Fully Present Post 50

I’m about to board yet another flight to Philadelphia to take care of my grandson while the au pair is back in Columbia for a two-week vacation. This time there may not be a mask mandate in place to protect passengers like me who need to be extra careful. Because of the rising numbers of Covid cases, both Los Angeles and Philadelphia have reinstated indoor masking. So, the airports will require masks, but not the airplane if the “Trump-appointed and unqualified” federal judge’s ruling against CDC mandates isn’t overturned.

Like others, I was quick to write to President Biden when the ridiculous ruling came out, urging him to appeal such an irresponsible decision that completely ignores science and public health. How is it that nearly a million U.S. deaths from a surprise virus apparently isn’t enough to support future government disease control mandates in the interest of saving lives? I’m glad the DOJ is appealing the ruling. It sad to admit, but Americans have shown that they can’t be trusted to protect themselves nor others without mandates. The notion of “freedom” has become distorted in the minds of too many.

We’ve seen firsthand that too many Americans are either too selfish or too ignorant to follow the science and adjust their behaviors in the interest of brotherly love and care. Allow me to restate most of what I wrote in a previous post:

Perhaps we need to return to kindergarten where we had our first introduction to society. Kindergarten is where we learned to share and to take turns. We learned that we were not an island unto ourselves and that the needs of the group have to be considered. We learned to wait for our turn. Kindergarten gave us our first taste of the concept of fairness and orderliness. Of course, the way we learned the consequences of inappropriate social behaviors in kindergarten depends on the reader’s age. Anti-social behavior was met by either a slap on the hand or a time out. Sometimes parents were informed. The point is that the disruptive class clown and the bully were not rewarded for their antics. However, social media has upset these necessary social lessons.

Today, our society gives free reign to clowns and bullies who are hellbent on acting on their character deficits to our collective detriment. The insecure, the selfish, the inconsiderate, the ignorant, the power hungry, the greedy, and the hateful people have always been among us. It’s just that we have allowed their voices to be amplified through social media and then their outrageous antics attract news media coverage. I recall how Donald Trump’s ridiculous lies, racist and sexist comments and insults hurled at his political opponents became big news. Then candidate Trump was calling into the Today Show almost daily and they took his calls on air. The bully was no longer given a time out nor a slap on the risk, but a multifaceted platform on television, Facebook, and especially Twitter. All manner of lies, misinformation, and nastiness were elevated.

We collectively failed to secure the guard rails around our social contract with one another and now the anti-social among us are running rampant, clothing themselves in a false narrative of personal “freedom”. Governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Rand Paul, Congresswoman Margorie Taylor Greene, and Governor Greg Abbott all fit that bill and are causing great harm to social and public health efforts. The Republican Party itself has been co-opted by this minority of anti-social/anti-democratic people who are loud, belligerent, violent, and largely uneducated. The My Pillow Guy, Mike Lindell, is a perfect example of how an individual can spread lies that threaten to co-opt our democracy. However, the most ridiculous example I’ve seen to date are the parents fighting and threatening school board members over school masking requirements. I’m hopeful that these parents against masking in schools during a pandemic are simply ignorant and not homicidal. Whichever it is, no parent has the right to endanger the lives of others under the guise of their parental rights. Apparently, this commonsense notion that brought us laws against drinking and driving and smoking in public places is lost on these short-sighted individualists.

Bible readers know that when Cain killed his brother Abel, God asked him where his brother was. Cain cynically replied, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” We know from God’s response to Cain and from the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that the clear and unequivocal answer is, “YES!” The answer is yes because we must live in community together and we affect each other. We share the earth, the air, the water, and every other resource necessary to live.

So, it is time for those of us who recall our lessons from kindergarten to restore the guard rails to curtail the behavior of the ignorant, the selfish, the power hungry, the greedy, the inconsiderate, the bullies, and especially the homicidal by A) refusing to vote for them B) calling them out publicly on social media C) refusing to support media platforms that amplify their voices and D) boycotting their products.

Am I endorsing what some have coined a “cancel culture”. I guess I am. And honestly, I’m inclined to believe that the trend toward labeling demands for reasonable social guard rails as “cancel culture” is a ploy by the clowns and bullies to silence their detractors so they can run rampant. Those who are actively banning books and silencing teachers with regard to sexuality and history are engaging in their own form of “cancel culture”.

It’s time to reclaim a civil and social society where we recognize that to some extent, we are in very practical terms, our brother’s keeper. I just hope that happens before I board my plane next week.

