Goodbye to My America

We had the opportunity to do something that has never been done before in this country.

We could have elected not just a woman, but a biracial woman, a woman of color, to lead this country. We could have elected a leader who offered hope, who offered opportunities, who offered sanity and inspiration, to people of all races, of all economic levels, in this country.

But more than half of the voters of this once-great country chose to elect a racist, a convicted felon, a convicted rapist, a perpetual liar, a misogynist, a man whose dementia makes him unfit to lead this nation. They elected someone intent on making America suffer and promising to put into positions of power other mentally unfit men to dismantle the federal government, to decimate health care, to reject life-saving vaccines, to cozy up to the dictators of the world, to end Social Security and other programs on which people depend.

I fear not just for my nation, but for the rest of the world. With the presidency and both chambers of Congress in the hands of the fascists, I fear that Ukraine, a country fighting for its own democracy and survival as a free nation, will fall to the Russian invaders without the weapons provided by the United States. I fear the dismantling of our independent press. I fear that like Germany of the 1930s and 1940s, we have lost our system of checks and balances to rein in the raging madmad in power.

I fear more attacks on women. I fear the rise of so-called Christian nationalism. I fear further brainwashing of children in our public education system.

I fear for our planet, already struggling and showing her pain with climate change, drought, wildfires, floods and other natural catastrophes. I rear for our wild places and our wildlife struggling to survive.

I fear for those who aren't white, male and Christian. I fear for the LGBTQ population, and for the Jewish and Muslim members of our society.

The great American experiment in democracy has ended. That half of my fellow citizens could believe, and vote for, a person convicted of rape and 34 other felonies, who has pledged to be a dictator, who promises revenge and retribution on his alleged enemies, who calls for the shooting deaths of reporters and anyone who opposes him, makes me literally sick to my stomach.

Goodbye, America.

Stress and Fear

 I am not someone who gets stressed easily.

But today, I am very stressed. I am stressing about the future of our democratic republic, whose fate will be decided tomorrow in the most important national election of my life.

Will Americans vote for a progressive, positive Democratic candidate who brings hope to Americans? Or will Americans vote for a mentally ill, fascist-leaning, traitorous Republican who offers only a dark, violent future for this country?

The contrast couldn't be more clear. And the stakes could not be any higher.

I took part in early voting last month, as I don't trust the post office to safely and promptly deliver my absentee ballot. 

The future under an unhinged megalomaniac who wants to raise taxes on the middle class as he cuts taxes on his wealthy cronies, who openly admires Adolf Hitler and Vladimir Putin, who wants to deport tens of millions of immigrants (including those in the US legally), who wants to send the treatment of women back to the 1950s, and who wants to take away health care from millions, is terrifying. 

It's also unimaginable to me that tens of millions of Americans support this chronic liar who cares only about himself. He is a convicted rapist and he has been convicted of 34 felony counts. And he promises to fill his cabinet with nutjobs such as RFK Jr and Elon Musk.

It is highly probable that we won't know the final results of this year's election until later in the week. And it's almost guaranteed that if the traitor loses the election, he will appeal the decision and get his minions to stage violent protests like those we saw on January 6, 2021. 

America is more prepared for violent protests this year, and the leader of the seditionists is no longer in power.But those who refuse to accept the results of the election have had time to plan their rebellion.

So yes, I am stressed. I am frightened. I fear for my country. Indeed, I fear for the world.

Cows

I recently was part of a photography group that visited both Croatia and Slovenia.

One day in Slovenia, I decided not to take part in a walk to a waterfall because I wasn't comfortable on the hilly, rocky, slippery terrain. The morning outing was a bit more strenuous than I was comfortable with. I found a bench near a grassy enclosure that held five cows. There were three adult cows, and two calves. One of the cows was wearing a bell around her neck. I'm told the cow with the bell was a matriarch of the group, and that even if the animals were dispersed over a large area, the other members of the herd could locate their leader by the clanging of the bell. The bell also made it easier for the cowherd to find the herd.

So I sat on the stone bench and watched the cows. I felt the urge to write, but I couldn't call up my blog. So I decided to dictate a draft e-mail with the beginnings of this post.

Now I would guess that not too many people give a lot of thought to cows and their lives. But as I watched these five cows peacefully grazing on a comfortably warm and partly sunny day, I started wondering about what cows think about their environment. and their lives. 

I suppose that cows, not being the brightest among mammalian species, don't really think about their environment or about their future. They simply are. They do what cows have always done. They graze on grass, drink water when they need a drink, and have not a care in the world as long as their basic needs are met. 

In that sense, cows are much better off than are we humans. We worry about the future. We fret. We lose sleep. We plot and plan.

I know that most cows, the vast majority in fact, spend their lives outdoors in the sunshine eating grass. And then they are shipped off to what the British used to call the knacker man. There they are killed and chopped up into various cuts of meat. So-called beef cattle are raised and killed for their meat. Dairy cows, such as the ones I watched, are used to produce milk for human consumption until they are deemed no longer productive. Then they, too, end up as hamburger meat.

I would guess that cows don't worry about the future. They don't fear their looming deaths and dismemberment. They simply do what cows have always done. They eat, they drink, they have babies, and they have no fear of what future awaits them. 

Some 900.000 cattle are slaughtered every day around the world. That is a tremendous number of lives lost each day. Several years ago I made the decision to give up cow's milk and beef. I really enjoyed vanilla almond milk, until I had to give up anything almond due to the nuts' contribution to the development of kidney stones, for which I have been treated surgically five times. If I feel like having a burger, I enjoy a plant-based burger, which is remarkably tasty It isn't much, but giving up beef is my small contribution to lessening the suffering of animals.

So in one respect, I think cows are very lucky. They live for the day. They love their babies, but they don't fret about things over which they have no control.

We humans could take a lesson from the lowly cow.