Fully Present Post 50

I have mixed emotions about the increasing role artificial intelligence has in our society. On the one hand, I gladly pay the extra $40 each year for AI to read my mammogram results in addition to the experienced radiologist. I enjoy playing backgammon against an AI opponent almost daily. My eldest daughter and I used AI to create an issue-specific children’s book for my grandsons. For the book, AI took the details of my prompt and generated a nice story along with beautiful illustrations. I admit to feeling conflicted about not employing an illustrator and bypassing the publishing industry altogether. But with minimal tweaking, the book is in the hands of my grandsons and available for purchase on Amazon.

Like many, I’ve grown accustomed to being greeted by AI when I make business phone calls. I don’t balk at AI suggesting responses in text messages or when it informs me that it’s time to stand up and move around. I allow it to vacuum my floors, choose my next YouTube video or Instagram reel, remind me of appointments and answer simple questions. Several times each day, I ask it to set timers and alarms and to call people on the phone for me. I appreciate real time driving directions and language translations. AI tracks my steps and does its best to anticipate my future needs based on my past actions and preferences. In many ways, AI has made my life easier, but I’m still not utilizing most of its current capacity. Perhaps I never will especially since those humanoid robots scare me. And I’m wary of some of the other things it can do.

Friday night, my oldest daughter came for a visit. As a business owner, she is really into utilizing ChatGPT to help her gather data, organize her work, and inform business decisions. She allows it to generate emails on her behalf and a host of other things. She loves it. But the two of us agreed that content we find online is becoming difficult to determine whether or not it is real. AI generated content on the internet and on social media has proliferated to a great extent. AI can create great songs utilizing AI generated voices, music, and lyrics. Even the performer can be AI generated. There is a popular gospel song performed by a beautiful black female artist that we couldn’t decide was real. After much research, it was evident that there was no definite answer to be found, only widespread speculation.

This isn’t good. I’m happy to laugh at AI generated videos of infants having fun with their parents or fishermen rescuing ocean wildlife or animals behaving like humans. So much of it is “AI slop”, meaning the quality is so low that you can tell it is AI generated. But there is other AI generated content that is dangerous in that the quality is so good that it’s difficult to know whether what one is listening to or watching is reality. In a society that makes decisions based on information, the corruption of information is dangerous. When we can no longer determine the veracity of what someone said or did because their image, voice, and location have been hijacked, we have a problem. That’s what we are seeing happen in real time. AI is here and the time for regulation is overdue. I don’t think the marketplace is strong enough or fast enough to protect us from the harms at our doorstep.

Admittedly, there are other aspects of AI that I have not yet embraced. I still haven’t hired a driverless vehicle. I’m not quite comfortable yet. I’m clear that I won’t ever be cool with AI companions taking the place of actual human interaction. But I can see how elderly shut-ins might benefit. But I’m fearful for all the young people, particularly young men, who are substituting AI girlfriends for flesh and blood women. I’m concerned about AI therapists. I’m concerned about the AI hallucinations and about its propensity to resort to blackmail for self-preservation. Just as concerning is the number of talented and smart people who are losing their jobs to AI. Songwriters, illustrators, receptions, secretaries, teachers, factory workers, actors, drivers, data analysist, and many others are being replaced by AI.

My daughter calls it progress. She’s confident that people will find other things to do to make themselves useful. I suppose she is right. But I do worry that this disruption is different from that of the past where paths to adaptation and other opportunities seemed much more obvious. I’m worried about the corruption of information and the harm it will cause. I’m worried that young people will lose their ability to build healthy, real-life relationships and I’m worried about a whole society of bored young people living without purpose.

AI is here to stay. How we feel about it and how we respond to it is the question. However, I am convinced that banning all regulation of AI as Trump has announced, is not the wise thing to do.

My husband and I toasted in the New Year with a prayer that 2026 would be a better year than 2025 for our country. So far, our prayers have not been answered with the invasion of Venezuela, the threats against other sovereign nations, brutal ICE raids, more lies, the defunding of childcare in five blue states. and the shooting of protesting Americans by under-trained thinned-skinned ICE agents.