We are living in a moment in time when knowing whom to believe and what to believe is challenging. The following example may sound trivial, but someone posted a picture on Facebook of a shirtless (and ripped) BTS member, Jungkook. There were hundreds of comments and even more likes praising his sexy good looks. However, I immediately became suspicious of the validity of the picture. First, because it seemed out of character for this rather shy member to take such a picture and second because the prominent tattoos on his hand and arm were missing. As I continued to read the comments, others joined me in questioning the validity of the photo. This is the world we now live in.

There have always been liars, cheaters, swindlers and used-car salesmen among us. They are typically motivated by the prospect of money, power, or fame. For some, it’s the simple thrill of fooling people. Magicians are good for that kind of innocent entertainment. And perhaps the person who posted the photoshopped picture of a shirtless Jungkook on Facebook was a digital magician. However, I wouldn’t want to be the subject of their magic.

The problem is that we depend on information to make rational decisions about our health, our livelihoods, our planet, and our political leaders. Our well-being depends on access to accurate information. And these days, dependable information is becoming increasingly difficult to come by. There are too many people willing to muddy the information pool with falsehoods, speculation, half-truths, omissions, and fantasy. Some are doing it for attention, some to sell products, some for political power, and others truly want to destroy or control society as we know it. Like Putin in Russia, Xi in China, and Kim in North Korea, these dangerous actors fully understand that control over information leads to psychological control of the people and ultimately keeps them in power. Those who question the information or present opposing information are quickly removed.

When it comes to our health, I learned that our healthcare industry depends heavily on the support of food industry giants. This is why slogans like, “Milk, it does a body good” go unchecked and uninterrogated. More people are lactose intolerant than not in the world, and so I wonder why we are determined to drink another mammal’s milk when we have our own? We can get calcium from green leafy vegetables. At the same time, Doctors and hospitals receive too much support from the pharmaceutical industry. When I spoke to my doctor about my plant-based diet to lose weight and lower my blood pressure, he immediately tried to prescribe me yet another medication, this one to help me lose the weight. I rejected it. There are good documentaries on the subject of healthcare, and that information helped me switch to a plant-based diet. I started with a pretty convincing one on Netflix called, “What the Health”.

I also watched a documentary on Netflix called, “The Great Hack”. It was about how Cambridge Analytica used our personal data from Facebook to feed users emotionally charged information designed to push them to vote a certain way or to not vote at all. In particular, they were involved in the Trump 2016 election, the Brexit vote, political movement events, and numerous election campaigns in support of tyrants across the world. To my utter surprise, at the center of Cambridge Analytica was Steve Bannon. The documentary revealed that his underlying motive is to destroy the current social order so that he can remake it according to his vision for society. Talk about an evil mastermind! He sounded like a villain straight out of a Bond or Batman movie. But this is real life stuff.

The point is that information is the greatest tool we use to make life decisions. And that tool is being corrupted by dangerous actors who seek power, fame, and money at our expense. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to find truthful and reliable sources of information. I switched to publicly funded PBS for news. There are plenty of good characters out there trying their best to provide fact-based information, but they are often villainized or drowned out by the loud voices of the greedy and powerful.

The answer is that academics, journalist, and activists really need to step up their media game to break through the haze of misinformation with the valid and reliable information we need. I see opportunities for new industries to emerge in fact-checking and authentication services. It’s time for academics, journalists, and activists to engage with publicists and social media experts to effectively disseminate truthful information. Gone are the days when an academic journal or conference will suffice. Those with real information need to find the platforms that will break through. Until then, perhaps the answer for the rest of us is to seek out the quiet, less funded but well-documented information. It may be a bit more difficult to find, but good decision making depends on it.

Healthy eating has become both a journey and a challenge for us since scientists became aware of the actual connection between food and health. I was privileged to spend my childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood with access to a variety of food in abundance. Some of it was healthy because I happened to love vegetables, but most of it wasn’t.

I never considered my health when as a seventeen-year-old, I rolled into Jack in the Box and routinely ordered French fries and a milkshake for lunch on my way to tutoring elementary school children. Since childhood, my favorite food was fried chicken. In fact, I convinced my grandmother to make it for me every day for a week that summer I spent absent my parents and siblings in Detroit as a homesick seven-year-old. For me, trips to the corner store for chips, candy, and soda pop was a daily occurrence. And I absolutely loved visiting my Aunt Ethel who could be counted on to serve us double sweet Kool Aide and Cokes on top of coffee loaded with several teaspoons of sugar and enough cream to change the color to a really light brown.

