already tomorrow
For Albert Einstein’s birthday, for Stephen Hawking’s deathday, and for Pi Day, a science fiction poem:
already tomorrow
Friend to my east,
where I see you, it is already tomorrow.
Where you see me, it is yesterday.
Yet, we share the same now.
What day is it for Curiosity, Opportunity, and Perseverance?
What day is it for the star that exploded into oblivion many centuries ago,
yet still sends light to my eyes, existing as it was before?
Already tomorrow and just yesterday,
we all share the same now.
Closing Arguments–some final thoughts on the Presidential Election of 2020
2016 flashback
It’s been over four years now, but I can still hear the voters I called during the 2016 election to ask whom they were supporting for President. “Trump” some would bark back with a defiant grunt. There were not that many of them, but it sure hurt when I heard them. Even when I had a Hillary Clinton supporter on the line, most were lukewarm in their support. Their responses were a sharp contrast to the phone bank volunteers at the Hillary campaign office in Albany, CA, mostly women who were enthusiastic about electing our first woman president. I kept warning that only complacency could defeat us, and it turned out to be true. I remember asking one young woman in Nevada if there were any issues that concerned her. She couldn’t think of any. What about the Supreme Court?, I asked, which at that time had a vacant seat due to Republican obstruction. Aren’t you concerned about your rights to an abortion and birth control? If only Democrats and people on the Left were as motivated by the future of the Supreme Court as the the Right has been motivated, I lamented. I shouldn’t have been surprised that the Religious Right had no problem holding their noses to vote for the most unChristian candidate ever nominated by either party. The same voters who were all for impeaching Bill Clinton for having consensual sex with an intern were then unconcerned by a candidate who has consistently demeaned women and been accused of rape. Their focus on abortion and LGBTQ rights outweighed any issues they had with Trump. For more, see https://tomyamaguchi.blog/2017/11/14/no-citizens-united-for-the-mega-churches/
I have always been terrible at predicting the future, yet I knew a potential Trump presidency would be a disaster. I posted my arguments to this blog on why we should never let Trump become President, and those posts are still here to read. My favorite is Trump’s Gettysburg Address, posted before he gave an actual speech in Gettysburg during the campaign. https://tomyamaguchi.blog/2016/09/27/trumps-gettysburg-address/ As it turned out, Trump has been more than a terrible public speaker. In fact, he has been a worse disaster than I expected. A pandemic could not have arrived at a worse time than during Trump’s control of the federal government.
Why we need to do more than just vote
As I wrote previously on this blog https://tomyamaguchi.blog/2018/07/06/five-important-things-i-want-you-to-consider-as-we-approach-the-november-election/, a friend confessed after the 2016 election, “I wish I had done more than just vote.” I could at least say I did more than vote in 2016, even though my effort was not successful. Could I have done more? Yes, though I would rather not beat myself up about it. I did what my energy allowed me to do. I can say the same for this election and offer this challenge to you who read this post. Will you wake up on November 4 wishing you had done more than just vote? The time is now to get involved.
If Joe Biden is not a perfect enough candidate for you, and you are planning to vote third party, as too many did in 2016, this is the reality of the consequences of your vote. If you aren’t voting for Biden, you are voting for Trump. It is as simple as that. Yes, it would be different if we ditched the Electoral College and used the national popular vote. It would be more democratic to use Rank Choice Voting so people had more ballot choices. We can work for these reforms for future elections. For this election, we have to accept the flaws of this system. In addition, Russia appears as determined to divide the Left as they did when they convinced just enough people to vote for Jill Stein or write in Bernie Sanders.
We need to vote for Biden in huge numbers in every state, not just the battleground states. Remember that Hillary Clinton did get almost 3 million more votes than Trump did. With an even larger margin of victory for Biden, no one can question the results of the election. Evicting Trump after a Biden landslide should not be a problem. In addition, we need to hold the House and take back the Senate. That means holding onto seats that flipped from Republican to Democratic in 2018.
On the other hand, a Trump victory means an end to our democracy as we know it. Trump will be free to continue enriching himself and his friends. They will make fair elections impossible by making it more difficult for people to vote. Their refusal to transition from fossil fuels to clean energy sources will head us on a path of irreversible climate change.
Thoughts on Vote By Mail (VBM)
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I will not be working as an election officer on November 3. For one thing, I am now 70 years old and do not want to risk exposure to the Corona virus. For another thing, California is conducting the entire election by mail. While fears have been expressed that the state is not prepared for the change, I have more confidence, given my experience working past elections.
Trump’s ignorance of the voting process is another example of how he is unfit to hold any office, not just President. HIs efforts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of our voting process is harmful to our democracy. Sadly, he doesn’t care because he only sees how this helps him.