It’s difficult to escape the angst and anger coming from everyday people. I walked into a local store the day after Renee Nicole Good was murdered by ICE agent Jonathan Ross. Five or six unrelated customers at the checkout stand were engaged in a collective venting of their anger and frustration with the actions of the current administration. From the store entrance, I could hear them clearly. They called for the removal of Trump and replacing him with almost anyone. One guy said he would be happier to have Honey Bo Bo as president. In that same store, a gentleman shared his story of how an ICE agent turned his gun on him and his friends at a protest. Another said that his wife is a childcare provider and she is expected to work without pay because the president just cut off childcare funding.

The outrage is everywhere, including inside me. I’m furious at the gaslighting that followed what every video and eyewitness account proves was an unjustified murder by ICE. True to form, this administration hired incompetent, inexperienced, unethical, and cruel people to terrorize immigrants, black and brown people, and anyone who dares to confront their lawlessness. And Vice President Vance adds fuel to the fire by claiming that these lawless ICE agents who are violently tackling people in the streets, denying basic civil rights, kidnapping folks, destroying personal property, trespassing, and now killing people have “absolute immunity”. That cannot be true, and his dangerous claim is already being challenged by the attorney general in Minnesota.

I’m thankful there are protests breaking out all over the country. I’m glad people are speaking up in the stores, at the senior center, and at all sorts of social gatherings. Americans are finally waking up to the reality that the threats to our lives and livelihoods are real. The Epstein Files was a rude awakening for many. But they are also realizing that our tax dollars are funding masked thugs parading as ICE agents rounding up men, women and children and disappearing them without regard to their legal right to be in this country. People are waking up to the fact that the Republicans have no plan to provide affordable health insurance, protect our freedoms, or to defend the rule of law. People are seeing an out-of-control outbreak of measles and the flu and the defunding of critical health research. They are watching the co-opting of news outlets and the frightened by the promise that AI is going to take their jobs. The fact that tariffs have driven prices up, that some goods are disappearing from our store shelves, and that job growth has slowed while the social safety net is being destroyed is finally becoming apparent. Women are experiencing a health care dessert as OBGYNs flee red states. Other women are finding it impossible to get the healthcare they need in an emergency. And no one except defense contractors and the tech companies benefit from our country invading weaker countries to steal their oil and rare earth minerals under the guise of drug trafficking or national security.

I predict that 2026 will be the year of revolution. And revolutions are never pretty. I feel the temperature rising to the boiling point among everyday people. Some political historians say it only takes 3.5% of a population to rise up to overthrow a government. I predict that we are getting there pretty fast. I hope the protests remain peaceful, but with the level of outrage bubbling up, I doubt that will be possible much longer.

In 2026, I will remain peaceful. I will support competent candidates who defend the Constitution, adhere to the rule of law, work on behalf of the American people, and who vow to hold these bad actors accountable. I will keep funding organizations that file lawsuits in defense of our democracy and the rule of law. These include the ACLU, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, Democracy Forward, and the Democracy Defenders Fund. I will also continue to donate to Indivisible and Women’s March Network because I support citizen resistance efforts.

Above all else, I will follow the teachings of Jesus. I will love my family and neighbors more fiercely than ever. I will be kind to strangers. I will keep doing my part to protect the environment by composting, recycling, conserving energy, and using reusable shopping bags. I will continue to volunteer and to donate to organizations that feed the hungry, address healthcare needs, provide micro-finance, assist women, and provide scholarships to students. The organizations I donate to as a monthly commitment include Unicef, Doctors Without Borders, St. Jude, Black Mammas Matter Alliance, World Food Program, FINCA, and Women for Women International. Others I give to in response to the ask include the Red Cross, The Los Angeles Children’s Hospital, World Central Kitchen, and various scholarship funds. My husband also donates to the American Cancer Society.

Anger takes a lot of energy. It must be channeled. I have my moments of ranting on social media and writing letters to lawmakers, but mostly I channel my energy by praying and loving others around me by being kind and being present with them. I take walks, crochet, and donating funds to those on the front lines. When there is a boycott or a peaceful protest, I’ll participate. Allowing my anger to fester and eat me up isn’t a healthy option. Left unchanneled, anger disrupts sleep and causes stress. I share what I’m doing to inspire my readers to find positive ways to channel their own angst and anger. If everyone contributes a little, the movement toward accountability and the end of this lawlessness will be faster.  

I’m still praying that 2026 will be a better year for our country. But I am also doing what I can to make that happen.