Eating was a pleasure. And enjoying skillfully made meals that included large doses of love, sugar, animal protein, animal fats, and animal products like cheese put a smile on my face. I grew up loving chitlins, pig’s feet, ox tails, fried chicken, steak, fried fish, bacon, sausage and vegetables cooked in animal fats. I loved macaroni and cheese and fried potatoes. When McDonald’s opened, I became a fan of hamburgers, especially the Big Mac and their French fries. Add cheese to just about anything and I was a happy camper. College introduced me to deep crust pizza, and it was then that I first encountered casseroles in the cafeteria. Desserts have always taken second place to potato chips for me. However, I was especially fond of cobblers, cakes, puddings, and pies. Although not my favorites, I didn’t say no to ice cream and cookies. On the flip side, I never cared much for eggs, pancakes, nor oatmeal. And I was allergic to coconut and boysenberries. This was how I grew up eating.

It should come as no surprise that all this bad eating eventually caught up to me in my thirties when I started to put on weight. I cut back on eating and exercised more and lost the weight. But then education and career changes required a lot more sitting, and the pounds gradually piled on, especially because I hadn’t changed my eating habits. By my mid-fifties I had high cholesterol, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease and was pre-diabetic. My husband had his first bout of cancer in his colon. And that’s when we embarked our journey towards a sustainable healthy diet.

Doctors aren’t dieticians and finding a personal dietician isn’t easy. So, I started trying new things. There was Nutrisystem. Then there was eat less of everything, especially red meat. Then there was eliminating sugar and potato chips. Then there was eliminating everything white. Then there was the switch to low fats. Then there was the switch to low carbs. Then there was organic and moderation. Then there was Paleo that eliminated beans and night-shade vegetables. Then there was the cancer diet for my husband when he got lung cancer. Then there was intermittent fasting. And now we find ourselves on a plant-based diet. Some call it a vegan diet, but it’s doubtful that we will be fully vegan. I have nothing against honey and I’m finding that the inflexibility of veganism isn’t socially friendly.

Through it all, I’ve realized the very real connection between eating and good health. The majority of experts agree that vegetables, fruits, whole grains, seeds and nuts and beans are important for a healthy body. They all agree that our bodies need protein and calcium and other nutrients to function well. They simply disagree on the best sources. A month ago, after watching several nutritionists, doctors, and environmentalists, I decided a few things about how we were going to eat moving forward.

First, we realized that changing our diet once again won’t be too drastic as we have already made several changes over the past few years. We had already switched to almond milk and maple syrup. We already incorporated large quantities of organic fruits (especially berries) and green leafy vegetables (including broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussel sprouts) into our diet, eliminated processed foods, switched to whole grains, switched to avocado and olive oils, and we consume a wide variety of beans and raw nuts daily. Second, a plant-based diet is good for the body and the planet. Third, I made an investment of time, mental effort, and money to try out transitional vegan foods such as plant-based meats, cheeses, and eggs. I stocked up on the vegan essentials like a variety of seeds, quinoa, nutritional yeast, Kombucha (for probiotics), and Tufo. And finally, I watched a lot of YouTube vegan cooking shows, and this week purchased my first vegan cookbook.

In the month since we switched to the plant-based diet, I have lost six pounds and I feel really good. I’ve eaten animal protein three times in small quantities, not because I craved it, but once because I wanted to experience the “best” Philly cheese steak while in Philadelphia and the other two times were to appease my husband who is determined not to dispose of the animal protein we currently have in our freezer. So, during the last two weeks, I consumed a small piece of fish and one chicken thigh. We’ve agreed to eat an animal protein from our freezer once a week until everything is gone and I’m okay with that.

I’ve made an appointment to see my doctor this coming week where I will discuss my new plant-based diet that accompanies the intermittent fasting he suggested. I’ll ask about getting new labs done, too, so we can monitor my progress and ensure I am getting all the nutrients my body requires, especially vitamin B-12.

Many people with health issues similar to mine have attested to the health benefits associated with a plant-based diet. They testify to reducing their cholesterol levels, lowering their blood pressure, and reversing type II diabetes. All I know is that what we were doing wasn’t working and so our journey towards healthy eating continues and I have high hopes that a plant-based diet is the solution.

While science has finally concluded that from a biological standpoint, black skin means nothing with regards to full membership in the human race, the social value attached to black skin remains problematic for black people. While we may finally understand intellectually that blackness does not determine inherent intelligence, creativity, talent, nor morality, the world continues to behave as though skin color is attached to all these things. As a result, black people like me, experience a confusing mixture of esteem for our contributions and disrespect for our person on a daily basis from a society that is itself confused, guilt-ridden, stubborn, and afraid of us. The same people who eagerly enjoy, consume and imitate our rhythms, artistry, and creativity ignore, debase, and ridicule us as inferior beings. We are a traumatized people. I am traumatized. We suffer from PTSD. I suffer from PTSD. And we die younger. The highly prevalent health issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and cancer are connected to our trauma.

