Staying Home, Part 2
I am beginning my second week of obeying my state’s stay-at-home orders. I have decided to remain in my house until at least the end of the month. As I wrote in my previous blog post, I consider this my job now. I need to send the message that I take this pandemic seriously and am willing to do whatever it takes to stop the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
Over the next week, I will be watching the news closely. If I feel comfortable, I may decide to return to work on April 1. In the meantime, I have been assured that my insurance benefits through Alameda Alliance are not in jeopardy if I fail to work the required 80 hours per month. I do want to get back to serving my recipients. I expect that I would be going directly to work and then directly home, avoiding any other social contact. Then I will consider if it is OK to return to regular shopping. Yes, we are running low on toilet paper, and my prescription for my cholesterol-lowering drug needs to be refilled by April 5.
Like many I am spending more time online. My weekly Quaker meetings for worship (Strawberry Creek Meeting and Berkeley Meeting) are now conducted via Zoom. I have another Zoom meeting coming up this week to decide if we are going to cancel our spring quarterly meeting that is scheduled for mid-May.
My biggest disappointment is that we won’t be holding our annual Berkeley CROP Hunger Walk next Sunday, as planned. It is organized by the international relief organization, Church Word Service, and allows us to fundraise for local hunger relief agencies. Our Berkeley agencies are the Berkeley Food Pantry (run by Berkeley Friends Church), Dorothy Day House, and Youth Spirit Artworks. The money is split with CWS getting 75% and the local agencies receiving 25%. Even though the walk is cancelled you can still donate online to our Berkeley Quakers Team, https://www.crophungerwalk.org/berkeleyca/BerkeleyQuakers . Thanks.
Why I’m Staying Home
Why I’m Staying Home
3/17/2020
While I have been considering how I would need to respond the COVID-19 epidemic for a number of weeks now, it all became very real for me when I watched Governor Gavin Newsom’s press conference on Sunday, March 15. Right off the bat, he announced that everyone 65 years and older need to stay in their homes and not go anywhere; no work, no shopping, nothing.
Yes, he was talking to me. I am a couple of weeks away from my 70th birthday. The day before, I was standing with the crowd at Berkeley Bowl West, buying milk and thinking that this may not have been a good idea. However, I needed milk, just like I needed to do my work as an in home care provider earlier that day. I just got on my bicycle and rode to the places I needed to go.
I didn’t need another job. However, Governor Newsom has given me a new job. I now have the job of staying home. That changes the other jobs I have.
Even though I don’t smoke or have any other health problems that put me at risk for serious complications from COVID-19, I do care for people who have those risks, such as diabetes. I have not been experiencing any of the symptoms, and the chances I have come in contact with a person with the virus are low. If people without symptoms are able to spread the virus to others, however, that justifies me staying away from others who are at risk.
My IHSS work mostly involves housekeeping and shopping. While another person could fill in for me and do my jobs, finding a person to work in my place will not be easy. I am hoping for guidance from my union, SEIU 2015. Governor Newsom said at his press conference that he was talking with the union.
If I get COVID-19 and do recover, there is still the chance that I would become seriously ill, possibly needing a hospital bed and a respirator, I would become a part of the overload that our hospitals are facing right now. By keeping myself away from the virus, I would be part of the solution and not be an additional burden on our healthcare system.
So this is my new job. I am letting the world know I am taking this crisis seriously by complying with the Governor’s directive. That directive came one day before the counties in the entire Bay Area decided that everyone, regardless of age, need to limit their activities and stay home as much as possible. I am working at home, doing the jobs I don’t get paid for. I have been spending more time on Zoom, including two Quaker meetings for worship on Sunday, a Quaker clerks’ meeting before that, and a meeting of the Alameda County chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby last night. I am not hurting financially. I do have 8 hours in sick pay through my union contract. I will be getting my social security check by direct deposit next week. On my birthday, I will get a nice, new present from New York Life, as I start drawing down on my 403b retirement account. in addition to Social Security, I am on Medicare. My main concern is that I have a health plan through my work, Alameda Alliance, that is my supplemental insurance for what Medicare does not pay for, such as dental care and prescription drugs. For that benefit I need to work 80 hours per month. I know I will fall short this month. I am hoping for some guidance from my union.
I am optimistic that I will be celebrating my 70th birthday, even if it is at home. After that my goal is to be alive on Tuesday, November 3, when I cast my ballot in the presidential election. I will vote to remove the incompetent and corrupt Donald Trump from office. Join me in voting for the Democratic Party nominee for President and replacing the cowardly Republican senators who failed to do their duties to remove Trump from office by impeachment.
