AMERICA. AMERICA

     Today's posting is in two parts. The first part is simply a continuation of yesterday, with a reminder that we need to vote to change the same old status quo that we now have in the Village. Time to truly reintroduce a democratic UCO, wherein there is discussion, opinions that differ, a civil atmosphere wherein no one is insulted, degraded, cursed or whatever negative form is used to intimidate people. So, in addition to any other choices, and there are some that are okay, I recommend that you fill in the bubble for these people and help get our UCO on better footing.
   VP - Ed Grossman
Executive Board - In no special order -
     Myron Solomon      Carole Szepesi
     Gerry Sutofsky        David Torres
     Olga Wolkenstein    Marcia Ziccardy

     The times - they are a'changin' - or so we hope, both here in the Village and in the country. They certainly need to do so. I, for one, certainly hope that we get at least an infusion of better working brains, open to new ideas, discussion, moderation and compromise. It certainly is disconcerting when the supposed leader of the country needs to be man'splained about terms of economic policy - and in front of representatives from other countries. Shame on him and shame on us that he is in our office.
     But more than that, is the hope, the so urgent need, that we get more civility and morality into this government and no, I do not mean an infusion of religion, of the further intrusion of religion into our governmental levels and branches, but simply moral values such as oh, say, no cheating, no stealing from the people, stopping the disgusting and incestuous revolving door between industries and their executives in public office, proper behavior, acceptance of all as equal before the law, remembering that we are a haven for "the tired, the poor, tempest tossed" and that principle allowed us to establish and grow the country.
     Think it is hard? It sure is, especially as we are coming from behind now, have allowed the wrong ideas and actions to establish roots within the country and have allowed hatred and prejudice to flourish. We have allowed the supposed leader to state really weird things such as that Kim is "my friend", and that North Korea can have a TREMENDOUS future (capitals all his). Wonder if he will replace the other lovelies on his BFF list like Duterte or Putin or Erdogan or whomever.
     Perhaps we can actually return to the time when the media was not demeaned and even deemed an "enemy of the people"- a truly dangerous term to use like that. Perhaps it is actually the illegitimate President who is actually the "enemy" of the people! Just ask Junior about the media for he feels that he is oppressed - uh huh, just as much as likely as it was to expect him to truly understand the facts of life today here in these states.
     There is hope. The House passed the bill about the so called emergency and 13 Republicans actually found their spine and voted against this false and dangerous declaration of national emergency. It now remains to be seen whether all those blustery mouths of the GOP who jumped on Obama for violating the same boundaries - was actually different, but never mind - well, money and mouths and spines. Let's see. McConnell has already taken the deep dive into hypocrisy and who will follow?
     A new gun law. Hopefully, a return to sanity re choice for women and stopping the lies about what it means and a return of funding to Planned Parenthood and allow them to carry on with the good work, the so necessary work, for women's health in ALL areas.
     Perhaps we will have no more of people like Gaetz of Florida who has opened his ugly mouth and spewed hatred before and continued on this path with his threat to Cohen, scheduled to testify openly today in the House. Guess he did not like it when Cohen, no angel when in thrall to Trump, spoke of Trump as a racist, a conman and a cheat and who knew quite the large amount about the nasty shenanigans going on in his campaign and in the Trump Organization and how the offspring are tainted by their actions as well. Dearie me!
     Filth. Evil. Danger. And worse than that when acted upon, words put into action in the most negative ways. Can we all not be Americans once more? Can we not have at least a step towards unity rather than division? Can we not find and back those who would do this, would back it in words and deeds? Let us return to America, to a true United States of America, and incidentally, to a better Village as well. Neither here in the Village nor here in our country, must it remain a pipedream. We are not yet too far gone down the path to perdition. We can return. We can fix it. All it needs is the effort, the desire and the spine.