First, let us dispense with the term “absentee” ballot. Trump argues that absentee ballots are good, while mail ballots are bad. That’s like arguing there is a difference between divorce and no fault divorce. You once needed a reason, like infidelity, to get a divorce. We have since done away with that requirement. The same applies to Vote By Mail ballots or VBM ballots for short. You no longer need to provide a reason why you can’t show up at the polls on Election Day in order to vote by mail. Everyone who wants one gets a VBM ballot. In fact, many bring their ballots to the polls to drop them off on Election Day. In recent years, they have outnumbered voters who show up to mark their ballots in person. Alameda County, California has updated its Election Day procedures to have an early pick up of VBM ballots simply because those ballot boxes were getting full hours before the polls closed.
Trump has told his followers to vote twice, once by VBM and again at the polls. Of course, this is illegal. In addition, the system is designed to prevent it. That is why we have the Provisional Ballot. In a typical (non COVID) election, Alameda County, prints out a roster that includes those voters who have received a VBM ballot. So if you are a Trump voter who has shown up to vote twice, you will be informed that you need to surrender your VBM ballot and envelope (the one you sign to prevent someone else from voting your ballot) in order to vote at the polls. Now, the Trump voter could lie and say they did not receive their ballot or they threw it away. In fact, that happens all of the time when people tell the truth. In the last primary, my ballot was lost in the mail, and I cast a provisional ballot at the polls. People do throw away their ballots thinking they are sample ballots. They forgot that they had signed up to receive a VBM ballot for every election. Again, no problem. These voters are provided with a provisional ballot and envelope that is kept separate from the ballots cast at the polls. When that provisional ballot arrives at the Registrar of Voters office, it will only be counted if no other ballot from that voter has been received and the signature matches the one on file. Provisional ballot voters are informed they can call the office to verify their ballot has been counted and, if it hasn’t, why not. In fact, I called and verified that my provisional ballot was counted in the March primary.
Do ballots get mailed to voters who have died or moved? Of course. If someone tries to illegally vote a ballot, it will be rejected if the signatures do not match. Again, people can and should check to make sure their ballots have not been rejected. In this election, voters can sign up to be notified by text message when their ballot has been received and accepted. In California, you can go to https://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/ballot-status/wheres-my-ballot.
What to do after the election
There is a great deal worry about what will happen after the election. Will there be a coup? Will recounts get tied up in the courts as in 2000? Will Republican governors appoint their own electors to send to the Electoral College? Will Trump not accept the results and refuse to leave? While preparing for future possibilities is not a bad idea, I prefer we focus on getting the votes in the ballot boxes first. A Trump victory would make those scenarios meaningless, anyway.
So let us focus on winning the election and winning by a huge landslide that holds the House and takes back the Senate. Remember that contested House and Senate races can delay certification, such as in 2008/09 when Al Franken eventually won over Norm Coleman in Minnesota.
If we do win, we need to learn from our mistake in 2008. Yes, we elected Barack Obama with a sweeping agenda on health care, climate, education, immigration, and more. And what happened? We generally did little or nothing at all. I heard progressives complain that Obama was responsible for not getting enough done. Then we generally failed to vote in the mid terms and ended up handing the Congress back to the Republicans. Obama’s court appointments got held up and were eventually filled by Trump. What we have won with the passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA or Obamacare) has been under continual attack, and a challenge is now going to a conservative dominated Supreme Court.
After 2020, we need to do more than just vote. We need to stay engaged and lobby our representatives as taught by those who created the Indivisible Guide. If you haven’t read the Guide, here it is https://indivisible.org/guide. It is as relevant today as it was in 2016.
We need to vote in every election, not just for President. We need to vote up and down the ballot. That includes governors and state representatives who will be in charge of redrawing congressional districts. Our Congress has been so badly gerrymandered, it not longer represents a majority of the voters.
First order of business is to end the pandemic and rescue our economy, just as in 2009 when Obama’s first task was dealing with the recession that was handed to him by the Bush Administration. No doubt, Republicans will be obstructing the way they did in 2009, so we will need to end or modify the filibuster. We need to expand and protect the ACA, even if we can’t get Medicare for all. Can we at least get the public option? And we need to enact climate legislation. I believe we can get a tax or fee on carbon pollution. A doable plan is a carbon fee and dividend, as proposed by the Citizens’ Climate Lobby. https://citizensclimatelobby.org
Those are my closing arguments, friends. The rest is up to you.
My emails to my senators on the Supreme Court vacancy
To Senator Feinstein:
Thank you for your statement “Under no circumstances should the Senate consider a replacement for Justice Ginsburg until after the presidential inauguration.”
I am not surprised by Majority Leader McConnell’s statement that he would fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court that was created by the death of Justice Ginsberg. Nor am I surprised that he made his statement as soon as we received the news of the terrible loss to this country, not even giving us sufficient time to mourn and reflect on her accomplishments throughout her long career. I am not surprised that he would take this course in direct contradiction of his position in 2016 when he refused to even provide Merrick Garland a hearing for a vacancy created by the death of Justice Scalia that February. I am not surprised because he said he would do it in 2019. In fact, his response to the question was quite blunt. “I would fill it,” he told the audience, which responded with laughter.
I am not surprised, yet I am no less disgusted by both Mr. McConnell’s action and the audience reaction, as if this is all just a power game. Well, this is not a game. We elect our senators to act fairly and ethically while they are in office. I believe we should hold our elected officials to a higher standard.