Un Happy New Year
New Year 2020 is not going well for many of us. Wild fires in Australia are being fueled by a warming climate. Donald Trump kills an Iranian general and risks war with that country. Angry, depressed, and frustrated, I decided to go on a bike ride. After completing needed business this morning, I decided to take a ride across the Richmond-San Rafael bridge. I have wanted to return since riding out with many cyclists on the day it opened. I wanted to see if the trail was getting sufficient use. I also thought of taking a ride on SMART, which has been extended to the Larkspur ferry. The weather was just right for a ride across the bridge. Unfortunately, I never made it.
Leaving Point Richmond, I arrived at the intersection where the trail crosses the I-580 off ramp and then goes under the freeway to continue on the side that faces Chevron. A truck was parked right at the corner, completely blocking the entrance to the path on the other side of the street. A man was standing on the truck, trying to adjust the Walk sign. I saw that another path could get me around the blocked path, so I rode across the street, noticing that a car was approaching, and I didn’t know which of us had the green light. I quickly rode onto the adjacent path and suddenly found myself being thrown from my bike. I landed on the pavement on my left hand and left knee. The worker came rushing to help, pulling my bicycle off of me. I noticed that the knuckles on both of my hands were scraped and bleeding a bit. I put a small hole in the knee of my new jeans. I helped myself up to the curb as the worker explained that someone had hit the walk sign, and he was trying to fix it. I looked back and saw the cause of my tumble. There was a hole in the middle of the path that had a small piece of metal sticking up from it. I did not see it as I was crossing the street and ran right into it. Damage to the bike was minimal. My front reflector broke off my handlebars. The chain came off my front sprocket, although I did not notice until after I coasted down to the underpass, where I found a bench to sit on for awhile.
I was hoping that my injuries were minor. Then I noticed my little finger getting sore and stiff. After getting the chain back onto the sprocket, I realized I needed to get home and get an ice pack on my injured hand. I walked my bike back to Point Richmond. On the way, I noticed that a short pole was covering the hole that caused my tumble. It appears that the worker had removed the pole so he could drive his truck onto the path by the signal light. The truck was now gone, and the worker had returned the pole to its place. If it had been there before, I definitely would have seen it and not run into it.
At Point Richmond, I waited for the 72M that would get me back to Berkeley via San Pablo Avenue. It was then a one block walk to my house on Channing Way.
I spent the rest of the afternoon on my bed with a cold pack on my hand. I noticed that it was slightly swollen. I discovered a large bruise under my knee where I had ripped a hole in my jeans.
Although I never made it to the bridge to assess the traffic situation, I saw that the trail leading to the bridge was getting some decent ridership.
I am still hopeful I will live to celebrate my 70th birthday this year, if I can keep myself all in one piece.
My email – Congress needs to impeach Trump
While I would have liked to have seen more than two articles of impeachment being voted on by Congress, I believe that these two articles are sufficient to remove Donald Trump from the office he continues to abuse. Speaker Pelosi has moved with appropriate caution on the use of the power of impeachment. She was criticized when she refused to impeach George Bush over the war in Iraq. I agreed with her then, I agree with her now. Impeachment is a serious use of congressional power and should not be used casually.
On the other hand, I am extremely angry with congressional Republicans who appear to value the interests of their political party over the wellbeing of our country. This is not the Republican Party of 1974, when its leaders convinced Richard Nixon to resign rather than be impeached. It shows that the Republican Party no longer exists. It is now the party of Trump.
When Robert Mueller’s report was released, Republicans defended Donald Trump’s actions by arguing that he was a political novice who didn’t know what he was doing was illegal, i.e. inviting a foreign government to interfere with an election and obstructing the investigation of that interference. Then, the very next day after Robert Mueller testified before Congress, Donald Trump, in a phone call with the President of Ukraine, asked a foreign government to interfere with the 2020 election. So if Mr. Trump was ignorant of the law then, he cannot argue that now. In fact, one argument on why he continues to abuse the powers of his office is that Congress has failed to act on his past offenses. If that is the case, he is sure to continue to commit these abuses through the rest of his term.
As many have pointed out, this is more than a case of bribery and coverup. To argue that we should wait until the next election to remove Donald Trump from office fails to address the real concern, that Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election and are clearly doing so again in the 2020 election. Our democracy is under attack, while Donald Trump and congressional Republicans continue to be a willing partners in that attack. Even in the impeachment hearings, they are spreading the Russian propaganda that Ukraine interfered in 2016 on behalf of Hillary Clinton, as well as other baseless charges against the Bidens.
In addition, if Congress does not use its power to impeach when appropriate, then impeachment as a power that has been lost. Future presidents will agree with Donald Trump that Article II gives them the power to do anything they want.