To survive in black skin continues to mean that daily stress levels will be higher, resilience must be higher, creativity to overcome hurdles must be higher, and a combination of street smarts and book smarts must be higher. The confirmation hearing of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson showed how we have to do more, take more, and be more to be allowed to occupy the same space as our white counterparts. And once we arrive, people continuously question our presence. Her story is the story of many black people (including me) since Affirmative Action opened doors that were previously closed to us despite our qualifications. White conservatives refuse to acknowledge that for most of U.S. history they closed the doors of opportunity to us. And now they choose to ignore how we had to struggle against all odds to gain the required qualifications to apply for college admission or a job position that was once closed to us. Affirmative Action wasn’t some “give-away” program for inferior black folks, but that’s what the conservatives want people to believe. They want to hide the historical legacy of black discrimination and claim a level playing field that never existed. The denial of past in present discrimination is an attitude that just further traumatizes black people.

What we saw in the horrifying Will Smith incident was the result of generational trauma. I believe that Chris Rock’s response was also born from that same place of trauma. Generations of black women have lived their lives undefended, disrespected, abused, and invisible. We go missing, die in childbirth, watch our sons murdered by police, and suffer abuse and no one comes to our rescue. At the same time, generations of black men have born the frustration of being unable to defend their black wives, mothers, and sisters against a society that denies both their worth and vulnerability as females. When Chris Rock made his insensitive joke, I think we witnessed the explosion of a black man finally feeling empowered enough to defend his wife. And I think Chris Rock knew it, too, and refused to allow the Los Angeles Police Department to arrest Will Smith. Although we understand and think that finally a black man is defending a black woman, nothing about that incident was acceptable except that Chris Rock didn’t escalate the incident by fighting back. I must admit that I wonder whether Will Smith would have had the same confidence to slap a white comedian.

And finally, the world got to witness first-hand how caring the powerful are when white hardship from war is on display. In this world, white people’s tears are more highly valued and deserving of media attention and actual care than the hardships of people of color in similarly dire situations. The coverage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine is on CNN all day and night with every aspect of the Ukrainian sufferings being broadcasted as though no others in the world are also suffering the atrocities of war at this very moment. The opening of borders and homes, the outpouring of humanitarian aid, the financial donations, and even the willingness of people to travel there to help Ukraine fight is like nothing we have seen in the many other countries laid bare by war. War correspondents have said as much without realizing it that these are “Europeans” and that makes the suffering untenable.

As a country and as a world, we know in our heads that humans are the same whatever their skin color. The problem is that our hearts have yet to get the message and until we do, black skin will continue to be a problem for black people.

I had an incredible first week with my son and his family helping them settle into their new home. This second week of my stay has been a bit different. In fact, it has been a kind of torture from a purely physical standpoint. A few issues converged to challenge my ability to accomplish everything I desired in my usual fashion. Some of the problems can be attributed to my own negligence, others to those blasted steps.

Why is it that when I leave home, I think I can simply abandon some routines that literally promote my well-being? While at home, I begin my day with a 4-minute morning warmup stretching routine. I follow a wonderful app on my phone called “Stretching Exercises”. It’s a great app and I use it for multiple routines. Stretching improves flexibility and helps prevent injuries. I know this. And yet, I embarked upon my first week in a home where I had to climb up and down a total of four staircases multiple times a day. I had to go up a flight or down a flight just to use the bathroom. I did this without warmup nor warning for my knees and now I am paying the price. My weak left knee became overly stressed and inflamed, rendering it painful and almost entirely useless.

My son tapped into his compassion and purchased a knee brace and Tylenol for me. Someone told me that he considered a cane, too, but didn’t go there. I added more anti-inflammatory foods like blueberries, strawberries, almonds, broccoli and turmeric to my daily menu since I can’t take Ibuprofen because of my chronic kidney disease. And instead of unpacking, organizing and decorating at my usual pace, I sat on the sofa with an elevated knee and an ice pack several times a day, giving advice. I spent a lot of time ordering needed items from Amazon than putting them away. The most disappointing thing was that I could no longer sit on the playmat with my grandson because I literally could not get up. Thankfully, he’s good sitting on my lap, staring into my glasses or playing with my sparkling Brighten beans that I wear especially for him.

