Audit Your Affiliations

Who we support, who will affiliate with, and what we do tells a story of what we believe in and what matters to us.

In the United States there is great freedom to be what we want to be and do what we want to do? There are limitless ways to direct your time, money, interests, and relationships to the life you dream of.

I support this amazing potential as long as your choices do not limit the good choices of others.

Individuals will never be equal in all things--there will always be variability with respect to what we have and how we live, yet we can work to ensure that people have the basic elements of living well, elements such as access to quality education and health care, adequate housing, nutritious food, living without prejudice and living with the essential rights to speak freely, practice your religion, and do as you please as long as you are not hurting others.

As I consider my own place in this big world of potential and possibility, I recognize that it's essential to audit your affiliations now and then--who do you support and spend time with, and why does that matter.

I get hundreds of invitations in person, by phone, and online to contribute to all kinds of causes. I'm always hesitant since I'm not rich and I have committed to paying my bills, educating my children, time with family members, saving for retirement, some fun, and working in a job that doesn't lead to great wealth. Yet I have a few dollars to contribute--who will get those dollars?

I will contribute a few dollars to people running against current #GOP candidates who have continuously supported President Trump's disrespectful, demeaning, and potentially illegal efforts as president. I want to see our United States Congress free of self-serving, bigoted, lazy, and unpatriotic individuals, individuals who vote for their personal pocketbooks and power rather than standing up for the rights and opportunities for all Americans and the global partnerships and efforts that will make for a better world. I'm disgusted by the greed, inactivity, and selfishness of these politicians who are paid by our hard earned tax dollars and do nothing for the people of the United States.

I will contribute some money to the ACLU and Amnesty International since I value human rights and I ache when I see the stories of peoples around the world denied their rights to live a good and simple life. This is abominable and I see these two agencies as agencies working to right the tide in this regard.

I will contribute time and continued membership to the teachers' union because I know that hard working individual educators who have chosen a profession because they believe in the promise and potential education holds do not have the time, energy, money, or support to battle against greedy organizations, individuals, and companies that work to deny everyday people their rights to a quality education for their children. Teachers have to unionize if they want to promote what's best for American schools, families, and children.

I will give a few dollars to #educolor to as that organization is helping me to teach all my students with good knowledge, truth, equity, and strength.

I will contribute dollars to innovating what I can do with and for my students. While I work in a system that provides good support, there is often little to no financial support for innovation or personalization when it comes to teaching well. Rather than continued fighting to obtain those dollars via the system, I'll spend my own money as well as write grants to many generous organizations that exist, organizations that match my desire for more student-centered, active and meaningful educational experiences and supports for all children.

I will continue to support my beliefs for a free and equitable nation by using my time to read, research, learn, and write to support the best of whom we can be as a people for and with one another. And of course, when possible, I'll support local causes that people I know and respect are working for.

We will all choose different affiliations in life. We all have varying abilities to contribute, but we all have a responsibility to think deeply about who we are and what we support. That's a responsibility inherent with regard to living in a free country. What will you choose? Who will you support? How will you audit your affiliations and why does that matter?

Exercise Your Right to Vote!

Clearly President Trump's election to office has been a painful lesson for most Americans that if you don't get out there and exercise your right to vote, you have to live with the outcome of an election that may jeopardize your rights and quality of life. While as citizens we'll rarely agree on every issue, we need to encourage each and every citizen to learn about his/her right to vote and then help them to exercise those rights. The more people work for their best interests and vote for those interested, the more, I believe, that our country will live up to it's aim to provide life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for each and every resident. 

What can we do to forward this incredible right to vote that's a cornerstone of the United States. First, make the voter information accessible, clear, and easy to read. The links above will help Massachusetts residents to access needed information from our state's terrific election website.

Next, educate friends and family members about voting. Provide them with the information they need to register, study, and vote. People all over the country can make lists similar to the one above to help people access the information they need. 

Then, make sure that people know their rights. Today I'm joining the ACLU as one way to contribute towards helping everyone know and receive their rights as American citizens. This is imperative especially as we near the midterms with the evident cyberthreat from Russia and elsewhere, a threat that the President of the United States will not speak out about or work against. This makes our work as individuals even greater at this turning point in American history.

None of us are powerless in this nation. We can immediately act by sharing this information of how and when to vote, and then continue our impact by getting out there and supporting good candidates who represent a will to stand up for and develop our country in ways that matter. This is a good way to respond to Trump's demeaning and troubling remarks on the world stage yesterday. We can do better.

Better USA; Better World

As I look around, I think that the following list is a way to better our country and better our world.