The Republicans may be right that Democratic members of Congress risk losing reelection by supporting impeachment. Like Speaker Pelosi, I am willing to take that risk. That is the risk of putting your country before your political party. I am ready to work for the reelection of those who vote to defend the Constitution against the blatant misuse of presidential power.
Poway, Spring 1969
The news of the horrible shooting at Chabad of Poway has affected me in a personal way. It brings the memories of my own experience living in Poway, California. It was about 50 years ago that I moved to Poway and would live there, off and on for a couple of years. The news coverage reveals a Poway in 2019 that seems different than the one where I lived in 1969. The shooting itself reveals a Poway where little has changed.
Much of this story is in a personal web page I created on Tripod, which I call my adoption story. http://tfyamaguchi.tripod.com/adoption.html It was Easter Sunday in 1969 when my brother Joe invited me to attend mass at the San Diego Mission. He was a regular attender of La Jolla Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). I had pleaded with him a number of times to take me to Quaker Meeting, and he had refused my requests. Now, sitting in the crowded, historic, Catholic mission, my brother turned to me and whispered, “This is boring. Do you want to leave?” My answer was yes, and we ended up at La Jolla meeting for worship. It was my first Quaker meeting, and I felt like I had arrived home.
It was there that I met Tad and Alice Yamaguchi. When they found out I was living in rather miserable conditions in a boarding house in the North Park section of San Diego, they offered me a room in their home in Poway. I enthusiastically joined the Yamaguchi communal household. By that fall, my own last name would change from Campbell to Yamaguchi.
Poway in 1969 was a small and growing suburb. There were large open spaces that have since been filled in with more housing. It was just about 100% WASP. Many of the residents were in the Navy, being an easy commute from Miramar Naval Air Station. Poway public schools had a reputation of being progressive, but I would not know. I was determined to finish my high school year at Mission Bay and got a ride there every day from a teacher who also lived in Poway. The most ethnic diversity in the area was to the north in Escondido, which has a large Latino population. That is where a mosque was burned a few weeks ago, and the suspected synagogue shooter is considered a suspect in that arson fire. The only Jewish person I remember meeting while living in Poway was a coworker in a restaurant in Rancho Bernardo, which is located between Poway and Escondido.
When I moved in Alice told me about the racism she experienced in Poway. A black family was visiting their home on the quiet cul-de-sac. She went for a walk down the street with the two children of the family. As they walked hand-in-hand, she heard the neighbors talking loudly to each other. They were clearly intent on having their voices heard by Alice and the children, letting them know they were not welcome in the neighborhood. Hearing the children she was with being called “niggers” was too much for Alice to bear. She rushed the children back to the house with tears streaming down her face. When I moved in, there was a sign on the door with the message that all people were welcome, regardless of race and religion. At least there was one place on that cul-de-sac where that was the case.
Another time when our politics conflicted with the conservative views of our neighbors was on a day of nationwide protests against the Vietnam War. A small group of us stood on Poway Road with signs stating our opposition to the war. Those who drove by us responded with insults, calling us communists and traitors. I was actually afraid for my life that day. Fortunately, there was no violence.
There were other events that captured my attention in 1969. One was the first humans to walk on the moon, which I described in my blog post The Eagle Lands on Pomerado Road. https://tomyamaguchi.blog/2009/07/20/the-eagle-lands-on-pomerado-road/ Woodstock happened that summer, as well as the Manson Family murders. One news event that failed to reach me in that quiet town of Poway was the Stonewall riots. I had heard the news Judy Garland’s death on the radio while riding in a car pool headed to San Marcos Community College. As we cruised along the 78 freeway, George Jessel was offering his condolences and sharing his memories of the singer. Years later, I learned how Garland’s death had a role in the rise of the modern gay rights movement. I was in the closet then. Poway in 1969 was not a place where someone would want to come out as gay.
Decades after living in northern San Diego County, I am fascinated by how much has changed there, especially in politics. After an extremely close reelection, conservative Republican Darrell Issa decided to retire from his congressional seat in 2016 and was replaced by a Democrat. Orange County, directly to the north of San Diego and known for being the bedrock of Republicanism, switched to entirely Democratic House representatives in that election.
When I lived there, both state and national representatives were proud members of the John Birch Society. Given the proximity of Camp Pendleton and the already mentioned Naval Air Station, it would not be surprising to find such a conservative bent in the electorate. Now, that electorate is changing with the coast becoming more urban and more liberal. Unfortunately, racism, antisemitism, and anti-immigration sentiment is still alive in North County, as that part of San Diego is known. The nineteen-year-old white man suspected in two hate crimes has made that evident. We will know more about his beliefs and his world view as the story unfolds. The sad news is there are too many more people just like him.