On top of my knee problems, I was shocked and worried when my ankles and feet swelled up. At first, I assumed the issue was related to overuse of my limbs. But I was also having weird heart issues at bedtime when I took my newly prescribed blood pressure medicine. It was my mistake not to ask the doctor about the possible side effects since he neglected to mention them on his own. I stopped taking it for fear that I might not wake up in the morning and I looked up the side effects of the medication. My physician daughter-in-law confirmed my suspicions. Sure enough, the most common side effect was swollen ankles and feet and heartbeat issues. Since my blood pressure is borderline and my kidney disease hasn’t gotten any worse in five years of monitoring it, I’m hopeful that my switch to a plant-based diet will solve the issues and eliminate the need for medication.

Although my timing wasn’t optimum, becoming a vegan was a good idea. I think perhaps I should have waited until I returned home to fully immerse myself in this new lifestyle. Being here, I find myself cooking vegan meals for myself and meat-centric meals for my son’s family. In other words, I’m doing double duty in the kitchen every day. Besides going to the bathroom and a store or two, cooking is my only sustained movement every day.

One thing I did prepare for was the fact that they have hardwood floors throughout the entire house. Knowing the fragility of my feet on hard surfaces, I purchased a pair of OOFOS Sport Slides for myself and my son and his wife in advance of my trip and their moving in. The slides are cushiony and protective against the hard surfaces. I purchased them on Amazon for a worthwhile $60 a pair. They are so incredible that I’ve decided that close family members are receiving these slippers from me for their birthdays this year.

As I prepare to head home tomorrow, I’m both proud and regretful. Next time, I won’t neglect my morning stretch and hopefully I’ll weigh a lot less, eliminating some of the stress on my knees as I tackle the stairs in their beautiful new home.

I don’t really know if I invented the term, “grand-mothering”, but that’s what I’m calling my stay in Philadelphia for the next two weeks to help my son’s family settle into their new home while also celebrating my grandson’s first birthday.

These two professional working parents have a live-in au-pair from Columbia who is here on a J-1 visa. She takes incredible care of my grandson from 7am – 3pm and then she seems to disappear into thin air until dinner. She does absolutely no housework as per her contract and is here for primarily for cultural exchange. I first met her when she arrived last July 2021 when my son asked me to come to help her transition to the U.S. and to teach her how to care for my grandson. I spent my career primarily working with international students, so it really was a natural fit and I enjoyed it. We got along really well and I was happy to hear that she was eager for my return.

My son and his wife invited me to come this time because they needed help again. My son is busy transitioning to new work duties after a substantial promotion and my pediatrician daughter-in-law is already overwhelmed with long work hours at the hospital and motherhood. A move to a brand-new home was too much. My assignments are to organize and decorate the new house, cook and clean, and enjoy baby James.

I walked into their newly built five-level row house and was simultaneously stunned by the beauty and chaos before me. There is so much to do! And I only have two weeks. I spent the first evening just setting expectations, discovering their preferences, budget, and determining how decisions would be made. One thing was evident, they were stressed out by all the chaos and lack of organization.

As a cook, my first priority was to organize the kitchen and then stock the refrigerator and pantry after determining what they wanted to eat. I should note that before arriving, I switched to a vegan diet (more about that another time). They are in no way vegans, however, and we’re uninterested in becoming vegans. So, our trip to the grocery store took longer than they would have liked since we were shopping for two separate meal plans. In fact, it was their first trip to a grocery store in a few years. They usually order their groceries and have them delivered. It was my grandson’s first ever trip to a grocery store and he seemed fascinated by it. I wasn’t certain how many vegan products I would find in the Philadelphia Acme supermarket, but they were not lacking at all. I did end up ordering a few products from Amazon afterward, though.

This first week has been fun and challenging. I’ve been working from sunrise to sunset to get this place in order. Friday, I spent almost the entire day hanging pictures and mirrors on two levels. I was relieved when my choices met with their enthusiastic approval. I ordered printouts of family photos in various sizes from Costco and my son wanted that to be a surprise for his wife. We worked out a system whereby I provide them with the choices of a variety of home furnishing items. They select the items they like most and we order them. It feels like deliveries are being made two to three times every day. I’d like to spend a lot more time in actual stores for some of the items they need, but it’s been like pulling teeth to get there.

My grandson is handsome, intelligent, and adventurous. He never stops smiling and staring at me whenever we are in close proximity. He allows me to play with him, carry him around and rock him to sleep. For St. Patrick’s Day, his Irish mother insisted that he wear the clover leaf pajamas she had especially ordered for that evening. Of course, my son forgot. After a facetime call with her at bedtime, my son had to change him into those pajamas. For his birthday, we all went to the “Please Touch Me Museum” and enjoyed a specially ordered birthday cake.