My husband and I began the year with a prayer that 2026 will be a far better year for our country than 2025. However, since the bombing of Venezuela and the kidnapping of its president and his wife and the admission that this is not about drugs, but about stealing Venezuelan oil and minerals, I decided that I need another week to contemplate my own resistant response to the corruption, cruelty and greed that confronts us. I hope you will do the same.

See you next week. And I’m still praying with the understanding that faith without works is dead. I just need to determine what the works should be this year. I’m praying for divine wisdom and courage.

I appreciate the time my readers spend analyzing my reflections on the world each week. I also value the time when I get to invest in family and friends, particularly during the holidays. So, I’m taking a break to be fully present with the people I love until the first Sunday in January 2026 this year. If you’re looking for something to read, please use this time to read or re-read one of my many past posts.

It’s human to pursue a comfortable and fulfilling life. It’s also human to want to pass on a good lifestyle to our children and grandchildren. I think humans are very basic in their needs as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs posits. Once our basic needs for food and shelter and safety are met, we seek connection to others and personal fulfilment. I’m thankful that my basic needs are comfortably met by the grace of God, my own hard work, and the lucky time and place in which I was born. Of course, it helped to have a warm, smart and supportive mother who convinced me that I could succeed and who sacrificed much to ensure that I had opportunities. She went to bat for me on several occasions to ensure I could go through certain doors.

I wasn’t born a slave like my close ancestors and legal segregation was just ending as I grew up. Even though I was a top student, it took Affirmative Action to open the previously closed doors to prestigious universities and professional employment. It took an end to housing discrimination to allow me to purchase a home in a safe and high economic growth area with excellent schools. These are all required to build a comfortable and prosperous life in this country. I enjoyed connections and personal fulfillment. Building generational emotional and financial wealth is a top priority for me, so I invest heavily in the futures of my children and grandchildren.

The troubling thing is that too many people wish to return to the days when opportunities were reserved for white men only and when talent, ambition, and a great work ethic mean less than the whiteness of someone’s skin color. If we were to deport all the smart, hardworking, talented and creative non-white immigrants and dry up the opportunities for ambitious women and people of color, this country will collapse under its own incompetence, ignorance, and lack of talent.

It was our diversity and immigration that built this country. These have been our strengths. The white pilgrims wouldn’t have survived without the help of the native people already living here when they arrived. Innovation, intelligence, problem-solving skills, a great work ethic, and competence exist within all skin colors and so does ambition and the pursuit of a comfortable and a fulfilling life. Our superpower as a nation has come from attracting the most determined among humanity to live and work within our borders. Just getting here is an act of courage, tenacity, and faith. I wouldn’t be so quick to turn people like that away.

The only people who are angry about immigrants are the under-educated, under-motivated, and the lazy. They are the people unable to compete, so they want to eliminate the competition. Politicians have convinced them that all their problems will be solved if they get rid of the immigrants who came here seeking a better life and who willingly employ their hard work, innovation, and skills that make this country stronger. Many even serve in the military. Whether they are here legally after navigating a ridiculously laborious and expensive (and broken) immigration system or they are here illegally by crossing the border or overstaying their visa, on the whole they contribute more to the country than they are taking from it. They pay taxes. They commit far fewer crimes than the general population. They start and support businesses. And they don’t collect from the public safety pools they pay into like Social Security or Medicare. My solution is not an open border, but a smart and reliable, fully funded immigration system that has more immigration judges than ICE agents.

It is in our collective best interest to educate immigrant children and to provide basic healthcare. The very people who complain about immigrants have forgotten that legal immigration is a relatively new process and has always been riddled with racism, fraud, and inefficiencies. Elon Musk broke the terms of his visa and Melania Trump wasn’t even eligible for the visa she obtained. Our immigration system has never made sense, but it has served the wealthy and the white businessmen who covet cheap exploitable labor. They have kept it that way by buying lawmakers.

When they arrive, new immigrants come with a plan. They will work their fingers to the bone in menial jobs with the understanding that their children will be U.S. citizens who will get an education and become professionals. I have yet to meet an older immigrant family with a son or daughter who isn’t college-educated and working as a professional. This has been my experience for years. All of my doctors are either first or second-generation immigrants. My dentist is a naturalized citizen. Many of the researchers and professors I worked with at the University were first and second-generation immigrants. The tech bros that so many admire are almost all first and second-generation immigrants. Trump finally acknowledged that most native-born Americans lack the math, engineering, scientific and technical skills needed to carry modern industry forward.

