Today I Give Thanks to All of You Who Are Mobilizing for May 1

 

Today I give thanks to all of you who are mobilizing for tomorrow’s May 1 protests.  As Heather Cox Richardson noted in her newsletter of 4/29, American citizens are rising up:

“And so, even as Trump tries to erase the government FDR pioneered, Americans are demonstrating their support for a government that defends ordinary people, and proving the truth of FDR’s words from 1933, that when people act together they ‘can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could even hope to bring about.’”

Here’s a link to  information about Rochester’s May Day rally:  https://www.mobilize.us/mayday/event/777842/

Today I am Thankful for Governor Pritzker

When I was in college (many, many years ago), we celebrated May Day with strawberries and cream and hoop racing (true). This year, I'll be protesting the reign of tyranny and cruelty that is hollowing out our most beloved institutions and ripping our Constitution into shreds.

from Heather Cox Richardson's newsletter 4/28:
There has been a change afoot in the Democratic Party for a while now as its leaders shift from trying to find common ground with Republicans to standing firmly against MAGAs and articulating their own vision for the United States.

That shift burst dramatically into the open last night when Democratic Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker gave a barn-burning speech to Democrats in New Hampshire. After walking out to the American Authors song “Go Big or Go Home,” Pritzker urged Democrats to stop listening to “do-nothing political types” who are calling for caution at a time when Americans are demanding urgent action, and to “fight—EVERYWHERE AND ALL AT ONCE.”

Pritzker highlighted three ordinary Americans who are opposing the Trump administration and Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency” by building communities to protest, hanging an upside-down flag on the face of Yosemite National Park’s famous cliff El Capitan, and welcoming Vice President J.D. Vance to Sugarbush Resort in Vermont with a snow report calling attention to the administration’s attacks on veterans, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ Americans, immigrant workers, and people of color. He urged Democrats to lead with the same passion.

He listed the positions on which he wants Democrats to stand firm, beginning: “It’s wrong to snatch a person off the street and ship them to a foreign gulag with no chance to defend themselves in a court of law.” This is not about immigration, he said, but about the Constitution. “Standing for the idea that the government doesn’t have the right to kidnap you without due process is arguably the MOST EFFECTIVE CAMPAIGN SLOGAN IN HISTORY,” he said. “Today, it’s an immigrant with a tattoo. Tomorrow, it’s a citizen whose Facebook post annoys Trump.”

Pritzker tore into the MAGA myth that Democrats want rapists and murderers on the streets, saying that Democrats do not want undocumented immigrants who are convicted of violent crimes to stay in the country. He called for “real, sensible immigration reform.”

But, he said, “Immigration—with all its struggles and its complexities—is part of the secret sauce that makes America great, always. Immigrants strengthen our communities, enrich our neighborhoods, renew our passion for America’s greatness, enliven our music and our culture, enhance understanding of the world. The success of our economy depends upon immigrants. In fact, forty-six percent…of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.”

Trump’s attacks on immigrants, he said, are likely to make the U.S. economy fail.

Indeed, he suggested, making America fail is the point of the Trump administration's actions. “We have a Secretary of Education who hates teachers and schools,” he said. “We have a Secretary of Transportation who hates public transit. We have an Attorney General who hates the Constitution. We have a Secretary of State, the son of naturalized citizens—a family of refugees—on a crusade to expel our country of both.

“We have a head of the Department of Government Efficiency— an immigrant granted the

privilege of living and working here, a man who has made hundreds of billions of dollars after the government rescued his business for him—who is looking to destroy the American middle class to fund tax cuts for himself. And we have a President who claims to love America but who hates our military so much that he calls them ‘losers’ and ‘suckers’ and who can’t be bothered to delay his golf game to greet the bodies of four fallen US soldiers. And we have a Grand Old Party, founded by one of our nation’s bravest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln—who today would be a Democrat, I might add—... so afraid of the felon and the fraud that they put in the White House that they would sooner watch him destroy our country than lift a hand to save it.”