Five important things I want you to consider as we approach the November election
Important Thing 1
Yes, voting is important. We all need to vote on November 6. This year, voting is not enough. We need to really engage and be active in this election. Find a candidate. Find a campaign. It could be a ballot proposition. Volunteer your time. Give some money. Do as much as you can to increase the turnout in this election.
After the 2016 election, a friend of mine confessed, “I wish I had done more than vote.” I had just finished putting in a number of hours in the Hillary Clinton campaign. Yes, we lost. Do I regret the time I spent making calls to Nevada and other states? Not one moment! In fact, we carried Nevada and held on to the Senate seat being vacated by Harry Reid. I like to think that I still made a difference.
Get involved in the election. Then you won’t be waking up on November 7 saying, “I wish I had done more than vote.”
Important Thing 2
Don’t be discouraged and give up. This is especially important if you are not yet convinced that voting is important. There are people who will try to convince you that your vote is useless and that the candidates are all the same, corrupt and untrustworthy. They will use propaganda and misinformation to drive their message, just as they did in 2016. They will convince your family and friends to share and promote their message on social media, just as they did in 2016.
There is an old Twilight Zone episode, The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street. It is about an invasion of the Earth where the invaders from space hide themselves from the small neighborhood they are invading. The invaders create suspicion among the neighbors to convince them that each other is the enemy. The Earthlings end up violently attacking and destroying each other. At the end of the episode, the outer space invaders reveal themselves to the audience, pleased with their victory as they head off to invade another neighborhood using the same tactics. A common theme in Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone stories, this one included, was McCarthyism, which threatened American democracy in the 1950s. That anti-McCarthyism message applies today in the age of Trump. Think of Putin and the Russian oligarchs as the invading force whose goal is getting us to fight and destroy each other. If they can destroy our country from within, they can diminish our standing in the world and replace us as a world power. Their eventual goal is to replace democracies with authoritarian regimes. Their tactics worked in 2016, and they are using them again in 2018.
Don’t give up. Get engaged in this election and stay engaged.
Important Thing 3
Stay focused on this election. There will be plenty of time to think about the 2020 presidential election starting in 2019. Governors, senators, house members, and state representatives are not as sexy as a presidential campaign, and the media would rather have our attention diverted to their stories on the latest celebrity who is considering throwing her or his hat into the ring. Don’t let that happen. That is how people end up not voting in so called off year elections. That includes this year, 2018. Remember Important Thing 1. As my friend, the late storyteller Orunamamu, once said, “PAY ATTENTION!”
We can’t regain the White House until 2020. We don’t have to wait until then to take back our government. By taking back the House and Senate, we can stop the Trump agenda. If we had the Senate this year, our next Supreme Court justice would not be handpicked by the Federalist Society and the Religious Right.
State elections are important, too. State governments draw district boundaries. If we want to end gerrymandering, we need to become engaged in the election of governors and state representatives.
Important Thing 4
We need to support and vote for Democrats. That is the only way to get the Trump enablers out of power. It is clear now that the Republican Party no longer exists. It has been replaced by the Party of Trump, which has nothing in common with traditional Republican values. A Republican Party would not start a trade war by placing tariffs on imports produced by our allies.
Our Two Party System is flawed, and we should work to fix those flaws. Until then, this is the system we have, and we need to work within that system. If you feel that voting for a Democrat requires you to hold your nose, then hold your nose and vote for Democrats. If you voted for Jill Stein or Gary Johnson or if you decided to not vote all in 2016, do you still believe there is no difference between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump? Are you willing to risk having Congress controlled by the Party of Trump in 2019 because the Democratic candidates did not meet your high standards of progressive perfection?
Yes, Putin and the Russian oligarchs are interfering in the 2018 election. Their goal is to dissuade us from voting for Democrats. They are especially targeting minority voters with hashtags like #JustWalkAway. Don’t let them fool you. Support and vote for Democrats.
Important Thing 5
Prepare to be disappointed. Yes, the candidates, like all human beings, are flawed. Once in office, they will disappoint us. That is why we need to continue to be engaged after the election and hold them accountable. When LGBTQ activists realized that Obama was dragging his feet on repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, they spoke up. They chained themselves to the gates of the White House. They interrupted the luncheons he hosted to celebrate LGBTQ Pride. They were criticized for being so “uncivil.” Sound familiar?
Get engaged. Stay engaged. Don’t get discouraged. Don’t give up. Got it? Thanks for listening.
Does Donald Trump have a learning disability?