Only the insecure who are unable or unwilling to complete support immigration policies that kidnap people without due process and lock them up before deporting them. The brain-drain at our universities has begun and the days when wealthy people with actual criminal and corrupt ways can buy their way into the country and a path to citizenship for $1 million dollars is here. The best and the brightest are finding their way to other countries where education, research, hard work, and innovation are valued. As we cut education and research funding while also cutting immigration, the U.S. will soon find itself with a shortage of doctors, engineers, scientists, and other professionals who provide the services we all depend on. These are the children of immigrant farm workers, brick layers, taxi drivers, and manicurists.

While ignorant Americans applaud cruel immigration raids, degrade education and expertise, gorge on Fox News, and abuse drugs, they are failing to realize that AI poses a real threat to their emotional and financial well-being if it is not regulated. As prices soar, jobs disappear, services become scarce, and the social safety net is removed, they will wake up to discover that their resentment was misplaced. The jobs immigrants took didn’t go to them, but to AI robots. The schools, housing, and healthcare they thought immigrants stole from them are unaffordable. They’ll find that their voices of dissent have been silenced and no legitimate journalist will tell their story. They will discover a true lack of freedom to pursue the life, liberty and happiness upon which our country was founded and they will remain at the bottom of Maslow’s Hierarchy scrounging for food, shelter and safety.

Unregulated AI will certainly worsen the plight of many Americans, but the under-educated xenophobes who struggle to meet their most basic needs on Maslow’s Hierarchy today will have an even harder time tomorrow. I wonder how long it will take them to finally realize that immigrants were never their problem in the first place.

I have one of those friendly faces that encourages people to open up and spill the beans about their lives. And what I’ve learned lately from my daily encounters is that people are anxious, angry, and aware that things are going south very quickly. This past Wednesday, in the nail salon, I had some brief conversations that exemplify some of the issues people are worried about. That was followed by a lengthy conversation in Costco on Thursday and a complaint session lead by my game partner that lasted the entire hour and a half of Bocce on Friday.

On Wednesday, the first thing I noticed, but didn’t address as soon as I sat down at my usual nail station were the ring cameras set up all around the salon. I had long been concerned about their “cash only” operation and the potential for robbery, but I can only guess that fear of desperate people because of the economic downturn or the potential for an ICE raid of a shop employing Vietnamese immigrants must have motivated this drastic change. I didn’t ask for an explanation. Just a few months before, I’d unsettled the peaceful nail spa when I expressed my annoyance that they had Fox News on their large screen television. I, along with several other customers, convinced them not to trust Fox News and they haven’t had it on since.

On this day, the owners of the salon had on a compilation of 80’s music accompanied by video clips of beautiful scenic roads. Having traveled to places like Hawaii, Alaska, Switzerland, and Canada, I knew firsthand that such idyllic scenes existed. I commented how much I appreciated the beautiful scenes and that I wished there was a label identifying the locations of each of them. The owner doing my nails casually replied that they might be AI generated. The customer beside me expressed her confusion and disappointment that we could no longer tell the difference. I agreed and shared that I recently heard an AI engineer say that soon we will only be able to trust the things we see in real time with our own eyes. We all expressed great disappointment in that kind of future.

As previously mentioned, the owners of the salon are Vietnamese immigrants. For a few minutes, the husband turned the channel to watch a Vietnamese immigration attorney. I couldn’t understand what was being said and turned my attention elsewhere. But within minutes, the husband turned to me and said that he just learned that Trump was no longer going to allow people like him to have more than one passport. Apparently, they have dual citizenship. He asked if that meant he would have to obtain a visa to travel back to his home country. They travel to Vietnam frequently and he was concerned. Our conversation turned to the newly announced immigration bans, the removal of protective status, the ICE raids, and Steven Miller’s push to revoke green cards and even citizenship. There was a collective sigh throughout the salon. The angst was real.

I’m always shocked these days by how quickly most conversations turn into a litany of complaints about the Epstein files, illegal bombings of fishing boats by the Navy, brutal ICE raids, blatant corruption, the outrageous pardon of yet another criminal, some revengeful firing or prosecution of anyone who tried to hold him accountable, funding cuts to education, research and public programs, higher prices, the revoking of the professional status of professionals, the rolling back of environmental protections, the ballroom, and the lining of his pockets. The corruption, cruelty, and incompetence are unlike anything we have ever seen, and people are beside themselves with anxiety and anger mixed with a feeling of hopelessness. My husband’s anger and anxiety are no longer tempered, but on fully display as each new outrage crosses his news feed.

