A list to help through these trying times

I find myself awake, curious, confused, hope-filled, determined and with a touch of indigestion.
I’m a fully grown United (?) States citizen and I’m just now learning what that means.
I’m curious and enjoy fact finding. I did not have Google when I was growing up in “tiny town” Wisconsin. Now, my open mind is free to explore and get some answers/facts.

I’m confused and usually ask the wrong questions – like, Why do Flat-Earthers believe that the earth is flat? I have learned that no matter how much proof they are shown, their beliefs will not be changed. Very similar to the MAGA crowd, in my uneducated mind. Do people really want to see our precious Democracy crumble? Do we need to actually see it shatter and feel the crushing loss of Freedom? Do people truly not see that Democracy is under attack from within? This is NOT NORMAL!

I’m hope-filled that most people are smarter, stronger, active, responsible citizens willing to speak truth to power and peacefully protest. Being GASLIT is dizzying, but I try to stay centered, trusting my eyes and ears and I can feel the Truth in my gut. I know that common sense cannot be taught and it seems to be very uncommon nowadays, but I trust mine to guide me. 

I’m determined to remain open and willing to allow that which I need to know (now) to Divinely flow to me. My bookshelves are full and supportive with wisdom from wonderful writers and journalists that have come into my life to teach me and help me better understand what it means to be a better citizen on this planet. 

My heartfelt admiration and appreciation goes out to:

Bob Woodward: The Trump Tapes; Peril; Rage; Fear.

Maria Ressa: How To Stand Up To A Dictator.

James Albright: Reimagining America, Project 2025 Manifesto (good explanation)

M. Neil Brown & Stuart M. Keeley: Asking The Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking

Lindsey Cormack: How To Raise A Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It)

Elie Mystal: Bad Law; Allow Me To Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution

Marianne Williamson: The Age of Miracles: Embracing the New Midlife

Timothy Snyder: On Tyranny

Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson: Abundance

Martha Stout: The Sociopath Next Door

Leslie Vernick: How To Act Right When Your Spouse Acts Wrong; The Emotionally Destructive Relationship; The Emotionally Destructive Marriage

Albert J. Bernstein: Emotional Vampires: Dealing With People Who Drain You Dry

The Constitution and The Bill of Rights.

The Duluth Reader – Weekly.

This is by no means a complete list. Please share if you have authors for me to check out.
 I will reach out again and let you know what is the cause of my indigestion.  I would also like to share with you my thoughts on, “the price of eggs.”

Remember ‑ Breathe In, Hold, Breathe Out and stay hydrated.
Thank you.
Addie B. Rose
Silver Creek, Minnesota

It’s corporations not countries

President Trump’s tariffs are not going to work because it’s not the countries that are the reason jobs have gone overseas it’s the big businesses who want bigger profits. After all why pay someone here per hour when they can pay someone overseas the same amount per week and have them work longer hours each day. That adds up to more profits. I heard on the news where someone overseas makes the same amount a month as someone here a hour for the same job.  If he wants jobs to come back to here he must punish the big corporations instead of the countries that they go to.

Us consumers have no choice in buying these products that are made in these countries. You look at the labels and you’ll see most are made in poor countries.
Cecilia Hill
Duluth, Minnesota

The first to cast a stone

Since I have been sharing my opinions with local new outlets, I have been targeted by conservatives, and in many of their opinion letters they call me a Marxist, socialist, Communist, a baby killer and a child abuser. They also accuse me of “supporting attacks on the free speech of conservatives,” although I don’t know what they mean, because sharing my own free speech is not an attack on theirs.

Several of my detractors call me a science denier, even though I’ve always supported climate science, the use of vaccines and the fact that science has made so many useful innovations that have changed our lives enormously! And I’m certain I don’t need to write a list to prove that assertion to them.

The strangest thing is that, after making all of their opinionated charges, they chew (me out), by insisting that I am too judgmental about people with their opinions? However, I have never urged them to leave their churches, change their beliefs, deny the constitution or threatened to destroy their faiths? Even so, they often use Biblical quotes to portray me as being evil, deceitful and hypocritical – though I have never tried to force (any of them to change by issuing denigrating accusations.

What I (have criticized) is their overzealous religious attacks and the supposed facts that they write about. So in that sense (I am) judgmental, (about their religiously driven misunderstandings of what the 1st Amendment really guarantees). They don’t see that if religions controlled the state, they would soon be telling all of us what religions we must believe. And if the state controlled religious faiths, Trumpers would soon lock church doors after explaining what is (wrong) about the people who deny their politics? Is all summed up by the truism—“How blind are those who will not see.”

They insist that teaching grade school children to respect their classmate’s, race, religions and ethnic backgrounds is too inclusive, even though no one in our public schools has ever told children NOT to accept the faith their parents teach them. They also claim that gay grade school teachers want to “make all our children gay” and that it’s necessary to post a copy of the Ten Commandments in each classroom. But can’t their children learn about the commandments just as well in their Sunday schools?

Instead, they circulate ugly rumors about Doctors doing transgender surgery to gain access to children’s genitals, because they want to mutilate them, and/or because selfish parents are not satisfied with their children’s birth genders? None of that is true, except for the fact that such rumors are spread because too many fundamentalists faiths have invented horror stories to back up what they don’t understand, and to endlessly judge parents and others by telling them what to teach their children!

Videos of George Floyd being questioned and handcuffed by police and of the 9 minutes he spent pleading to breath as a cop put his body weight on Floyd’s chest and throat,-without stopping until Floyd suffocated! (And no, I am not saying all police are corrupt), but any group whose prime function is to establish order can be hardened. You may ask how we are sure that Floyd’s murderer really intended to kill him?—because it’s virtually impossible to charge and convict any policeman of police brutality! However, this time, when their peers viewed and heard the tapes, they had to conclude that Floyd deliberate murdered by a cop who just didn’t care!

It takes a little time to peak around the corner and realize that the right needs to fear nothing at all, except its own politically contrived disinformation! Sorry to differ with you Trumpers, but I too have opinions to share!
Peter W. Johnson
Superior, Wisconsin