Month: October 2024

I discovered I had a small talent for home design and decoration when I was a child playing with my Barbie dolls. Instead of requesting a Barbie Dreamhouse, I decided to use cardboard boxes to create my own one-story home for my Barbie. I had the best time designing the layout, putting it together, decorating each room and furnishing it. My mother recognized my interest and allowed me to decorate my own room, then the family bathroom, and then to provide input into the other rooms. After graduating with my bachelor’s degree in business, I went on to earn a two-year interior design certificate and then briefly set up an interior design studio with three other women I met in design school. I didn’t last more than a year after discovering that I loved design and working with contractors, but I disliked the arrogance, stinginess, or fickleness of the clients. I closed my interior design business after a year and decided to utilize my hidden talent at home and on behalf of family and friends for free.

And I have. I decorated each of my homes and every one of them sold in one day. I chose our current home for its perfect layout and its peaceful aura and then proceeded to gut and renovate it. A strange twist of fate allowed me to help design and fully decorate my small office building at the University and to provide design input on the layout and design elements in the new student union building. And then my daughter who trusted me with her homes, asked me to decorate her two office suites. The Woodland Hills office suite became part of the building’s rental brochure.

After living in our current home since 2013 and making several upgrades throughout the years, my husband and I decided to make a few major changes. Because of my design experience, I’ve always acted as my own general contractor, meaning I decide on the scope of the work, select products and vendors, find and hire the right tradesmen, negotiate schedules and prices and oversee the work. It’s helps that I’ve had hands on experience painting and wall papering and that I learned about materials and measuring techniques in school.

At our advanced age, deciding on the scope of the work we wanted to do proved interesting. My priorities came in this order: comfort, added real estate value, easy maintenance, beauty and price. There was a time when beauty came first followed by added real estate value and easy maintenance was last. With these revised priorities, we set a budget of $20,000 and decided on the work we wanted done.

I adore hard surface floors whether wood or natural tiles. However, hard surface floors are hard on older feet, ankles, knees, hips and backs. Our downstairs is all hard surface and I must always wear orthopedic slippers to walk around or pay a painful price. Although I dislike carpet, our stairs and entire upstairs was carpeted for comfort’s sake. This time, my husband insisted on wood floors upstairs and we argued. The compromise was wood hallways and wood in his office. New carpet was installed on the stairs (safer) and it is the same carpet as the bedrooms and my office. We upgraded the baseboards as well and I did the painting myself and my husband installed them (despite my protests because of his back problems.) Saving a mere $200 is not worth the pain he is enduring nor the additional time he is spending on the project. We replaced the upstairs guest bathroom tile with a beautiful (and expensive) porcelain tile from Spain.

In the kitchen, we opted for a beautifully veined white quartz countertop to replace the granite one. We had to purchase a new sink and opted for another stainless steel (sound padded) double sink, slightly larger than our previous sink and decided to reverse the side of our garbage disposal in the process. For fun, we selected a new faucet for its three different stream flow options. And finally, we are utilizing the empty space beneath our staircase for storage, having a decorative and useful shelving unit installed.

Taking on this renovation at this time has served as a much-needed distraction from the stress of this contentious and consequential election. We’ve already cast our ballots and continue to donate to the Harris campaign, but we are staying away from most of the media and concentrating instead of the renovation. Since we aren’t traveling as planned because of Michael’s back issues, we had adequate discretionary funds to redirect to the comfort of the homestead with an eye towards a higher resale value.

The six things I want readers to know about renovations, whether big or small, are: 1) Set your priorities; 2) Build contingency funds into your budget because unexpected expenses are a given; 3) Interview trades people and ask for references and portfolio pictures of their work; 4) Follow your gut feelings about decisions; 5) research care and maintenance details before deciding on a particular material; and 6) be patient and prepare yourself to live in a disaster zone for longer than expected.

Like many Americans, I’ve been disappointed not only by the recent decisions of our current Supreme Court, but because they are being decided by mostly conservative men who lack basic ethical standards. I was disheartened to learn this week that Trump stopped the investigation into the sexual assault allegations against Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing. So, we have two justices who view women as sexual playthings, three judices who lied in their confirmation hearings about Roe v. Wade being settled law, two others who take bribes, and others who repeatedly fail to recuse themselves when they have a clear conflict of interest in a case before the court.