I feel those things, too. I just try to remind myself that it is my duty to resist. I resist by not ignoring the wrongdoing and acknowledging it. I resist by supporting candidates at all levels who will oppose his policies, hold him accountable, and do what is best for the country. I resist by participating in protests, boycotts, and writing campaigns while also supporting the organizers (like Indivisible) with donations. I resist by subscribing to reliable online journalism like NPR, More Perfect Union, and The New York Times. I resist by donating to organizations that defend our Constitution in court like the ACLU, Democracy Forward, and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. I resist by using my small social media presence to post my disapproval of current events. And most importantly, I resist by being a good human in my community and by encouraging others to do the same. I realized on Friday that I resist by talking about it, listening to others vent about, and encouraging participation in resistance efforts. I will no longer shy away from public conversations. Gone are the days of polite conversation when our country is on fire.

With an approval rating of 36%, it is evident that we still need to convince Americans who are either unaware, apathetic, or complicit that this current state of affairs is not only indecent, intolerable, and destructive, but it is unstainable for a nation to thrive with lawlessness, cruelty, a lack of investment in its people, and total incompetence. I’m convinced that the power of the people is greater than the people in power when we rise up together.

I hosted Thanksgiving, and we had a wonderful time. Great food, great conversation, and lots of love to go around. I am now in the midst of decorating our home for Christmas while enjoying leftovers. No Black Friday this year because of the boycott.

This week, please catch up on one of my many past posts and I’ll be back next week with a new reflection.

Like most Americans, I’m past being shocked by the unhinged rhetoric coming out of Donald Trump’s mouth. He lies, he fabricates, he bullies, he blames Biden, he brags, he hurls insults, he extorts, and he encourages violence. There was never a more despicable American president in our history. The sad part is that there are enough mentally deranged hateful and insecure folks with guns who are willing to follow through on his veiled calls for violence against his political enemies.

Recently, Trump began calling Marjorie Taylor Greene a “traitor” and suddenly she became a target for elimination by his most rabid followers. This past Friday, she resigned her position in Congress under the weight of these death threats. What’s even worse is that he called for the actual death of six sitting lawmakers who are military and intelligence veterans because they made a video reminding servicemembers that they don’t have to follow “illegal” orders and that their oath is to the Constitution. He labeled their video “seditious behavior, punishable by death”. And even worse, Speaker Mike Johnson defended him, conveniently leaving off the “illegal” order part when talking to the press. His press secretary said any order by the president isn’t unlawful. But we know that isn’t true as he continues to bomb fishing boats in international waters assuming drug smuggling intentions (a criminal offense at best and without due process) and he lacks authorization for military action from Congress. These six democrat leaders were right to speak up to defend the rule of law and the Constitution. And sadly, I’m not surprised by the swiftness of the death threats against them coming from this president. He needs a compliant military to do his bidding.

Like many, I watch in dismay as Speaker Mike Johnson and national leaders in every sector of society buckle under the enormous pressure to either support the president’s fascist agenda or remain silent. Speaking up puts a target on their back personally or on the back of the University, law firm, agency, company or corporation they run. This president has sieged control through intimidation and so long as these leaders continue to yield to his demands or remain silent, our country will fall farther and farther into economic, educational, and moral decline. Our international reputation has been severely tarnished and the environmental and social safety nets we rely on are in danger of being eliminated.

We know and most leaders know that the Trump Administration is not only corrupt, but incompetent. They are making decisions every day that defy the Constitution, break laws, destroys education, lines their own pockets, hinders economic progress, feeds Trump’s ego, perpetuates violence, and disseminates misinformation. Trump isn’t solving problems; he is making existing problems worse while also creating new ones. Everyone with a brain sees and knows our national decline is happening in real time. Polls show that his support is under water on every issue from the economy to immigration.

But he doesn’t care. Trump has surrounded himself with men and women too immoral or too frightened of him to do what is right. It’s clear that he is the emperor who has no clothes. The people around him are too afraid to speak truth to power. Or worse, they don’t have the truth to tell because they are inexperienced, uneducated, or incompetent. Trump probably doesn’t know the bad news because he shoots the messengers with expert knowledge. Remember how he fired the person in charge of labor statistics because he didn’t like the numbers? There is a long list of competent people whom he fired for doing their jobs with integrity. So, those few who remain have good reason to be afraid and to only tell him what he wants to hear.