Does Donald Trump have a learning disability? I have been considering this as a blog post ever since Trump entered the White House. I am not the first to ask this question. Even his own staff have questioned Trump’s reading ability as described in this article in the Independent.
I have been reluctant to write this post due to the stigma around learning disabilities. I know that stigma, having two daughters with diagnosed learning disabilities. I have wondered if I have an undiagnosed learning disability myself. Although I have come to enjoy reading, I struggled with reading and writing in school. After being held back in second grade, a summer school course in phonics helped a lot. I am still a slow reader, but I have gotten better. I am best with newspapers, magazines, and books with simple vocabulary, generally at an 8th grade level. Computers have helped me to write and organize my thoughts. I know that dyslexia and learning disabilities are different from intelligence. People still confuse the two. Trump has even responded to such concerns as an attack on his intelligence, tweeting he is “like, really smart.”
In addition to learning about his lack of interest in books, we learn more about Trump’s writing in his tweets. There are he misspellings and strange grammar. Most recently, he tweeted this: “James Comey illegally leaked classified documents to the press in order of generate a Special Council?” He uses the same spelling for counsel in the second half of the tweet.
That led Yashar Ali of New York Magazine to tweet “Not a big fan of making fun of someone’s spelling issues or using it to determine how smart they are. All of my dyslexic friends and family members have a really hard time with spelling but also happen to be the smartest/most creative people I know. I’d say…focus on the content”. In response, John Aravosis of AMERICAblog wrote, “Yes, but that’s because they’re dyslexic. Trump isn’t.” And in response to my questioning, Aravosis wrote, “I’m not sure he isn’t dying of syphillis. But I”m certainly not going to start showing him pity for things we’re all just making up out of thin air.”
I admit I do not know, anymore than anyone else, if Trump is learning disabled, and I am not using that as an excuse to pity him. I will only refer to a bumpersticker I once saw in my Berkeley neighborhood. (BTW Berkeley, CA is considered the birthplace of the disability rights movement, going back to when Ed Roberts studied at the University of California.) The bumpersticker read, “Attitudes are the real disabilities.” If that is the case, then Trump’s real disability is not his struggle with reading, but his refusal to deal with it.
The State of New York has had two governors that were unable to read. The most recent was David Paterson, who is unable to read due to physical disability. Before him Nelson Rockefeller was not only a governor, but a vice president and presidential candidate. Rockefeller was dyslexic. About his struggle with reading, Rockefeller gave this advice:
Accept the fact that you have a problem—don’t just try to hide it.
Refuse to feel sorry for yourself.
Realize that you don’t have an excuse—you have a challenge.
Face the challenge.
Work harder and learn mental discipline—the capacity for total concentration—and
Never Quit.
http://www.memphisdyslexia.org/articles/rockefeller.html
Trump has a lot of issues that I have previously posted to this blog. They are all reasons why Trump is completely unfit to hold the office of president. If he does have a disability and is unwilling to accept it, this is an indication of a bigger issue with Trump and his self image. Remember that Trump the candidate ridiculed a reporter with a physical disability. I am sure that Trump considers disability a weakness, and he does not want to appear weak. It is entirely consistent with how he projects himself to the world. He builds himself up by knocking others down. He can’t take a joke at his own expense and is unable to laugh at himself. He never apologizes or admits he is wrong. He seems obsessed with his masculinity. Trump considers any attack that reveals him to be weak to be an attack his masculinity.
Trump may be intelligent, but he has shown himself to be mentally lazy. Not only does Trump not read, he doesn’t listen either. Worse still, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t know, and he has no interest in learning.
I don’t want to sound ageist, but it is true that, as we get older, we become less likely to change. Trump is 71. If he is disabled and his real disability is his attitude, I doubt that is going to change.
Barbara Graves Memorial
The following minute was approved at Strawberry Creek Friends Meeting in Berkeley, CA for peace activist Barbara Graves who died in December at age 104. Though it is not mentioned in the memorial minute, Barbara was arrested a number of times at Lawrence Livermore Lab to protest the development of nuclear weapons. Her memorial will be held at Berkeley Friends Church, 1600 Sacramento Street in Berkeley, on Saturday, February 24, at 2:00 PM.
Memorial Minute for Barbara Graves
Barbara Graves, beloved member of Strawberry Creek Friends Meeting in Berkeley, died at her home at the Redwoods in Mill Valley, CA on December 22, 2017 at age 104, after a long life serving humanity in direct, humble, often remarkable ways.
She was born in Geneva, New York in 1913, the youngest of seven. Following college in North Carolina, she worked in New York City for the 1939 World’s Fair, then with the British War Relief Society, from which she learned about the involvement of the American Red Cross. In 1942 she was hired by the Red Cross and sent to England.
