June 2024 – Susan Feathers

American Aspirations

We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.

Cesar Chavez

From the beginning, our nation stands firmly on the bedrock of equality and a system of governance of, by, and for the people.

Those we elect govern only with our consent.

Seeing through the storm of rhetoric and lies – everyone is depending on us to think and make a wise choice in the 2024 election.

I consider the words of Cesar Chavez as the clear vision of America, its hopes and dreams for our citizens and for people across the world. You can view our history as the struggle to realize our common aspirations. Along the way tyrants, baffoons, and artful dodgers have thrown lies and accusations at good people, like Joe Biden … people who tell the truth while the liers seek to topple him. He and his Cabinet work quietly and compentently on behalf of ALL the American people.

Smokescreen of Lies and Fabrications

Here we have a mob of rich contributors with eyes on how a (T)Rump presidency can line their pockets or achieve their sick dreams of making the public act and do as they see fit. We should all ascribe to one religion and we should all be bound by their notions of family and goodness. This is Unamerican and a path to the end of democracy. We have been warding off these people and forces for the whole of our history. Like ravenous predators, they eye Lady Liberty seeking to topple her.

Age and America

We do not generally revere seniors in this young nation. We still worship youth. So where are the younger candidtes? Have we made our politics so vile and vicious that potential young leaders shy away? I think in part that may be true and who would blame them? However, don’t judge a book by its cover. Joe is getting the job done with a strong Cabinet and his long vision. There are also a host of young Democratic leaders behind him. Consider Bill McKibben’s thoughts about Joe and whether a change could invigorate our leadership.

I’d rather have a Biden leading us in the coming years of crucial climate decisions while providing support and protection for the 90% of Americans dominated by a super wealthy elite. It is those same super rich who invest and skew our electoral system with the onerous Citizen’s United Supreme Court ruling that has made our elections so fraught and uncharacteristic of the good humor and deep debate from local to national politics that existed before corporations could fund candidates. Townhalls, discussion around a community gathering space — informal yet vibrant – I am old enough to remember this and my parents even more so when they were alive.

When I was a child, my parents were Republicans. I had a photo of Ike and Maime Eisenhower in my room. They held a high bar for behavior and respect and good sense. Nothing like the present day Repugs.

One last thing: This is not about God. This is about Reason, Compromise, and Truth.

Your destiny and mine are inextricably linked in a democracy. That is the challenge of this system of governing. We are all in or all out. (T)Rump and the MAGA Repugs want out and they plan to take all of us with them.

Think about it.

HEAT HEALTH AND HEAT.gov

Go to HEAT.gov for all the information you may need for areas of the US that are in an extreme heat phase, and for information on signs of heat exhaustion or stroke.

Remember, the heat index is the temperature and the humidty: the higher the humidity, the lower the temperature at which you could experience heat exhaustion or stroke. See chart below.

Also, see a table and downloadable health information on a previous post: https://walkearth.org/2024/04/30/extreme-heat-how-to-measure-health-risk/

Replace Electrolytes

Emergen-C packets or tablets are great to replenish electrolytes that are lost in sweating. Just add to your water bottle on very hot days and keep a few packets in car, purse, etc. Groceries and pharmacies carry these. Walmart, Walgreens, etc.

Watch out for children and seniors who are most vulnerable to a high heat index. Also, watch out for your pets.

Ship of State on Rough Seas

What keeps a ship from toppling over with strong winds and rough seas? The force of gravity pulling down and the force of buoyancy acting upward.

What is the force of gravity that keep the ship of state upright? Answer: the Rule of Law and Dynamic Balance among the Branches of Government: the Lesgislature, the Executive, and the Court.

What keeps a ship from sinking? The force of bouyancy pushes upward against the force of gravity. Bouyant forces of Democracy are citizens, civic groups, local and state houses of governance; churches, educatonal institutions, the freedom of the press, and collective political and social norms conducive to a democratic nation. The ship is safe as long as dynamic balance is maintained through checks and balances and a crew that agrees on basic rules and principals in the conduct of deliberation: personal ethics, collaboration and an ephemeral quality in current culture – character.