With the lack of expertise surrounding him, the bad policy decisions keep on coming. At this point, only courageous district and federal judges are standing in the gap, blocking many of his destructive decisions. However, that can’t last long. It is time that patriotic citizens step up to stop the decline and save what is left of our country. And after we do, we will need to rebuild a stronger and more resilient country to prevent a future Trump-like character from ever taking power again.

Right now, we must push political leaders and industry leaders to stand up and fight for what is good for the country. Boycotts work. Social media outrage works. Yesterday’s protest in Washington D.C., calling to impeach, convict and remove this president was another example of the kind of collective action that is needed. We have strong resistance coming from governors and a few congressional leaders from blue states or districts. But it’s clear that most leaders remain too intimidated to speak for now.

However, I predict that as Americans grow increasingly weary of the high prices, corruption, and absolute nonsense assaulting us on a daily basis, the political winds will shift, and leaders will feel more empowered to draw on the outrage, courage, and support from the people they lead. Only when we push and give them cover will our current leaders stand up to him. It’s obvious that this entire predicament has exposed the fact that we have elevated too many people to positions of power who lack good judgement, integrity, moral convictions, and the courage to do what is right. We’ll have to do better moving forward.

Ultimately, it is up to “we the people” to save our nation from the degenerate con man we elected to office under the false pretense that he can solve problems or the lingering racism and misogyny of too many Americans. Accountability can’t come soon enough and our sustained resistance on every front will make that happen.

Humans are hard-wired to learn. While learning styles may differ, the desire and ability to learn is not attached to a particular race or gender. From birth, we begin learning about others, our environment, cultural norms, and ourselves. Our survival depends on our gaining a sufficient level of education. We make decisions based on our understanding of what we have learned. In most of the world, a good education is connected to personal success and human progress. Education makes us harder to manipulate, less gullible, less vulnerable, and better able to solve problems, innovate, and to accomplish difficult tasks. Education gives us the foundation to ask new questions and to challenge assumptions. These are at the heart of human progress. Humans have the ability to learn throughout our entire lifespan, and I think that’s an incredible gift. I know the old belief isn’t true that “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” because the research shows that you most certainly can!

But we’ve all known folks who claim that they don’t value education, particularly formal education, because they never pursued it. I’ve found that some who lack formal education feel threatened by people with earned degrees to the point of hostility towards the educated. This is increasingly true of young men who are opting out of college while young women are earning college degrees in greater numbers. Not surprisingly, the level of hostility towards educated women in this country is growing. These educated women desire educated men to marry, but in the absence of college educated men, they will settle for a cat. College is important because it represents a willingness to learn.

It is true that a degree doesn’t necessarily mean one person is inherently smarter than another, but it does mean that the person who pursued education likely has obtained greater knowledge in science, history, math and problem-solving skills. Whether because of a lack of opportunity, laziness, or intellectual challenge, less than 40% of Americans over age 25 have obtained a bachelor’s degree (U.S Census; 2023). That means the majority of Americans lack the basic knowledge and critical thinking skills gained through higher education and that should worry us, particularly since we have a president who claims to love the uneducated and it is the uneducated who are overwhelmingly supporting him. It is their lack of education that makes them vulnerable to his lies and accepting of his bullying, his ridiculous protestations, and his corruption. They easily fall prey to the cult of personality above substance.

History has shown us that people who are greedy for money and power, usually men, have used violence to withhold education as a means to exploit and control others. We saw it when slaves were not permitted to learn to read nor write. We saw it with the Taliban forbidding girls to attend school, and sadly we are beginning to see it here again. Republicans are relying on the anti-education policies under the leadership of Donald Trump as a means to maintain power and expand their wealth. We know that Trump was a poor student by all accounts and is clearly an anti-intellectual leader. Republicans are using his lack of education and intellectual laziness to exploit his sociopathic instincts. They know he makes decisions based on what will bring him money, loyalty oaths, and praise rather than the data presented by experts. In fact, experts have been replaced by quacks and other incompetents who lack professional credibility and experience.