She was appointed Director of Red Cross Rest and Convalescent Homes Division in Britain, providing recovery furloughs for Allied airmen from 1943-45. For this group’s service she was awarded a military Bronze Star, unusual for a civilian. After returning to the U.S., she began to explore pacifism and Quakers. She was hired by the American Friends Service Committee in 1948 as administrator for AFSC relief work in Occupied Germany, working and living with local Germans for five years, establishing neighborhood centers to address severe conditions of inadequate food, shelter, and social community.
In 1953 she obtained her Master of Science degree in Social Work at Columbia Univ. and became a psychiatric social worker in Philadelphia. In1962 she was recruited by AFSC as director of the VISA program (Voluntary International Service Assignment) in Tanzania, Haiti, Guatemala and India for six years.
During 1969 Barbara consulted and taught at Atlanta University’s School of Social Work, a time when the black social work environment was developing strength and influence despite the background of segregation. In 1971 she was appointed Associate Professor of Social Work at Temple University in Philadelphia, where she could continue professional connections with Atlanta. She moved to U.C. Berkeley in 1972 as Director of Field Studies in Social Work.
She retired officially from U.C.. in 1978 but continued both staff and volunteer work for
U.C. as well as for Alameda County and the City of Berkeley. Barbara served as a leader in the Northern California AFSC, often as a consultant to solve organizational problems. She volunteered weekly in San Francisco’s Tenderloin with residents on the margins of society.
She deeply opposed U.S. military activities in Nicaragua and traveled with a delegation of religious activists to learn conditions and to protest. She risked arrest many times in opposition to U.S. wars in Central America and the Middle East. In 1986 she returned her Bronze Star in a ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial to protest the U.S. role in the conflict in Nicaragua.
Barbara was appointed Brinton Visitor for Pacific, North Pacific and IntermountainYearly Meetings of Friends in 1989. She was able to visit widely and contribute her energetic, inquiring spirit and experience.
In 1993 Barbara and her close friend and housemate, Glendora Patterson, decided together to co-parent infant Nia, who later became Glendora’s adopted daughter and Barbara’s goddaughter. Nia Marie Patterson brought great love and joy into their lives. Together they attended Nia’s college graduation when Barbara was 100.
Barbara made her home at The Redwoods Retirement Community during her last years, as did three other women who had remained steadfast friends since their Red Cross service in England.
One of Barbara’s personal notes quoted Abraham Lincoln: “I have an irrepressible desire to live till I can be assured that the world is a little better for my having lived in it.”
Barbara’s irrepressible wit and joy of life was expressed not only through serious work, but through singing, dancing, generosity and exuberant appreciation of people of all sorts and conditions. She will be greatly missed by her home Meeting, Strawberry Creek, where she provided great spiritual and practical service for decades.
Barbara Graves at her 100th birthday celebration at Strawberry Creek Friends Meeting in Berkeley, CA
No Citizens United for the Mega Churches
During the presidential campaign, I listed all the reasons why we should reject candidate Donald Trump. One was his cozying up to the religious right. In a private meeting, candidate Trump promised a group of religious right leaders he would change the rules that prevent them from engaging with partisan political activity and keeping their tax-exempt status.
If you want to read that post, the link is here.
https://tomyamaguchi.blog/2016/09/23/donald-trump-and-lgbtq-rights/
It appears the latest attempt to repeal the so-called Johnson Amendment is coming in the form of the Republican’s tax cut bill.This is the message I sent to my members of Congress. If you agree, please contact your representatives now.
I continue to have concerns about the current tax revision bills being offered by Republicans in the House and Senate. I have learned the plan is to include the repeal of the so-called Johnson Amendment. This would allow religious organizations to engage in partisan political campaigns without losing their tax-exempt status. As a candidate, Donald Trump promised a small group religious conservatives that he would repeal that amendment if elected, along with the promise to nominate judges that meet their approval. At a meeting with those religious right leaders, Trump falsely asserted that the law prevents churches from using their free speech rights. In fact, the current rules allow religious organizations to speak and take positions on issues that concern them. As a Quaker, I am able to state my concerns on issues such as peace, the environment, civil rights, and social justice. I donate to the Friends Committee on National Legislation. FCNL works with both Republicans and Democrats to find bipartisan solutions to create a more just and peaceful world. My donations are not tax deductible, and I do not want a tax deduction. Nor do I want my small Quaker meeting making donations with tax-free money to candidates or parties. I know that these few dollars would have little influence compared to the resources of the mega churches.