My disappointment became outrage this week and so I sat down to write a letter to Chief Justice Roberts to express my lack of confidence in the highest court in our country because of their blatant lack of ethics and their dangerous recent decisions. I share my angry letter with the hope that my readers will be inspired to write their own letters. While we still have a democracy, our opinions do matter, and this Court needs to hear our collective demand for change.

October 15, 2024

Dear Justice Roberts,

I’m sad to admit that I have lost all respect and confidence in the Supreme Court.  As an African American grandmother, I am aware that the court has had a history of making decisions that adhere to societal prejudices against women and people of color as opposed to the statements on equally found in our Constitution.  At least those past poor decisions were not bought and paid for by billionaires.

I no longer trust this Court’s majority members because three of them lied during their confirmation hearings regarding Roe versus Wade being settled law.  Two of them were accused of sexual misconduct.  I especially cannot trust the rulings of members who take bribes and refuse to recuse themselves when a conflict of interest is evident.  Your majority Court is unethical, immoral, out of touch, and lacks credibility.

I watched in horror when you delayed the ruling on presidential immunity, and I cried when I heard your unbelievable decision. I have always been a law-abiding citizen of this country and have expected that no person is able to break the law without being accountable.  The fact that this Court has granted a president the right to take bribes, kill his enemies, and defraud the American people without consequence under cover of the Office is impossible for me to accept.

I’m not sure where this leaves us as a nation of laws.  I’m not sure that our country is now safe from an unethical and immoral president who is determined to harm fellow citizens for his or her own benefit. 

Your decisions weaken voting rights, women’s rights, and protections of our air and water leaving my grandchildren in danger of living in uninhabitable mayhem, absent the rule of law, vulnerable to senseless maternal death, and powerless to express their will through free and fair elections.  I predict young people will eventually take matters into their own hands and will ignore your rulings and perhaps utilize the assault weapons you allow to express their displeasure more often. This is the country you and your conservative Court have handed us. Do right by us while there is time.

Sincerely,

Dr. Juanita Hall

Disappointed U.S. Citizen

After weeks of listening to candidate debates, speeches, interviews, and the pros and cons regarding ballot initiatives, this past Friday, my husband and I sat down together at our kitchen table and completed our election ballots. We signed, dated, sealed and deposited them in our local drop box at City Hall. Neither of us entirely trusts the mail these days and we wanted to avoid any possible mail delays or chaos at the polls on election day. I’m thankful to live in a state and county that provides easy access to the ballot for its citizens. Sadly, not every state values the voices of its citizens like California, and so I appreciate the legal warriors challenging new voter suppression rules and highlighting Republican plans to subvert election results. These defenders of democracy deserve our support.

Given our current situation, it is unlikely that we will have a definite winner on election day because many Democrats in particular are electing to vote by mail or drop box this year to avoid long lines and voter intimidation at the polls. I predict that Trump will try to declare victory on election night without the final voting tally and will once again seek to stop counting the ballots collected by mail and drop box. What is clear is that no matter the outcome of this election, a lot of people will be unhappy.

There are many anxious people who view this election as the most consequential election in our lifetime. I admit to being one of those people. There is so much anxiety that folks who would normally refrain from weighing into political theatre have broken their silence for this election. So many famous actors, singers, athletes, comedians and talk show hosts as well as high ranking military officers, old school Republicans, legal experts, and even psychologists have strongly endorsed Harris and warned us against voting for Trump. General Milley, who served in the Trump administration, went so far as to call Trump, “fascist to the core” and the “most dangerous person ever”.

And yet, the presidential election remains uncomfortably close. The reality is that Trump, like Hitler, offers his supporters people to blame for feelings of insecurity (that he manufactured) along with a false hope that he can fix everything by first extricating those bad people from society. Trump demonizes immigrants, democrats, journalists, judges, teachers, scientists, and transgender folks. He has openly promised to round up immigrants whom he believes shouldn’t be here regardless of legal status. He has promised to weaponize the justice department against his political enemies. He has promised police immunity against claims of brutality and the wrongful deaths of citizens. He has promised to shut down media outlets who scrutinize him because he refuses to be fact checked. And he has promised to invoke the military against protesters.