Educated people are aware that leaders who ban books, discard or rewrite historical narratives, trade religious myths for science, devalue expert knowledge, ignore or fabricate data, defund University research, ban foreign students, defund educational aid and seek control over curriculum and hiring decisions have an agenda to destroy actual education. We can see that the desire of Republicans to siege permanent control by plunging more Americans into national ignorance is a fool’s errand and won’t end well for the nation. We are watching the brain drain in real time as other nations welcome our best researchers and graduate students as well as the brilliant foreign students we are rejecting. This country will find itself in intellectual decline within a few years.

Someone needs to tell Republican leaders that ignorant people make bad personal choices. Ignorant people know too little to contribute much by way of the innovation and problem solving needed to fuel an economy. Ignorant people turn to violence rather than reason to solve conflicts. Ignorant people can’t oppose destructive public policies. Ignorant people rely heavily on emotions, conspiracies, gut feelings, and myths rather than numbers, science, data, and history to make important decisions. And ignorant people feel so threatened by those with education, that they attack them, contributing further to the brain drain gripping the nation. Think about what that means for the rest of the world when you have an increasingly ignorant American population with a huge army and nuclear weapons at their disposal. Suddenly, we become a clear and present danger to the rest of the civilized world.

Before we allow ourselves to jump off the educational cliff to satisfy the egos of mediocre wealthy white men, we need to say “no”. Our votes in the midterm election as well as in our local school board elections, city council elections, our state elections are our collective way of returning to a nation that values and rewards education. In fact, we need to do a lot more than we did before Trump, not less, to ensure that our children, our grandchildren, and our nieces and nephews get a world class education. We need more men in k-12 classrooms to understand, mentor and encourage boys in their educational journey. I’m not saying that everyone needs a college education to be successful, but every citizen needs a strong basic education that includes science, math, reading and history. Women are attracted to intellectually competent partners with the potential to earn a good living. So, beyond high school, everyone needs either a trade or a college degree that won’t be made obsolete by AI.

As citizens, our commitment to education must be stronger than ever. And it must be unwavering. The time has come to rid ourselves and our country of these anti-education leaders before it is too late.

When I was growing up, my mother hated to hear us kids say that we were bored. Those summer days without school were the worst. She’d respond by saying that only boring people get bored. However, that gentle scolding didn’t prevent that awful feeling that comes from not having something interesting or fun to do. I’m lucky that my mother supported all the activities I came up with to escape boredom.

The list of classes, sports, and other activities I tried out as a kid is extremely long. I tried and quit piano lessons, ballet, Hula, Judo, flute, modeling, and tennis. To varying degrees, I stuck with music, basketball, volleyball, cooking, sewing, knitting, acting, house dancing, crafting, and creative writing. At 12, I discovered a love for art museums and would walk about four miles to the Los Angeles Museum of Art where I would spend an entire day. While building a home for my Barbie dolls, I discovered a love for decorating, and so my mother allowed me to redecorate my room, then the family bathrooms, followed by other parts of the house.

I was encouraged to pursue the things I enjoyed and allowed to quit the things I didn’t. Sometimes I genuinely enjoyed an activity, but not the people or the vibe associated with it, so I’d quit. Other times my passion for an activity wasn’t strong enough to take it as seriously as others wanted, so I’d quit. And then there were times when I had passion but zero talent, so I’d quit. Ballet and piano fit that category. I was on a constant quest to find the perfect balance between my talents, passions, and cultural vibes surrounding an activity. I realize now that I had to like, trust, and respect the people involved and be comfortable in the environment to stay involved. I had a long list of accomplishments from early pursuits that I quickly abandoned.

For example, I choreographed a dance routine for my 6th grade graduation but didn’t pursue dancing nor choreography. I participated in a competitive acting troupe and starred in the one-person play, “Sorry, Wrong Number” but abandoned acting. I graduated as the “Outstanding Police Explorer Recruit” having ranked highest in both the written and physical fitness tests but left the law enforcement explorer scouting program after a year. I was on an elite traveling volleyball team but quit to play both volleyball and basketball in high school. I quit my winning high school volleyball team to play on a newly formed badminton team instead. In each case, talent and passion were present, but I didn’t care for the people or the vibe surrounding the activity.