I’m hopeful that some of the bigger items will arrive before I leave in another week. But if not, I’ll see them installed at the end of April when I return for another two weeks of “grand-mothering” when the au-pair returns home to Columbia for a visit. Grand-mothering is a wonderful retirement occupation.

It is unfortunately true that I wake up every morning to a new revelation of what white conservatives think America should be. In a nutshell, they want America to be ruled by white “Christian” men; they want everyone to be heterosexual and male or female as assigned at birth; they want fantasy to replace actual history and science; and most importantly, they want freedom and justice for themselves, but not for others whose backgrounds, values, and beliefs differ from theirs. And they are willing to fight dirty or violently to get what they want.

These older white conservative men grew up in an America built on a foundation of genocide, slavery, racism, and sexism that specifically catered to their needs and their ambitions. They didn’t have to compete with feminists, people of color, or LGBTQ folks for access to the best education, highest paying jobs, capital from banks, or political power. Even when feminists and people of color finally won the right to vote, white conservative men were able to pass laws that ensured their unfettered choices and opportunities for success in life for many more years, while legally finding ways to oppress the freedoms and opportunities of everyone else. Every small victory for the access was met by opposition from the conservatives and complaints of “reverse discrimination”. However, just recently, the doors of freedom and opportunity seem to have cracked open for the previously oppressed and they want to close them again.

Feminists, people of color, LGBTQ folks, religious minorities, and fair-minded white folks were able to ban together to demand access to justice, opportunities and equal rights. They effectively used a combination of protests, creativity, the political process, lawsuits, and determination to pry open these doors. For conservatives, I think the election of Obama followed by the legalization of gay marriage terrified them. Obama signaled to many white Americans that they were losing “their” country and the passage of gay marriage signaled that they were losing their “freedom” to discriminate and oppress those whom they never accepted as fully American in values, color, or religion.

Instead of turning to prayer, they turned to Trump. I think in their heart of hearts, they know that Jesus isn’t on their side. Jesus calls us to love our neighbors, not to judge nor oppress them. I think they know that the devil is a liar from the beginning, and yet they embraced the liar and his ongoing lies with gusto. To say these conservatives are “Christian” is a disgrace to true followers of Christ. These folks have truly abandoned the faith for an evil bigot and his oppressive ways. They are almost foaming at the mouth in their level of hatred for the push toward justice, freedom, and opportunity for all.

While draping themselves in the American flag and crying freedom, they want to force women to give birth, ban books, prevent teachers from teaching history and science, prosecute parents seeking care for their transgender children, force media companies to carry networks that promote lies and misinformation, defy mask and vaccine mandates that save lives, and block reasonable gun regulations. Their policies are deadly, yet they claim to be “pro-life”.

So, I wake up each morning realizing that it’s not time to celebrate the glimmers of freedom, opportunities and justice feminists, people of color, religious minorities and LGBTQ folks have finally won. The battle continues and it’s only becoming fiercer. The battles are taking place in the courtrooms and school boards across the country and will soon be waged at the ballot box. And it is no coincidence that the conservatives have made it more difficult to cast that ballot.

Gasoline prices are high and they are expected to rise even higher. A few days prior to the Russian invasion into Ukraine, I decided I’d better fill up my gas tank before the prices soared despite having about a third of a tank left. So, I drove my Lexus 300 hybrid to Costco on a Monday around 11am, thinking I’d avoid the weekend traffic, but that wasn’t the case at all. Others must have had similar thoughts to mine because the line was really long. Some drove away, but being retired and with time on my hands, I decided to wait. It cost $47.94 to fill my tank.

As expected, gasoline prices have soared here in California to over $5.00 per gallon. I still have my full tank of gas because I don’t drive very much. At the height of the pandemic, when I was working from home and rarely leaving the house, it took me four months to use up a tank of gas. Gasoline has never been a huge part of my budget because I worked only 6 minutes from home, drove a hybrid, shopped locally or online whenever possible, consolidated errands, and I’m not fond of taking long drives. My Lexus is now eight years old, and I only have about 36,000 miles on it.

Without sending our children to fight, I think we should ban together to inflict as much economic pain as possible upon Putin because of his war on the innocent people of Ukraine. Putin’s major export is oil and about 8% of the oil we consume is from Russia. I already wrote to President Biden and Nancy Pelosi asking that we stop purchasing oil from Russia even though prices will go up. I also expressed to them that reducing our supply of oil and higher prices might motivate us to build the kind of structures that will enable us to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and thereby protect the planet from climate change. This is something we should be doing anyway. I hope others share my sentiment and contact them as well.

