I write this blog (or "blah-g" as my friend Rose would say) mostly because I like writing and have very few outlets for this passion (other than endless patient care notes). Some days I just start typing and see what happens. Some days I get an idea and bandy it about over the work day and put it on the screen when I get home. Some days I just need to protest against the acting career of Julianne Moore.
But on a day like today, there's no planning or style. There's just recording history as it happens. I'm no great hero, and I didn't do anything amazing. But in the day after Muslims were banned from our nation for being Muslim, here's a skeleton outline of what I did.
-spent most of the evening of the 27th just SAD! that the president had dragged us over a line that I thought I'd only read about in history books.
-started the morning of the 28th, texted a song, Woody Guthrie's "All You Fascists Bound to Lose", to my friends who I thought might need it the most.
-listened to a This American Life episode that crystallizes just one of the many reasons why a Muslim ban is so repulsive, immoral and unconstitutional while I walked my dog
-took my kids to the Milwaukee Public Museum where we watched an IMAX movie about the National Park System and spent a long time in the Native American wing answering their questions of who these people were and where they are now
-planned on taking my kids to the protest at the Court House next door to the Public Museum but it was the wrong Court House and only so much travelling can be done with my crew
-went to Church and prayed hard for courage and a direction to act
-played board games with my kids and watched the news reports unfold of swelling protests at airports across the nation and a few Republicans joining Democrats in calling for a reversal of the executive order; even FoxNews was covering the protests!
-my wife paraphrased from something that she read: "when Dick Cheney and Pope Francis both disagree with you, you might be an asshole"
-breathed a little sigh of relief when the injunction against the executive order went into effect
-texted a dear Muslim friend and reassured her (reassured myself?) that her FELLOW AMERICANS had her back
To the people in the streets, I say "thank you". You are my heroes. To function as a nation, we're going to have to work together and let our legislators legislate. But maybe, just maybe, President Trump might now know that his mandate is very, very small and that we citizens will not go quietly to fascism. Okay, probably not, but it will be an interesting case study to watch as a human being who has no apparent ability to admit error reacts to the heat of this much resistance.
This is what happened on the day that President Trump TRIED to ban Muslims. No beer tonight because I'm old and now have GERD. But that's another blog for another time.
But on a day like today, there's no planning or style. There's just recording history as it happens. I'm no great hero, and I didn't do anything amazing. But in the day after Muslims were banned from our nation for being Muslim, here's a skeleton outline of what I did.
-spent most of the evening of the 27th just SAD! that the president had dragged us over a line that I thought I'd only read about in history books.
-started the morning of the 28th, texted a song, Woody Guthrie's "All You Fascists Bound to Lose", to my friends who I thought might need it the most.
-listened to a This American Life episode that crystallizes just one of the many reasons why a Muslim ban is so repulsive, immoral and unconstitutional while I walked my dog
-took my kids to the Milwaukee Public Museum where we watched an IMAX movie about the National Park System and spent a long time in the Native American wing answering their questions of who these people were and where they are now
-planned on taking my kids to the protest at the Court House next door to the Public Museum but it was the wrong Court House and only so much travelling can be done with my crew
-went to Church and prayed hard for courage and a direction to act
-played board games with my kids and watched the news reports unfold of swelling protests at airports across the nation and a few Republicans joining Democrats in calling for a reversal of the executive order; even FoxNews was covering the protests!
-my wife paraphrased from something that she read: "when Dick Cheney and Pope Francis both disagree with you, you might be an asshole"
-breathed a little sigh of relief when the injunction against the executive order went into effect
-texted a dear Muslim friend and reassured her (reassured myself?) that her FELLOW AMERICANS had her back
To the people in the streets, I say "thank you". You are my heroes. To function as a nation, we're going to have to work together and let our legislators legislate. But maybe, just maybe, President Trump might now know that his mandate is very, very small and that we citizens will not go quietly to fascism. Okay, probably not, but it will be an interesting case study to watch as a human being who has no apparent ability to admit error reacts to the heat of this much resistance.
This is what happened on the day that President Trump TRIED to ban Muslims. No beer tonight because I'm old and now have GERD. But that's another blog for another time.