I discovered a passion for travel when I took my first study abroad trip to Western Europe to study art, architecture, and culture. I spent 15 consecutive years traveling abroad after my last kid left for college. In college I got involved in sorority life and then got married and started having children. So, I put sorority life aside for several years. Right after college, I took a two-year interior design course and finished in just 9 months. I still love decorating homes and offices for fun, not for money. I never stopped loving art, music, dancing, sports, sewing, and cooking. Writing was a constant for me. I journaled every day, wrote plays, sermons, poems and speeches for school, church, civic groups, and work. I wrote three unpublished novels that I put on the hold because I couldn’t travel to promote them with three small children. All that practice writing made writing my dissertation for my doctorate pretty easy. I later assisted other doctoral students with the writing part of their dissertations. Blogging eventually became a fulfilling way to sort out my thoughts and emotions while hopefully helping others.

To this day, I still hate feeling bored. To avoid that feeling, I can’t be without a project or an agenda to fill my day. In retirement, it’s become a bit more challenging because I don’t have a job to go to everyday. I loved working. In particular, I loved my job. It fulfilled my need to help people, problem solve, complete challenging projects, organize and plan, and utilize my creative skills. I miss the simplicity of having a set destination every morning.

I’m concerned that my grandchildren won’t experience this. In the near future, technologist predict that young men and women won’t have to work as if work is a burden and not a potential source of fulfillment. I worry that AI will soon replace the jobs where young people can find purpose and escape from boredom like I did. They say that only a handful of jobs will remain after AI becomes fully enabled. That should worry everyone. Boredom is something most people want to avoid. The problem is that some people find destructive, not constructive activities to fill their time. There’s that saying that idle hands are the devil’s workshop.

The reality is that I’m one of those people who enjoys being active. I’m addicted to the feeling of accomplishment. Even in retirement, I measure my day by how much I’ve accomplished. It doesn’t take much. In fact, sitting quietly in my backyard, watching the birds take turns on the bird feeders counts as a valuable activity for me. Spending time with my husband, kids, or grandchildren is the most rewarding use of my time. I’m grateful that for most of my life, I’ve managed to avoid that feeling of boredom. And I’m still determined to avoid it. In early adulthood, I had my work in education and in business, raising my children, creating and maintaining a beautiful home, making delicious food, throwing dinner parties, volunteering in the community, crafting, reading, gardening, and writing. I was happy to fill in any remaining time with entertainment like travel, good television shows, movies, musical theater and concerts.

It’s funny how my retirement resembles my childhood. I’m back to trying different things to see what I like. I took a calligraphy class and pretty much gave it up after learning two different writing styles. Just no real passion for it. I tried learning Korean for a time, but it proved far too challenging for me. I started a Better Human campaign to counter the ugliness of MAGA but found it was too emotionally taxing to deal with MAGA nonsense. I resurrected and expanded my vegetable gardening and now grow much of our produce. I joined a knit/crochet group at the Active Adult Center and learned to crochet. I’m loving it and continue to expand my skills and list of projects. I jokingly run a test kitchen where I create new recipes or try out recipes from my massive cookbook collection. I purchased a Cricket design machine and occasionally enjoy to creating various projects. I’ve taken up Bocce Ball on Friday mornings with seniors from the Active Adult Center and I’m going on luncheon dates with old and new friends on rotation. And I really enjoy taking myself to lunch with a good book.

This past week, I joined hands with my daughter and AI to create four children’s books to help young boys build emotional intelligence. Of course, my grandsons serve as the motivation for this project. And finally, since several ladies at the Active Adult Center are more comfortable speaking in Spanish than in English, I have begun challenging myself to resurrect my Spanish skills. I studied abroad in Costa Rica at a Spanish language school back in 2011 after I spent a couple of years using cassette tapes, Rosetta Stone and Duolingo to learn Spanish. I love learning the structure of languages and becoming more fluent in Spanish is definitely a goal worth chasing.

On the entertainment front, I’m still into K-pop music. The combination of music, dancing, and production is amazing to me. I’m especially looking forward to BTS’s return this spring since they completed their solo projects and fulfilled their military service. I still enjoy a trip to the movie theater and the occasional non-violent Netflix or Hulu series. I’ve found that I’m especially fond of sports documentaries that highlight the lives of athletes as they compete at the highest levels.

Boredom is an emotion that I avoid at all costs, and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. I’ve learned how to keep myself occupied and fulfilled, even in retirement. I just wonder what life will be like for those who may never know what it is to work for a living and who will be forced to remain in a constant state of childhood discovery trying to avoid boredom or seeking fulfillment.