He called on Democrats to “stop wondering if you can trust the nuclear codes to people who don’t know how to organize a group chat. It’s time to stop ignoring the hypocrisy in wearing a big gold cross while announcing the defunding of children’s cancer research. And time to stop thinking we can reason or negotiate with a madman. Time to stop apologizing when we were NOT wrong. Time to stop surrendering, when we need to fight.

“Our small businesses don’t deserve to be bankrupted by unsustainable tariffs. Our retirees don’t deserve to be left destitute by a Social Security Administration decimated by Elon Musk. Our citizens don’t deserve to lose healthcare coverage because Republicans want to hand a tax cut to billionaires. Our federal workers don’t deserve to have, well, a 19-year-old DOGE bro called Big Balls destroy their careers.

“Autistic kids and adults who are loving contributors to our society don’t deserve to be stigmatized by a weird nepo baby who once stashed a dead bear in the backseat of his car.

“Our military servicemembers don’t deserve to be told by a washed up Fox TV commentator, who drank too much and committed sexual assault before being appointed Secretary of Defense, that they can’t serve this country simply because they’re Black or gay or a woman.

“And If it sounds like I’m becoming contemptuous of Donald Trump and the people that he has elevated, it’s because... I am. You should be too. They are an affront to every value this country was founded upon.”

Pritzker called on Democrats to be “bold and our ideas fearless…. And we must deliver on that agenda for working families and for the real people who truly make America great.”

“I understand the tendency to give in to despair right now,” he said, “But despair is an indulgence that we cannot afford in the times upon which history turns. Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption. But I am now.

“These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have. We must castigate them on the soap box, and then punish them at the ballot box. They must feel in their bones that when we survive this shameful episode of American history with our democracy intact—because we have no alternative but to do just that—that we will relegate their portraits to the museum halls reserved for tyrants and traitors.”

“Cowardice can be contagious,” Pritzker said, “But so too can courage…. Just as the hope that we hold onto in the darkness, shines with its own...special light.

“Tonight, I’m telling you what I’m willing to do...is fight—for our democracy, for our liberty, for the opportunity for all our people to live lives that are meaningful and free. And I see around me tonight a roomful of people who are ready to do the same.”

“So I have one question for all of you,” Pritzker said. “Are you ready for the fight?”

—

Notes:

Youtube:

watch?v=zMndfvxVeRo

Today I Give Thanks for Yesterday's Protests!

Today I give thanks for yesterday’s protests against authoritarianism!  Two hundred and fifty years ago, on Easter Sunday of 1775, Paul Revere made his famous ride from Boston to Lexington, telling people that two lanterns would be lit in the North Church if the British were coming by water but only one lantern if they took the narrow land route.  What followed, the Battle of Lexington and Concord, was the start of our Revolutionary War, the war that ended King George III’s rule over the American colonies.

Yesterday’s 50501 protests, which commemorated those events of 250 years ago, proclaimed the same message: No more kings!  Down with authoritarianism! 

Friends, our beloved country is in a constitutional crisis.  We must band together and work together and fight peacefully together as hard as we can to bring back the rule of law and decency to our dear land.  Thursday’s message from the League of Women Voters, non-partisan organization, describes this situation well:

Washington, DC — Today, Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters, and Dianna Wynn, president of the League of Women Voters, released the following statement:  

“It has now been 87 days since the start of the Trump administration. From the flagrant disregard for congressional authority and governmental checks and balances to defying Supreme Court orders to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back home, one thing is abundantly clear: our country is in a constitutional crisis.   We the people must fight back.”

“Thomas Aquinas teaches that there are two resurrections: The first is waking up in this lifetime; If we do this, the second will take care of itself.”   – Matthew Fox*

Today, on this beautiful Easter Sunday morning, may we all “wake up in this lifetime”! 

 

*Many thanks to Mike Boucher, who shared this quote in his blog today.