A good number of people approve of his agenda because they blindly accept false MAGA claims that kinship with Putin is to be admired, that public schools are performing sex change operations on children, that Haitians are eating pets, that migrants are stealing black jobs and buying up all the houses, that illegal immigrants are breaking into homes to rape, steal and murder residents, that doctors are killing newborn babies, that professors are indoctrinating students to hate white males, that women aren’t humble enough, that protesting against innocent deaths in Gaza is antisemitic, that tariffs punish our economic competitors, that tax cuts for the wealthy trickle down, that scientists are lying about climate change and poisoning us with vaccines to intentionally harm us, and that democrats control the weather to target Republican districts and then withhold disaster aid from them.

No matter which candidate loses this election, I predict there will be chaos in the streets because everyone truly believes that their candidate is trying to save the country. I plan to stock up on supplies to hunker down for several weeks until the immediate threats of violence have diminished. I predict there will be riots if not outright pockets of civil war. We have far too many impassioned individuals with guns in this country to consider ourselves safe after this highly consequential election. I pray that I am wrong.

If Harris wins, we will have protected our democracy from falling into a Russian style dictatorship where basic freedoms are lost, elections are truly rigged, equality in opportunity is destroyed, and the opposition is either jailed or killed. The dictatorial state will dictate science, history, news stories, pregnancy, education, sexual orientation, and judicial decisions. On the outside things will eventually seem peaceful, but it is a false peace when people are oppressed and lack information, hope, and opportunity. Innovation is stifled and poverty soon follows. This kind of dictatorship only benefits the dictator and the wealthy who remain useful and loyal to the dictator. It’s no surprise that Elon Musk has publicly embraced Trump. If Trump wins, he will be safe. If Trump loses, he will still be safe because our democracy and Constitution will remain intact.

In preparation for the outcome of this election, we have also secured new passports. Wouldn’t it be ironic if U.S. citizens became the newest migrants seeking political asylum, freedom from religious persecution, refuge from a dictator, economic opportunity, and safety in other countries around the world? Sadly, it could happen. And if it does, all those public figures who endorsed Kamala Harris may be among the first to leave. The second will be migrants either voluntarily or by force. Imagine the chaos of that mass exit on food prices and the invisible but necessary labor that will suddenly go undone. The third wave of migrants to leave the country will be people like me and my husband.

I’ve heard supporters of Trump claim that their candidate isn’t really a threat at all because he’s all talk and doesn’t plan to do any of the horrific things he says. They call people foolish for believing that Trump is a threat to democracy and implore us to believe that the true threat are the policies of Biden and Harris that are ruining the country.

The problem is that every metric of country health shows an improvement under the Biden/Harris administration. Crime is down, wages are up, inflation is coming down, the stock market is up, unemployment is down, economic growth is up, interest rates are going down, manufacturing is up, emissions are down, access to opportunities is up, illegal immigration is finally down, NATO membership is up, drug prices are down, and infrastructure improvements are up. On the downside, there are wars in Ukraine and the middle east, but our troops aren’t fighting in them. In an interconnected world, we’re actively trying to preserve democracies and save innocent lives through diplomacy rather than ignoring the fights altogether and handing Ukraine to Putin.

It’s often difficult to know who is telling the truth these days. But taking the presidential candidates at their word is probably the best we can do at this point. So, I’ve voted for the candidate who promises opportunities and says things that lift the nation and its citizens up. Others will choose the candidate who denigrates the nation and half of its people and promises nothing but retribution against his imagined enemies.

Whatever happens in the days following this important election, it is wise to be prepared for the worst and hopeful for the best.

This should be a decisive week for those undecided voters who have begun paying attention to current events. A lot has been revealed. Unfortunately, too many Americans are still too busy living their lives to devote adequate time to following the news or worse to determining what is actual versus fake news. As a retired educator, I’ve assumed responsibility for informing people in my personal interactions and on social media in service to this consequential election.