I call the Trump plan Citizens United for the mega churches. There is already too much money influencing our elections. Allowing churches to launder money into the pockets of political candidates would further harm our democracy. Please reject this scheme to repeal the so-called Johnson Amendment.
How Trump has lived up to my expectations
Funny to realize, I haven’t posted to this blog for all of 2017. I have been doing more reading than writing, mostly on Twitter. Like Hillary Clinton, I have been trying to figure out “What Happened.” I have not read Clinton’s book yet. Interviews have focused on Russian interference in the election, which is important. I’m still trying to figure out why people vote for candidates like Trump, and it involves how our brains work. That is the post that I have been trying to get uploaded, and I plan to do that soon. For now, I want to look at where we are now and how my previous year’s posts successfully predicted Trump would make a terrible president.
Undercutting his Secretary of State is one example of how Trump’s mental instability makes him a national security risk. As Senator Corker has alerted us, Trump’s outbursts are putting us on a path to nuclear war with North Korea. It shows that presidents, unlike reality show hosts, have to be careful with their words, especially when it contradicts the efforts of their own staff. It is why we have a White House in such disarray. It leads many, including Secretary Tillerson, to come to the conclusion that Trump is stupid. Trump has shown himself be ignorant and arrogant. He believes he knows more that everyone else and doesn’t need to listen to them, including members of his own cabinet. He has boasted that he will alone will fix everything that is wrong in Washington and that he will know more than all of the experts once he starts reading the classified briefing papers in the Oval Office. I believe that Trump is smart. Unfortunately, the rational part of his brain is not in control of his speech and actions. It is the emotional part of Trump’s brain that directed him through the campaign and now influences his actions in office. It is that same part of the brain that Trump activates in his supporters who are willing to overlook his failings because he is telling them what they want to hear. I will have more on that in another post. For now, you can read Political Animals by Richard Shenkman.
Charlottesville is another example of Trump’s dog whistle to white supremacists. His “both sides” argument is totally absurd. Video recordings showed torch-holding marchers defending a statue of General Lee by yelling anti Semitic and homophobic chants. If I had been a “good person” who may have disagreed with the decision to remove a statute, I would have quickly realized these were not “good people” I was marching with and would have exited quite quickly. Thanks to the protesters calling for the removal of statues celebrating the Confederacy, we have learned that the statues were erected decades after the end of the civil war and were designed to promote segregation and Jim Crow. That is why white supremacists have taken a strong interest in defending those statues. Trump gives them cover by framing it as an argument over preserving history. He blamed the protestors of the statues for the resulting violence, ignoring that the statue defenders were there to provoke violence. Since then, Trump has been stronger in his condemnations of NFL athletes protesting police killings of unarmed black men than he has of Nazis and Klansmen.
Klansmen, Nazis, and other white supremacists fill that “basket of deplorables” that Hillary Clinton described in the campaign. Add to them, the religious right who are happy that Trump is delivering the Supreme Court to them as he promised. They are not afraid to jump in to jump into that basket with Steve Bannon and other white nationalists. These groups remain the bulk of Trump’s supporters, while others who voted for him have become disillusioned, making Trump the most unpopular president in history. On January 20, Trump had the chance to put the campaign behind him and be a president for all of the people. Instead, he has done nothing to reach out to those who did not vote for him, even though 3 million more people voted for Clinton. Instead, he wants us to believe that all those votes were illegitimate and can therefore dismiss the opinions of everyone but his hardcore followers. That leaves behind the other half of Trump supporters that Clinton described; the voters who are anxious about their economic futures. They put their hopes in a businessman with business experience who they believed would run the government like a business. Unfortunately, Trump is a terrible businessman and many of his business deals have failed. He is, however, a very good con man, as the enrollees of Trump University have learned. More voters are now realizing how badly they were conned as Trump demonstrates his ineptness for holding public office. Trump doesn’t understand how government works. He only knows how to campaign, and that is what he continues to do. Much of his time is spent holding political rallies, tweeting, and playing golf. That is why I refuse to call him President. I won’t until he starts to act like one.