1. Support public education with better funding, better systems, and more employees to service the needs and potential of our country's children and families.
2. Support quality health care for all with affordable health care, more health care professionals, and more accessible health care centers.
3. Work with America's best and brightest to protect natural lands and resources at home and abroad--we absolutely have to protect clean water, clean air, and clean soil. Our lives depend on this.
4. Build strong communities with a personalized view of what communities need--one size fits all solutions won't necessarily work here, but attention to good recreation, quality basic needs such as homes, health care, education, nutritious food, and clean, beautiful environments, the arts, and positive economic opportunity will help. 
5. Increase quality services to elevate lives with a focus on the people-to-people service as this will be a good response to increasing automation that is taking jobs away. With more qualified environmentalists, doctors, nurses, educators, and other social service agents, we will better care for one another, our communities, and environment. 
6. Better global partnerships by acknowledging the impact of past worldwide acts of hate, oppression, and destruction such as colonization, war, slavery, and greed and working together to better communities around the world by dealing with crises related to immigration, war, poverty, environmental destruction, environmental protection, and oppression.
7. Create opportunities by bettering supports and efforts related to invention, services, environmental protection, sustainability, safety, and good living for all the world's people--rather than support efforts of competition, turn our efforts towards collaboration, cooperation, and betterment for all. 

We can work as a world to better opportunity for all the world's people. We can move beyond our primitive survival-of-the-fittest selves to using our creativity and ingenuity to better the world for all the world's people. Some will say this is a pollyannaish point of view, but I believe it's a point of view that takes us to the great potential we hold as a people who desire life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all.

It's true that to achieve this vision, we may need to use the path of world unions--unions of everyday people who are working to better lives and opportunities for all rather than a few self-serving individuals across the globe. The world is changing, and I believe we can move that change in a positive direction. Do you agree? 

Do Your Part to Sustain a Great Country?

Everyone has to do their part to sustain and develop the great nation that the United States is.

We are not a perfect nation as evidenced by the President's behavior yesterday--there are many cracks to mend, laws to create, and work to be done to continue to update, modernize, and develop our country in ways that matter for the modern world today and generations to come.

Presently our country is challenged by Trump's efforts to abuse his role in the White House. He appears to abuse his role by using the privileges of the presidency to push forward his narrow, self-serving vision for our a country and the world--a vision that appears to use and abuse everyday people for his own and his cronies' privilege, wealth, and power.

What should Americans do at this turn in the road--an unexpected, dangerous, and critical turn in America's journey as a free nation built by the people for the people?

First we must relentlessly reach out to our political leaders to speak up and act in ways that will investigate, limit, and respond to what appears to be Trump's gross negligence as President of the United States. Trump appears to be using the presidency for his own gain with little regard for the rights and needs of the American people in so many ways:

• He's negating our allies and siding with our adversaries. 
• He has demonstrated no trust or allegiance to our nation's justice departments or citizenry on the world stage by siding with and praising those who have been accused of committing crimes against our country.
• He chooses friends and family members for major roles in our country's leadership seemingly without concern or interest with those individuals' readiness or ability to do the jobs.
• He invites foreign dignitaries and others to his private clubs for government business and thus reaps the financial rewards of these meetings while compromising security and diplomatic policies and protocols.
• He demeans education by choosing a big donor to lead our nation's Department of Education, a women with little to no experience in education and a women who apparently is mostly interested in supporting her narrow agenda to promote faith-based initiatives and dismantle the strong public schools that have been a bedrock of this country.
• He chooses mostly in favor of the wealthy by giving them a big financial boost with new tax laws and by limiting the supports and services for everyday people who make an average wage or less.
• He's done little to improve access to quality health care and has compromised our health care system more.
• He doesn't care about the environment and has chosen to trade environmental protection for short-term financial gain for a few. He has no concern for the long-term health of the planet.
• He doesn't work well with the world's nations, and instead decries the good work that has been done with our allies over years rather than work with them for further positive development with regard to the world's greatest issues such as reduction in warfare and war, end to poverty, protection of natural resources, humane response to the immigration crisis, and an effort to provide opportunity and good living to all the world's people. 
• In speak and action, he appears to incite greater racial, gender, culture, and religious prejudice--he does little to honor our country's wonderful diversity and the opportunity to uplift every person of every group. 

It seems that Trump thinks of the presidency as a marketing game, one where he can use short sound and sight-bites to appeal to his constituents to win the vote and fill his coffers with money and affection. He says whatever he wants when he wants to win favor with just enough people to forward his agenda. He doesn't appear to value the truth, but instead values any words or actions that will result in what he wants when he wants it. 

He appears to choose to back world leaders whom he feels will serve him best--leaders that he's beholding to and leaders whom he can potentially make deals with related to cheap labor, substantial resources, military power, and his own personal wealth. He apparently does not value human rights as witnessed by how he manages his time, talk, affiliations, and energy--when it comes to everyday people, it seems that Donald Trump believes in survival of the fittest--if you can't save yourself, then too bad for you. We see this with his inhumane response in Charlottesville, his lack of concern for poor immigrant parents and their children, the way he turns a blind eye to issues of gun violence, his lack of interest in the country's public schools, his little concern for the health needs of people, and his complete lack of care for our environment when we know that at the root of all big issues today is the need for clean air, clean soil, and clean water.