History has shown that there are things we can do quickly as a nation during times of stress that seem impossible during peaceful times. This war in Ukraine, while horrible, could be our opportunity to greatly improve our public transportation system, increase production of electric vehicles and charging stations, move to a four-day work week and increase opportunities for remote working where feasible.

Businesses can be encouraged to offer vanpools or help organize carpools or offer remote working, four-day work weeks or a hybrid working situation. They can provide vouchers for public transportation or provide pick-up services from bus and train stops. They can make their car fleets electric. They can install electric charging stations at the workplace. Larger employers can offer on-site food services, childcare, laundry, and gym facilities thereby reducing the need to drive while also improving the work-life balance of employees.

Putin, like Hitler before him, needs to be stopped and he must be made to pay for his war crimes. But every challenge is also an opportunity, and my hope is that we will use this opportunity to punish him enough to help Ukraine while at the same time taking advantage of this stressful time to build a greener and more efficient economy for our country. In the meantime, I pray for the brave and determined people of Ukraine as they fight for their freedom from the tyranny of Putin. I just hope we will care enough about freedom and democracy to be willing to pay more at the gas pump to stop him.

I rarely encounter overt Trump supporters in my daily interactions. On occasion I might pass a pick-up truck decked out in Trump stickers with American flags waving in the wind. Every now and then, I might see a maskless supporter strutting in a store, itching for someone to confront him. And for the first time, I encountered a Facebook friend of a friend who supports Trump. I’m aware that I can have a big mouth and that I lack patience in the face of stupidity. So, not surprisingly, this wasn’t a positive experience for either of us. But it did prompt me to think about why someone would abandon all reason, morality, and reality to embrace someone like Trump.

I looked up definitions for the word “cult” to determine for myself if the Trump supporters I encountered were actually members of a cult as others have described them. One definition taken from my Dictionary phone app defined cult as: “a group or sect bound together by veneration of the same thing, person, ideal, etc.” From my observation, Trump supporters do revere or adore Trump and they are definitely glued together by their reverence and loyalty to him. Their intensity is downright dangerous as demonstrated by their attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, believing his lie that the election was stolen from him.

The woman I encountered on Facebook was quick to assert that Trump won the election and to attack Biden as a person with dementia, as only caring about himself and his “crackhead son”, and to attack me personally as a person who didn’t know the truth and not worth listening to, especially after I told her I wasn’t buying her nonsense which lacked evidence, context, history, logic, and common sense. I called upon her to watch Biden’s press conferences and speeches and to listen to actual journalism and no longer allow herself to be feed a bunch of propaganda. I suppose I only succeeded in making her furious. Funny thing is, I never got angry, never lost my cool, and never resorted to calling her names. At the end, she called me a liberal and told me to grab an ice cream and go sit in a creepy basement with Joe Biden and then to go sit under a rock with my BS. I ended by thanking her for the compliment and saying there was nowhere else I would rather be and that at least my liberal BS is based in reality.

Coming from a career in higher education, I’m not accustomed to dealing with people who uncritically accept rumors, gossip, innuendos, false accusations, conspiracies, and lies as truth worth acting upon. The scary part is that these people have not only armed themselves with guns, but they are actively running for local, state, and federal offices to enact laws that fit and defend their perverted version of reality. They are also enthusiastic about voting. God help us if they gain power in our local, state and federal governments. History tells us that truth-bearers like academics, journalists, and their books are the first people on the chopping block in a society run by immoral lying autocrats who depend on an ignorant and apathetic populace.

The reality is that our society currently has too many people who cannot distinguish between actual news and propaganda. I believe that if they knew better, they would do better. I realize it is unwise to wait until college to teach critical thinking skills. Trump said out loud that he loved the uneducated. Indeed, every autocrat depends on the loyalty of those who are simple-minded, apathetic, and easily swayed.

In conclusion, I learned from my encounter that Trump supporters won’t be swayed by reason nor evidence. It is therefore up to those of us who rely on evidence, appreciate democracy, respect science, and demand social justice to rally all those around us to vote in the mid-terms this year to elect reality-based candidates and to do it again in 2024. Otherwise thinking people and this country will be in big trouble.

If I step back for a moment, I can clearly see why President Biden says we are in a battle for the soul of America. We are currently deciding whether we will be a democratic republic that values truth, voting, and fairness or if we will be an autocracy that uses propaganda, lies, and violence to oppress minorities under the guise of preserving freedom.