I call him Know-Nothing Donald. I try to avoid the practice of name calling in political debates. For Donald Trump, I can justify my exception. First, Trump has no problem with name calling to describe his opponents. In the campaign, Trump constantly referred to his opponents as Crooked Hillary, Lying Ted, Little Marco, etc. Now he calls the leader of North Korea “Little Rocket Man” with potentially disastrous consequences. Again, Trump shows he has no interest in doing anything differently now than he did in the campaign and demeans the position of President. Secondly, calling Trump a Know-Nothing has historical context. During the 1850s, the United States was headed to the violent disunion of the Civil War. Racism and slavery were the most serious issues our country faced then. Meanwhile, the political debate was dominated by the demonization of immigrants as the cause of the nation’s problems. Know-Nothing politicians gained power with anti-immigrant rhetoric, much of it aimed at Irish Catholics. Today, climate change, racism in our criminal justice system, and economic inequality endanger our country’s and planet’s future. Meanwhile, Trump calls global warming a hoax. He attacks NFL players who kneel during the national anthem to call attention to the killing of unarmed black men by police. His economic policies amount to big giveaways to the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class. He would rather bash immigrants, like his Know-Nothing ancestors. That bashing started on the day he announced his candidacy. Since the election, he has been still trying to build the wall, even though he has given up on having Mexico pay for it. His Muslim bans keep getting knocked down by the courts. He has ended Obama’s popular DACA program. He even wants to drastically cut legal immigration, angering businesses who are having trouble filling positions in this tight job market. As with the days of the original Know-Nothings, his political base supports the immigrant bashing and loves the distraction.
Notice how Trump is obsessed with numbers and popularity. When Trump doesn’t like how he is being treated by a TV show or network, he responds on Twitter that the program or network has low ratings. Magazines and newspapers printing news he doesn’t like are failing or losing circulation, according to Trump. Reports coming out of the White House indicate Trump is not happy with his continued low ratings and is responding with temper tantrums directed at any one in his vicinity.
Governments depend upon the commitment of the many who serve at all levels. Much of the staff of the various branches of government, including the White House, serve through the decades as Democratic and Republican administrations come and go. That is until now. While Trump demands loyalty from his staff, he has created a toxic workplace in the White House, according to reports that have leaked out. Those who were able to leave have left. Those who remain have joined the resistance, tweeting from unauthorized Twitter accounts, sounding the alarm on the damage being done by Trump and the cronies he has put in charge of the EPA, Interior Department, and other government agencies. When the entire Arts Commission resigned, they sent Trump a detailed letter with a coded message. The first letter of each paragraph spell RESIST. Science advisor Dan Kammen followed with his resignation letter in response to Trump’s reversing Obama’s progress on climate change and failing to condemn racism in Charlottesville. The first letter of each paragraph of Kammen’s letter spell IMPEACH.
More people are waking up and getting organized politically. The Women’s March was organized within days after the election with masses of people showing up across the country on the day after the inauguration. More marches and demonstrations followed through the spring. March themes included climate change, support for science, Trump’s taxes, and impeachment. Impromptu demonstrations were held at the nation’s airports when Trump signed his first Muslim ban. Disabled activists held sit-ins in their wheelchairs in the halls of the Capitol to stop the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Newly empowered citizens began downloading the Indivisible Guide and using it to make calls to their representatives, arrange office visits, and participate in town halls.
Our free society is dependent on a strong first amendment. Trump attacks the press because a free press is the biggest threat to his authoritarian rule. That is why he admires Putin, who has no problems with silencing reporters who dare challenge his authority. As more stories come to light over Russian involvement in the election and the Trump campaign, the cloud over the White House continues to grow. In response, Trump lashes out even more on Twitter and at the White House staff. He calls the stories fake news. No one can control his rage, not even Chief of Staff Kelly. So the leaks to the press continue, and Trump doesn’t understand that everything he does only makes things worse.
Republicans are in control of the White House and Congress. They have failed to pass any major piece of legislation. They have failed to repeal Obamacare as they have promised to do for years. Much of this failure rests with Trump himself who has done very little, if anything, to advance his agenda. Trump blames the Republican leadership for the lack of action. Unlike Obama, he doesn’t read or understand the legislation being debated. He can only speak in generalities. Not having governmental or political experience is bad enough. Not having any interest in learning how to do his job is even worse.
Our country is in the midst of a constitutional crisis. Even with Republicans in control of Congress, there is still a chance for impeachment. Various scholars have cited actions taken by Trump that could be considered impeachable offenses. One is the threat by Trump to revoke the licenses of unfriendly broadcasters. Meanwhile, the Russian investigation advances, much to Trump’s dismay. There may be a chance to invoke the 25th amendment. Trump has provided plenty of evidence he is mentally unstable and unfit to hold office. Yes, with Trump gone, we would still be stuck with Mike Pence. Given that we are at great risk of getting into a nuclear war, I think I will take my chances with Pence.
Nevertheless, we persist. If we can get rid of Trump now, we can deal with replacing Pence in 2020. Of course, we need to remove Trump by only legal means. I wish Donald Trump no harm. I want him to realize that he is completely incapable of doing the job. I want Trump to just go away. Then he can play all of the golf he wants.
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