in Churchill, Canada
• Serve as a perch for meerkats in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana
• Tour Highclere Castle, aka Downton Abbey
• Photograph endangered Ethiopian wolves
• Visit the American Military Cemetery in Normandy, France
• See the aurora borealis in far northern Canada
• Visit Jerusalem's Western Wall and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
• Complete 50 miles of the Camino de Santiago in Spain
• Walk on a glacier in New Zealand
• Visit the Wansee Center, where Heydrich, Eichmann and their fellow Nazis planned the 'final solution' to rid Europe of all Jews
• Stick my foot into the Jordan River in Israel, then see the river again from the Jordan side
• Walk among the magnificent ruins of the ancient city of Petra
• Visit ancient Roman ruins in Turkey

Yes, it's expensive and sometimes exhausting to reach some of these places. But the experiences I have had while traveling are priceless. My travels also have allowed me to make some good friends. I can't wait to see what 2020 will bring.

What I Hate About Winter

This is easy.

There are so many things to hate about winter. Here are 17 of my least favorite things.

• gloves 
• hats 
• scarves 
• heavy coats 
• boots 
• heavy sweaters 
• steamed up eyeglasses 
• runny noses 
• cold fingers 
• cold toes 
• frozen faces
• constricting clothing
• long, dark days
• icy streets and sidewalks
• being housebound due to the weather
• spending hundreds of dollars to heat the house
• getting zapped by static electricity every time I walk a few steps inside
• frozen pipes

So yeah, I hate winter. 

I Just Don't

I want to become a hermit.

Really. I want to live in a cabin in the woods, without cable television, without Internet. So when our world blows up, I won't hear about it for a long time, if ever. I don't want to hear how many Americans are killed in terror attacks brought about by the ill-thought actions of this country's 'great leader.' 

• I don't want to hear about the horrific fires in Australia that have killed, so far, 25 people and half a billion animals. 
• I don't want to hear about animal abusers getting off with a slap on the wrist. 
• I don't want to hear about an entire wolf pack being exterminated in Norway by close to 200 hunters. 
• I don't want to hear about how our government is selling out our country to the Russians. 
• I don't want to hear about more attacks on Jewish communities by white supremacists emboldened by the talk of our so-called president. 
• I don't want to read about elephants, rhinoceros and lions being slaughtered to feed the insatiable demands of the Chinese and Vietnamese for ivory trinkets and magic potions. 
• I don't want to read about the destruction of our environment, the oceans filled with thousands of tons of trash, the pollution being dumped into our rivers and lakes. 
• I don't want to hear about Republican efforts to control a woman's body, to remove health care for millions of Americans or to slash the food stamps on which millions of poor Americans rely.
• I don't want to hear about how the Republican administration put an American ambassador under surveillance and according to some, wanted to have her killed.
• I don't want to watch, helpless, as the government works to allow big business to set up mining operations just outside some of our national parks.
• I don't want to feel helpless as I and other Americans stand by and watch the hate-filled, lying Republicans destroy our country. 

I just don't. 

Earth Is Drowning ... In Plastic

The Earth is drowning in a sea of plastic.

There is an 'island' of plastic in the Pacific Ocean that measures some 617,800 square miles (1.6 million square kilometers). Known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, it contains at least 79,000 tons of discarded plastic and is three times the size of France and more than twice the size of the state of Texas. 

This is merely the plastic debris in one part of one ocean. Plastic is everywhere, and very little of it gets recycled. I do what I can to reduce the amount of plastic in my life. I have used reusable grocery bags for decades. I cringe every time I see someone leaving a grocery store with a shopping cart containing eight or 10 plastic, single use grocery bags. Only 1 percent (one bag in 100) gets recycled. 

I refuse to accept drinking straws in restaurants. Don't even put one on the table! Anybody who needs a straw can ask for one, or buy and carry a stainless steel straw. This week, after my semi-annual visit to the dentist for a check-up and cleaning, the hygienist started to hand me a plastic bag with a small tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush and a small container of floss. I declined and explained that I have stopped using plastic toothbrushes, opting for bamboo brushes instead. She asked where I bought them (Amazon), so maybe she will check them out as a compostable, non-plastic option.