During the years when President Obama was elected and then re-elected, many white political conservatives and under-educated whites which included many white evangelicals, began to feel threatened by progressives pushing an agenda for diversity, inclusion, and equity that demanded access to opportunities and seats at the decision-making tables for people whose access had previously been denied, first through overt discrimination, then through covert tactics. In order to maintain power and superior wealth, the political conservatives needed a unifying strategy.

Before I get to that strategy, let me say again how many white university students came to school wrongly believing that we were a colorblind society and that discrimination ended with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. Because they believed these myths, they attributed poor education, generational poverty, mass incarceration, and widespread unemployment among people of color to personal failings among members of these groups. They also viewed Affirmative Action as reverse discrimination because they honestly believed that urban public schools with high concentrations of black and brown students were comparable to their wealthier and heavily resourced suburban or private schools. They honestly believed the falsehood that prisons were full of black and brown people simply because they were the ones committing all the crimes. Through education and exposure outside their segregated neighborhoods they learned the reality of the systems of oppression at work in our country.

I credit the persistent work of academics, activists, and journalists for exposing the ongoing inequities in education, employment, housing, banking, and criminal justice. This information has fueled demands for diversity, inclusion and equity for women and minorities across the country. It became evident to a lot of educated citizens that the U.S. was not a colorblind society, that women had been subjected to sexual harassment with impunity along with lower pay, and that black and brown people were unfairly and routinely targeted and brutalized by police. The term, “white privilege” became a catch phrase to explain the ongoing inequities. And I saw firsthand how things became very uncomfortable for white males upon learning that a system was in place to boost their success while disadvantaging others. I knew the pushback was coming. I repeatedly asked why white males would be eager to change a system that favored them. So, I wasn’t too surprised to see young white males marching in Charlottesville, including a student from my own university.

I argue that having President Obama in the White House served as both a trigger and a red herring for white political conservatives, closeted white supremacists, and white evangelicals who desperately wanted to end abortion and stop LGBTQ rights. In a perverse way, President Obama’s presence provided a moral cover for white evangelicals who stubbornly clung to a mythical colorblindness to deny ongoing racial injustice while joining the camp of conservatives with white supremacist leanings. But the conservative leaders knew that abortion and gay rights were not enough to enrage to actively engage white evangelicals and the socially liberal in their ranks. They needed to unite white people by reinforcing that mythical colorblindness while simultaneously stoking a fear of losing 1) their job opportunities to illegal immigrants, 2) their religious freedoms to discriminate against LGBTQ folks, and 3) their right to protect themselves against those dangerous black and brown people. And today, the conservatives have added the false fear of losing their “right” to make their own healthcare decisions by not wearing a mask nor getting vaccinated during a pandemic (and just how is this pro-life?).

It could be argued that supporting the immoral and bombastic Donald Trump was perhaps a bridge too far, but they did it anyway because he promised judges and a return to covert discrimination that would keep white people firmly on top without the inconvenient exposure of an unfair system of white privilege. He and the conservatives attacked the Black Lives Matter Movement as racist and unamerican. They cozied up to white supremacists as good people who love their country. They promoted conspiracy theories to gain additional supporters no matter how ridiculous. And now they are banning books and the teaching of Critical Race Theory which they equate with the racist parts of our history. They want to erase the widening knowledge of the system of white privilege that serves them so well. To rake in high ratings and the accompanying dollars, Fox News and conservative radio are happy to serve as the propaganda wing of the Republican Party, pushing stories that stoke these fears and support Trump and his lies.

As cynical as it may seem, I’m convinced that their primary motivation continues to be both power and money for the few conservative white males holding the reigns. It no longer matters that they are leading the country towards autocratic leadership, Covid-19 deaths, shortages, inflation, racially motivated violence, book bans, voter suppression, and who knows what else. Their motives are sinister, lacking morality and patriotism, but empowering bad actors.

Last week, a Neo-Nazi group hung banners over a freeway overpass in my county that read, “Honk if white lives matter” and “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.” These bigots are pushing the propaganda that white people are in danger when it continues to be black and brown people who are struggling for equity.

I would never have guessed just a few years ago that U.S. citizens would become so vulnerable to the kind of propaganda that pits Americans against each other over issues like public health, fairness, equality, science, history, decency, the rule of law, and common sense. But here we are.

And we’re here because there are greedy white men willing to mislead and arm enough uneducated, frightened and sometimes bigoted white people to help them stifle equity and fairness to preserve their continued superiority in wealth and power.