A Rising Wave of Dissonance

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. Let us never forget this.

A History of Rough Seas and Smooth Sailing

Consider then that our Ship of State is as steady in rougher waters as a dynamic balance between forces: our institutions of governance, the ballast, and the winds and rough seas our collective beliefs and actions in living out our creed.

Any student of American history can chart that course over the 248 years of our voyage. We have come close to toppling the ship of state during the Civil War, and at times when men of poor character or despotic nature rose briefly to Captain the ship. We course corrected and repaired our great vessel once more to sail together toward that perfect union.

Every adult American is responsible for this voyage, but some more than others. 2024 is proving to be another storm with dangerous forces threatening the Ship of State.

Our upcoming choice of captain and crew is an opportunity to come together to sustain the course as a free, democratic nation. Outside forces seek to overcome us. Autocratic winds blow around the globe seeking our demise.

This election will go down in history. Let’s make sure it doesn’t take the whole ship down with it.

Check out Defending Our Democracy Together.

National Constitution Center: https://constitutioncenter.org/news-debate/podcasts/can-the-constitution-serve-as-a-document-of-national-unity

Confused? Seek truth.

The National Constitution Center, a place for citizens to learn and to engage with scholars on American history and constitutional law, is a quiet sunny island in an otherwise turbulent stream of contemporary life.

Clarity and Purpose

When all of us rise to a new day only to open a fire hose of information from our phones, home stations, and television, I turn a lot of that off now. I go to the library and check out David McCullough’s 1776, a gritty and personal record of the people and places, and gestalt of colonial America and 18th Century England. What were they thinking? These are the deep roots of our Constitution. We observe our heroes and heroines just as confused as we are in times of tumult and an uncertain future. It lends some comfort as well as reflection.

RX: Attend a Town Hall at the NCC

Click here to watch the Town Hall debates on relevant topics to the state of U.S. politics and how historians and Constitutional scholars understand short comings in our three branches of governance that are not meeing the needs of today’s Americans and why Originalism can trip us up.

David McCullough brings the Road to Revolution alive!

Capitol Building Rotunda, Photo by Susan Feathers

Will Reason Prevail?

Lincoln is a figure that bulks very large in any thinking that we have about democracy, and especially in times that we live in now, times of anxiety, times of concern, fears of crisis. And at moments like this, we turn back to the figure of Abraham Lincoln, because there was a time of crisis in which he lived. And yet our democracy emerged victorious from that, in large measure because of his leadership and his wisdom. National Constitution Center, We the People podcast with historian Allen Guelzo

Readers of my blog will know that I frequently refer them to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for nonpartison perspectives and resources about our founders and founding documents. A key function of the NCC is inviting scholars from varying perspectives for a deep dive into critical issues of our body politic in which listerners and readers are referred back to key events and Americans that have kept us on the path of a living democracy. Our principle of consent by the governed is foundational to preserving democracy in our time.

In this discussion with Allen Guelzo, we return to Lincoln in the Civil War in which a nation based on laws and reason are his guiding stars.

Please share this post with friends or on social media. The discussion with Jeffrey Rosen and Allen Guelzo is relevant to our current political strife.

Common Sense: Revisited

Below is an excerpt from Thomas Paine’s Common Sense which moved British subjects in America to make the final break with the monarchy under which they had lived for centuries, but in the clarity of air on the North American continent, chose to break the tie and create a democracy that inspired the world. See The National Constitution Center, Founding Documents Library.

But there is another and greater distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is the distinction of men into KINGS and SUBJECTS. Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of Heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth inquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.

As the 2024 march to the Presidential election advances, we are now in the midst of a movement toward kings and subjects if the MAGA Republicans win in 2024. Let the words of our founders – who had lived for generations under a system of monarchy – to ring in our ears and remind us of what is at stake in 2024!