I watched the entire Vice-presidential debate. It was refreshingly polite and only useful to voters willing to engage in fact-checking afterward. The “smooth talker” award clearly goes to J.D. Vance along with the “purveyor of lies” and “blame migrants” awards. Walz gets the award for “likability”, “problem solving” and “policy messaging” despite the fact that he was clearly more nervous at first. Walz stuck to his talking points, doing a decent job relaying the democratic policies that positively impact the lives of Americans. I do wish he had challenged Vance’s continuous rewriting of numerous historical events and outright lies. A significant exception came toward the end of the debate when he challenged Vance’s ridiculous attempt to reframe the 2020 election as a peaceful transfer of power.

It would have been helpful to voters if Walz had debunked Vance’s false assertion that Trump made the Affordable Healthcare Act better when in fact he tried numerous times to destroy it without a replacement plan. Remember when John McCain cast that deciding vote to save it? I wish Walz had debunked Vance’s claim that he never called for a national abortion ban or that Harris was the border czar who invited illegal migrants into the country to steal jobs, cause a housing shortage, and commit crimes like importing deadly fentanyl and eating pets. The fact is Vance did call for that nationwide abortion ban, and that American citizens are importing fentanyl from Mexico and Haitian migrants in Springfield are not eating pets and are her legally. Unemployment is at historic lows and the housing shortage is caused by investment buying and insufficient building. It should not be lost on any viewer that J.D. Vance protested a rule violation when the commentator fact-checked that particular lie about Haitians in real time. Only a liar would do that.

Debates are about relaying information so that voters can make a decision based on legitimate information, so I never say that anyone won or lost a debate. Unfortunately, in the Trump era when MAGA candidates use a debate setting to purposefully deceive low information voters, it effectively removes the actual purpose of hosting a debate. The American voter is the loser. Fact-checking is a public service that we have been denied on the debate stage itself. Few people will take the time to check the facts later and these MAGA candidates know it and take advantage of that reality in order to secure votes through deception.

The second October surprise was the revelation that Republican lawmakers voted against funding FEMA relief efforts at the levels necessary to deal with natural disasters. And now we have Trump falsely claiming that the Biden Administration is stealing funds from FEMA to give to illegal migrants so they will vote for Democrats in the election. Not only is this a complete lie, but the fact is that he himself diverted funds from FEMA to pay for his migrant detention centers when he was president. Once again, Republicans are showing the American people that they would prefer that we fend for ourselves or depend on the charitable acts of others for our survival. Our Constitution says that the purpose of government is to provide for the common defense and to promote the general welfare. That said, it also came to light this week that Trump was prepared to deny FEMA disaster relief funds during the California wildfires until his aide convinced him that there were a sufficient number of GOP voters in Orange County California who would be hurt. He falsely accused the Biden Administration and a democratic governor of withholding disaster relief because from people in Republican areas. Again, just another example of his projection wherein every accusation turns out to be a confession. This information about California came directly from one of his former aides. I recall that there was a delay and initially heard that Trump wasn’t releasing aide because the state should have prevented the fires. Now we know the truth about how Trump wants to use our tax dollars to benefit those who support him personally and not in service to all tax-paying Americans.

And finally, 165 pages of detailed first-hand accounts and evidence that Trump criminally tried to steal the 2020 election were released by the court for everyone to read. The legal brief filed by Special Counsel Jack Smith is damning and reveals just how ruthless, callous, and unfit Trump is for office. Anyone who reads that report now knows that a vote for this man is a vote for a reprehensible human being who disrespects the rule of law, our Constitution, truth, and the American voter.

As decent human beings who care about our country, other humans, and our environment, we must not allow Trump to win this election. People’s lives and livelihoods are literally at stake. We can’t allow our friends and family members to be deceived into voting for a smooth talker who makes empty promises, insults women and veterans, unfairly blames migrants for every problem, and who continuously lies about his dastardly deeds while making horrendous false accusations that inevitably turn out to be confessions.

It is time for us to boldly share factual information with our neighbors, friends, and family members who have not been paying attention so that they understand what’s at stake in this election and so they can vote wisely.