Today I Give Thanks for Alice! 4-13-25

 

Today is my mother-in-law Alice's 94th birthday. Unfortunately, she passed away at 92 on Oct. 30, 2023. I am thankful that I had such a wonderful mother-in-law, one who was unfailingly kind, even when I probably didn't deserve it.

One of her favorite pass times was playing dominoes, especially Mexican Train. Even in her 90's, she usually won! Look at the length of the train in the photo above - and please don't miss Alice's famous smirk!

Today I give thanks for Alice DeJesus, an incredible woman - and one who raised a great guy, my husband Rick!!

Today I Give Thanks for Those Who Brought Us Together

 

Yesterday's protest was great! 3-4 THOUSAND people congregated at Rochester's Cobbs Hill to protest against Trump and Musk = and to say that we are sick of the cruelty this administration represents. So today, I give thanks to those who brought us together, including Rochester's Indivisibility

The photo here reminds me that what we are witnessing is a blitzkrieg - a Nazi "lightening war" - against our democracy and the basic rules of decency. If we feel traumatized and dizzy from it all, please remember: This is how we are supposed to feel! We are supposed to feel too overwhelmed and too afraid to speak up, to demonstrate, and to protest. Our enemies right now are hate, cruelty, indecency - and our own exhaustion! Yesterday proved that we can start to overcome these enemies - If we band together and stick together!

As Winston Churchill stated: “This is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”

It feels so much better to be doing something! It may just be a small start, but it is, indeed, a start!

Today I Give Thanks for Unexpected Intrusions of Beauty

Thankful Everyday 4-1-25

Today I give thanks for the unexpected intrusions of beauty surrounding me each day.  As I sat down for morning prayer, I was startled by this scene.  How often have I seen exactly this and yet not noticed, not really looked closely?  Early light raking across a gracefully curving, handmade jar that I purchased from the potter over fifty years ago.  A time when adult life was just beginning for me.  My sense of awe immediately brought me into the realm of memory.

I needed this.  March felt barren.  Hard to get started each day.  The same tasks over and over again.  How much did I miss by rolling down that rabbit hole of “blah-ness”? 

May I take time to notice these magical interruptions – every the tiniest ones – and give thanks.

"Unexpected intrusions of beauty. This is what life is."  - Saul Bellow

Today I Give Thanks for Lent

 

Thankful Everyday 2-27-25

https://thankfulevery.blogspot.com/

Today I give thanks for Lent. Lent is when we begin all over again.  When we admit, as Kate Bowler tells us in her newsletter today, that we don’t have it all together and maybe we never did!  And starting all over again is hard, damned hard. 

As a country, we need to admit that we don’t have it all together – and maybe our country never had it all together either.  But we have to begin.  Again and again and again.  As many times as it takes, we need to begin again, bringing our disparate selves together, starting over with each other. 

Yesterday evening, President Trump addressed Congress, bragging about policies that hurt people.  Thousands without hope for an end to war, others without jobs, still others without the means to purchase food and shelter, the prices of which are now skyrocketing.  His first actions have sent immigrants – even legal immigrants – scrambling.  And those from all marginalized groups are reeling to find their footing in this new world order.  Chaos and fear rule the day. 

In the hour before Trump’s address, my husband and I watched a PBS documentary about Harriet Tubman.  What most struck me was how she heard God’s voice and saw brilliant images in her mind telling her what she needed to do – and then she followed that divine guidance.  What if each of us, in whatever way, large or small, listened for that voice and then moved forward with courage and conviction?

We are now being called to move beyond the chaos and fear enveloping our country today.  I’m not going to pretend to have answers for how we can do this, but I am going to use these forty days of Lent to reflect.  I am going to use this time to listen for God’s voice in my own life.  What is God telling me that I need to do – right here and right now?  And, if I hear God’s instructions, I will pray for the courage to move forward – to do what I am being called to do, to make our country and our world a little bit better for all people, one step at a time.

May we all use the next forty days to listen for God’s voice and to find the courage we need to move forward with love.