It is a scary time in the United States. No matter who was president in my life before, I never felt like we had a leader who would sell out the American people and American ideals for his own gain and fame, but now we have a man who sits as President of the United States who puts self before country and almost before anything or anyone else--he doesn't even serve well for his own children and grandchildren with the policies he promotes--policies that will leave the world's children and grandchildren with a more divided, violent, and polluted world if we don't make change sooner than later.

What can we do to change this?

1. Speak up as much as you can to as many as you can--have those conversations, call your political leaders, and don't relent--we can't let this man and his foolish, self serving cronies ruin the good work that has been done in this country, and we can't let this man waste our time when it comes to the good work we still need to do. President Trump only cares about himself, a few cronies, and perhaps a couple of other world leaders--don't be fooled by his speak and grandstanding--he appears to be nothing more than a self-serving crook.
2. Encourage political leaders to begin the impeachment process now--it appears that his words on the world stage yesterday demonstrated treasonous behavior so now we have the proof that this president is not obeying the oath of the presidency and should be impeached. 
3. Work to get out the vote. Plan to vote. Do the research. Put the voting dates on your calendar. Research the candidates. Offer to drive friends and neighbors to the polls and vote for candidates who will work to make a good life for you and the people in your community.
4. Be aware of cybercrime and protect yourself against it. 
5. Go to the polls with others and have your phones ready to videotape any injustice you may face.
6. Make time every week to contribute to our country in ways that matter--a free and democratic country for the people by the people demands that people get involved.
7. Learn about environmental issues and work to protect the environment. One reason that the immigration crisis looms is the fact that our natural resources around the world are compromised. We can't let this continue--many in our own country (Flint) and elsewhere suffer because of this.
8. Support proactive efforts to work with our allies around the world to promote peace and the solutions to the grave world problems that exist. Don't be fooled into thinking that the only way we can solve world problems is through criminal, violent, and aggressive behaviors--we can work with each other in peace to make promising change. 

This morning I'll make a plan for myself, a plan that has dates and times and specific actions to work for the kind of country our forefathers envisioned, a country that helps people to live the good lives possible.

Everyone Has To Do Their Part: Support Our Democracy

I do think Trump's election to the United States Presidency demonstrated that many Americans were asleep at the wheel when it came to our democracy. People were going along with their busy daily routines content with sound-bite news and causal commentary secure that our country would move along as it has for many years with general respect for all and continued forward movement to make things better. Then Trump won and woke us all up.

Now I know there are some that are a bit resentful of this wake-up analogy, particularly some who have been fighting for a better America for good reason for a long, long time without the kind of change that's possible--good change that truly uplifts lives. Living through Trump times has awakened my empathy for so many who have been advocating with deep commitment and care for so long against racism, inequity, lack of support, prejudice against women and more. There have been so many Americans over time who have worked tirelessly to make good change in our country, and while that change was not easy to make, that work did uplift the lives of so many in ways that matter. For myself laws that led to wage equity for men and women, equity with sports funding and activities, special education services for children who need them, and protecting and saving natural lands and resources have dramatically and positively affected my life.

What's most challenging about Trump is that he apparently doesn't care about our American ideal to make things better and uplift lives for all. His efforts appear to demean everyday people and people who disagree with him while supporting his own personal wealth, power, and ego. He does what he wants and doesn't listen to anyone else, and he tosses decades of good diplomatic policies and efforts aside to collaborate with whomever he wants to collaborate with with no care for what other political leaders believe. Further he decries our long held institutions including the justice department and on the world stage demeans our country. The only ideals he stands for that I support are improving the infrastructure of the country, yet he doesn't want to do it the way I would do it which is with modern technology and new ideas, environmentally-friendly infrastructure improvement.

You could work around the clock to research and work against the Trump presidency, but we have families to care for, work to do, and other pursuits to focus on. That's why everyone has to carve aside some time to join groups that will work for positive change in our country. I hope that when Trump is gone, we can say that he was an overcorrection, a President that demonstrated how not to do the job and how not to think or talk about our country--he was a President that woke us up from too much complacency and helped us to realize that we could not let a dangerous and destructive individual like Trump lead our country again. I also hope that it will foster our need to update the laws that support the integration of the three branches of government so no branch has too much power. In my opinion we have to lessen the individual power of the Presidency at this time as Trump has demonstrated that individual power with a self serving, uncaring, and potentially criminal President can ruin our country. I don't think anyone suspected we would have such a President--a man who cares little about our American ideals and future.

So what will your part be? What will you do? How many hours a week will you contribute to your responsibility as a citizen, and what does this matter? Everyone has to do their part--democracy costs time and attention, it's not a government you sustain for free.