One difference between now and 2016 was that the court vacancy then was created in February, just as the primary process was starting. We are now at six weeks before the general election with Congress getting ready to shut down to conduct their re election campaigns. That should be reason enough to wait until a new President and new Senate are elected and sworn into office.
Sadly. Mr. McConnell does not feel the same urgency to provide our country with pandemic relief. He has not bothered to call a vote on the HEROES Act, months after it was passed by the House of Representatives.
I agree that confirmation of a new Supreme Court justice can and should wait until 2021. Thank you for taking your position.
My message to Senator Harris is a request to join Senator Feinstein on her position.
A Tribute to Friend Stephen Matchett
A well known and loved Quaker in the San Francisco Bay Area, Stephen Matchett, died on Tuesday, May 19, 2020. Stephen was a member of San Francisco Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends. I was not a close friend of Stephen’s but I did spend a fair amount of time with him, especially while riding bicycles.
Stephen died on the anniversary of the death of my friend, housemate, and bicycle activist Bob Berry. May 19 is the birthdate of political activist Malcolm X, who would have been 95 on the day Stephen died.
Stephen was a political activist. He was probably best known as a facilitator and organizer with Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). AVP was developed by Quakers to teach conflict resolution skills for people in prison. In recent years, AVP has expanded beyond prisons and conducts workshops for those who want to end violence in their communities. Stephen would travel to prisons throughout California on his bicycle, carrying all the workshop materials he needed on his bike. Stephen was very organized in his ability to pack and transport large loads.
Stephen not only traveled everywhere by bike and public transit, he made a decision to never ride in a private vehicle for the rest of his life. This included regular Quaker gatherings in California, such as College Park Quarterly Meeting and Pacific Yearly Meeting.
During one Pacific Yearly Meeting session held at Walker Creek Ranch in Marin County, those of us who pedaled to the meeting gathered for a group photo before the ride home. I use that photo for my Twitter profile page. Stephen is the tallest in the group and next to me on my right.
When I was editor of the Strawberry Creek Monthly Meeting newsletter, I would fill blank spaces with quotations from Quakers and other activists in the peace, environmental, and social justice movements. One of my quotes came from Stephen Matchett. It was at a yearly meeting at Walker Creek Ranch that Stephen spoke at a meeting for worship before plenary. “Tell me more about this God you don’t believe in. Chances are I don’t believe in that God either.” When I asked for his permission to use the quote, Stephen said he wasn’t sure if his statement was original. Well, it is original enough for me. I used it several times.
Stephen did believe in God. He facilitated Bible study sessions during yearly and quarterly meetings. I found it interesting that an openly gay man would have no problem in leading discussions on the Bible. Stephen has helped me deal with my own issues with Christianity and become more comfortable with a book I used to consider a source of oppression.
I would talk to Stephen during travel to and from the spring session of College Park Quarterly Meeting. The spring meeting is usually held during the third weekend in May at Ben Lomond Quaker Center in the Santa Cruz mountains. We would both travel by use of train, bus, and bike. While I took Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor from Berkeley to San Jose, Stephen used CalTrain from San Francisco. During one of our last conversations, Stephen was debating not renewing his driver’s license and just caring a non driver’s ID card.
Spring quarterly meeting was held this past weekend, May 15-17. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, it was conducted via Zoom, instead of at Ben Lomond.
Early this spring, Stephen was diagnosed with a brain tumor and spent his final days at the Coming Home Hospice in San Francisco.
On the day of Stephen’s passing, his brother David posted the following to Stephen’s Caring Bridge site.
Stephen is no more Stephen —
I went over about 3 after the chaplain said “it’s now.” It’s meaning the world to me that I got to be there.
He was breathing when I went in, I called my parents to say I was there, I read him something my father had written him, then something from my cousin, and played him a message someone had recorded for him today, and then when I was returning the chaplain’s call we talked about how you could tell, and I said, well, it looks like his chest isn’t moving. So somewhere in there he stopped breathing, and I couldn’t say when. But there was no sigh, no gasp, no struggle — I can’t imagine a more peaceful way to leave.
This won’t be the last post here, but it’s the last post from a day when Stephen was with us. Entering a new reality (all of us).
In 2013, Stephen led a Quaker Center weekend workshop titled “Come As You Are: Reading the Bible with Friends.” The announcement includes the following biography.
Stephen Matchett is a Quaker by birth and by convincement, and a 30-year member of San Francisco Monthly Meeting. Once an appellate criminal defense lawyer, he now spends much of his time facilitating conflict resolution workshops in prisons and in the community with the Alternatives to Violence Project (AVP). In recent years he has had an active traveling ministry among unprogrammed Friends, offering presentations on reading early Quaker writers and on Friends’ beliefs, and following a call to support and encourage contemporary Quakers’ (re)acquaintance and engagement with the Bible. In recent years he has been convening early morning Bible study at College Park Quarterly and Pacific Yearly Meetings, and the growing number of Friends finding meaning in those sessions led him to offer this program last year and to agree to offer it again this year upon request.
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.
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