How many plastic toothbrushes do we add to the landfill each year? Assuming you change toothbrushes every three months as recommended, that is four pieces of plastic/person added to the landfill every year. Over the course of 60 years, that is 240 plastic toothbrushes from just one person. Multiply that number by the number of people on the planet, and the total is astounding. I switched to compostable bamboo toothbrushes a couple of years ago. Bamboo is biodegradable. Bamboo plants grow very quickly. And each toothbrush comes in a small cardboard container that can be recycled, unlike the plastic-encased plastic toothbrushes.

Plastic/balloons that are released to "send a message to heaven" or to honor someone who has died do nothing but pollute the planet. They do not send a message to heaven. They do cause terrible pollution on Earth. Turtles and other marine animals can swallow balloons, thinking the balloons are jellyfish. Plastic six-pack rings should, at the very least, be cut so no bird or mammal gets caught in them.

I recycle everything I can (cardboard, paper, plastic, aluminum and bi-metal cans). But plastic is inescapable. The 'plug' in my carton of almond milk is plastic and not recyclable. Too many food items are packaged in plastic of various kinds, only some of which can be recycled. Sadly, I am unable to recycle glass containers where I live.

I have switched from using shampoo and hair conditioner that comes in plastic bottles to items that are in bar form, so there is no plastic waste. Laundry detergent is now available in forms that don't require storage in large plastic bottles. I keep a refillable aluminum water bottle in my car rather than using plastic bottles of water. For a while, national parks stopped selling individual plastic bottles of water, providing fountains for refilling reusable water bottles. But as with so many other efforts to save our environment, the current administration has rescinded this effort.

The things I am doing are small steps, but tiny steps can add up to big changes. I have not used single-use plastic bags and plastic straws for decades. That's a lot of plastic not consumed. As I searched online for more ways to eliminate plastic from my life, I saw a suggestion to stop buying frozen fruits and vegetables, which are packaged in plastic bags. I prefer frozen produce to canned, so that suggestion may be difficult for me to implement. What alternatives to frozen foods in plastic are available? I am not aware of any. I am all in favor of reducing/eliminating plastic from our lives, but I also believe we must use common sense. Asking people to give up frozen fruits and vegetables doesn't appear to be a realistic choice. Let's start by eliminating the use of plastic shopping bags and plastic straws. Albuquerque, NM, banned the use of plastic bags on January 1 of this year. Albertson's Markets, which has stores throughout the state, also banned plastic bags at its stores in Rio Rancho, Taos and Los Lunas.

Don't think plastic bags are a big deal? Consider this: According to the Center for Biological Diversity, "Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. It only takes about 14 plastic bags for the equivalent of the gas required to drive one mile. The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year." Several countries, including the United Kingdom,Italy, Kenya, Ethiopia and others in Africa, have banned plastic bags, as have cities such as San Francisco, Seattle and now, Albuquerque. Yet WalMart, a huge corporation, refuses to ban these unnecessary pollutants. Some estimates are that WalMart hands out 20 billion plastic bags every year.

I was pleased to receive an order recently that, instead of being packed with Styrofoam 'peanuts', was packed with chopped up bits of cardboard. If I receive a box that holds any kind of packing material, I hold on to it and use it the next time I mail a package. At least then the bubble wrap or packing 'peanuts' are used more than once. I also reuse empty bread wrappers and produce bags to pick up poop from my dogs. Again, each plastic item has more than one use, and I have to buy fewer poop bags.

Plastic is everywhere, and I doubt we will ever be able to completely get rid of it or recycle it all. But if each of us takes steps to limit plastic from our lives. we certainly can make a dent in this major source of pollution.

What will you pledge to do to reduce or eliminate plastic from your life?

. 

A Rant

Please indulge me for a moment while I rant.

I see lots and lots of Facebook posts sharing dogs that will be euthanized today/tomorrow/whenever if not rescued or adopted. My first rant is that it is absolutely shameful that in the year 2020 millions of dogs and cats are killed every year because the humane societies/animal shelters/animal control have no more room to house and care for them. Why are people still breeding animals without having homes waiting for them? Why are they allowing mixed breed animals to reproduce. These animals, delightful as they are, are not advancing the breed. And before you attack me, nearly all of my dogs have been mixed breeds. The purebred dogs I have had have ALL been adopted. These innocent animals are not commodities to be used until the humans get tired of them, or the animals are no longer cute, or the animals can no longer produce puppies or kittens for sale. And they most definitely should not be used so humans can enrich themselves by selling dogs. This is directed at back yard breeders, puppy mills, and the Amish who are notorious for their abhorrent treatment of animals.

My second rant is directed at people who feel a need to make themselves feel good by posting inane comments such "Somebody please adopt this baby" or "I would take him but I live in Louisiana" or "I would adopt her but I already have five dogs" or "I pledge $10." Exactly what do these comments accomplish? Rescue groups report that they very rarely actually receive any pledges. And these statements do nothing but clutter up the post, making it very difficult for animal welfare employees and volunteers to find any legitimate interest in truly rescuing an animal. If you can't actually rescue/adopt an animal, if you're not willing to call and make arrangements to get it out of the shelter, keep your comments to yourself! All the "I would, but" comments are not helpful. 

If you genuinely want to help a rescue, donate money to that rescue group. Don't just post a 'pledge' that you never will honor. Share a post to someone you think may be interested in adopting a certain animal, but you don't need to announce it to the world. Stop bragging about the little actions you take, and DO SOMETHING! All the "please adopt this sweet baby" posts don't do anything to save an animal's life. If you can't adopt an animal, that's OK. Just don't clutter the post with unhelpful comments. Get involved with your local animal shelter. Volunteer to walk dogs, or socialize cats and dogs to make them more adoptable. If you have good photography skills, volunteer to take good photos of adoptable animals so they are presented at their best. If you have grooming skills, offer to groom some of the animals that really need it. Hold a fundraiser or a pet food or toy drive.

That's the end of my rant. Don't make the job of saving animals more difficult by posting useless comments. If you really want to make a difference, put your "thoughts and prayers" and good intentions into action.

No Words

I am a writer. 

I add as many as 70 posts to this blog every year. I have done this for more than 10 years, for a total of 542 posts.

I write about politics. I write about animals. I write about things in my life. I write about my travels and my photography. So I'm not often at a loss for words. But right now, I am unable to find the words to express what I feel about the current state of the world. 

Let's start with the US, where I live. We have an incompetent, lying, insecure, bullying, greedy would-be despot in the White House (although he spends much of his time playing golf and watching Fox News to learn how he should respond to the events of the day). Oh, and he was recently impeached, and he may face yet another charge of impeachment.

Australia is on fire. More than 12 million acres have burned so far, with fires still raging out of control across much of the country.. At least 25 people have been killed, 1,200 structures destroyed, and some 500 million animals impacted.

Let us not forget the recent drone killing of Iran's top general. All of a sudden this general, who has been around for years, was deemed by the American president and his henchmen to be an imminent threat to the US, although the administration refuses to explain on what evidence this decision was made.

Iran shot down (according to current theories) a Ukrainian airliner that had just departed from Tehran shortly after Iran fired several rockets at a US military base in Iraq. It's possible the military thought the aircraft was an attacking American airplane. All 176 passengers and crew were killed.

Bees, without which many of our agricultural products would disappear, are dying off at record numbers. The glaciers are melting, threatening coastal and low-lying communities with massive flooding. Our biodiversity is decreasing. We are facing a sixth mass extinction. Water pollution, drought and deforestation are major environmental issues. And of course, global climate change threatened the entire planet. 

My emotions are raw and just below the surface these days. It takes nothing to bring me to tears. I worry all the time about what is going to happen to our country. Will Trump leave office peacefully when he looses the 2020 election? Will he, as expected, once again cheat his way to a fake victory? Will his followers, as they have threatened, take up arms in protest of his loss? 

And most importantly, will our country be able to recover from the damage he and his cronies have done to this country? Will citizens once again work together to make the US the country it once was? Or will we continue our decline? Only time will tell.