June 30, 2020

Email from Amy McGrath

I'm humbled that Kentucky Democrats have nominated me to take on Mitch McConnell in November, and I can't wait to get started in sending him into retirement.
Let me start by thanking you, (and each and every person who helped build this campaign). Without supporters like you, we wouldn’t be heading into the general election ready to give Mitch the fight of his political life.
I also want to thank every candidate who stepped up to run in this race. Running for office is not an easy task, and it requires a lot of commitment and sacrifice. You are all patriots.
Like so many Kentuckians, I was and am inspired by the powerful movement Charles Booker built toward the causes of defeating Mitch McConnell and fighting systemic racism and injustice in our country. He tapped into and amplified the energy and anger of so many who are fed up with the status quo and are rightfully demanding long-overdue action and accountability from our government and institutions.
And I commend Mike Broihier, who has served his country and his commonwealth in so many ways—as a Marine, a farmer, a teacher and a candidate who was dedicated to representing each and every Kentuckian.
I am proud to have been in this race with these candidates. I look forward to seeking their help, guidance, and advice for the bigger fight ahead of us.
The issues our primary election focused on aren’t going away. Our system isn’t working for everyday Kentuckians, and we need elected officials who have the courage to meaningfully tackle the legal, educational, and health inequities that continue to prevent true racial and socio-economic equality in our country.
That’s the kind of senator I intend to be.
As a woman in the military, I learned quickly that I’d have to repeatedly fight the establishment during my 20-year career. No one will ever need to convince me how urgently our state and country need equal pay and equal justice, affordable health care for all, action to protect our voting rights, and an end to the corrosive grip that corporate special interests have on our federal government.
That work starts by removing Mitch McConnell from office. And I’ll be honest: doing so was never going to be an easy task. The only way we can overcome the odds is by coming together to build something bigger than just one candidate. That’s why I will work hard to earn the trust and support of as many Kentuckians as I can, including those who voted for someone else in last week’s primary.
There is far too much at stake, and it’s on all of us to fight for it. Mitch McConnell has destroyed our institutions for far too long, and he’ll keep on doing it as long as Kentucky voters let him.
Remember this: Last November, Kentuckians didn’t hesitate to replace an incompetent and unpopular incumbent Republican. This November, we’re going to do it one more time.

June 30, 2020

97-year-old vet dances while socially distancing

June 26, 2020

Problems with setting up new Apple I-phone

Jeez! Give me my Android any day.

Mr. Bayard was shipped a new Apple I-phone for his new job. I'm supposed to set it up for him. I have never had an Apple product. Been working on it all day and its making me kind of crazy.

I've finally gotten to the screen where its wanting my wifi password. Problem? I put the passwords for everything into the Memos on my android phone. It wiped out all those files last weekend. I've tried a couple different recovery websites now, and nada.

Any help, my technological friends?

June 22, 2020

3D Printed Implants Could Help Patients with Bone Cancer

June 19, 2020

Our love was colour blind... but our families weren't

Deeply moving, and exposing tensions that still blight Britain today, mixed-race couples from four generations tell their stories.

Mary, 81, is married to Jake, 86, and lives in Solihull in the West Midlands. They have no children. Mary is a former deputy head teacher, and Jake worked for the post office before retiring. Mary is white and Jake is black, originally from Trinidad.
MARY SAYS: When I told my father I was going to marry Jake he said, ‘If you marry that man you will never set foot in this house again.’
He was horrified that I could contemplate marrying a black man, and I soon learned that most people felt the same way. The first years of our marriage living in Birmingham were hell — I cried every day, and barely ate. No one would speak to us, we couldn’t find anywhere to live because no one would rent to a black man, and we had no money.

People would point at us in the street. Then I gave birth to a stillborn son at eight months. It wasn’t related to the stress I was under but it broke my heart, and we never had any more children.
Now it’s very hard to comprehend the prejudice we encountered, but you have to remember that there were hardly any black people in Britain in the Forties. I met Jake when he came over during the war from Trinidad, as part of the American forces stationed at the Burtonwood base near my home in Lancashire. We were at the same technical college. I was having typing and shorthand lessons and he’d been sent there for training by the Air Force. He was with a group of black friends and they called my friend and me over to talk. We didn’t even know they spoke English, but Jake and I got chatting. He quoted Shakespeare to me, which I loved.

A few weeks later we went for a picnic, but were spotted by a lady cycling past — two English girls with a group of black men was very shocking — and she reported me to my father, who banned me from seeing him again.

Jake returned to Trinidad, but we carried on writing to each other, and a few years later he returned to the UK to get better paid work.

He asked me to marry him, quite out of the blue, when I was only 19. My father threw me out, and I left with only one small suitcase to my name. No family came to our register office wedding in 1948.

But gradually life became easier. I got teaching jobs, ending up as a deputy head teacher. First Jake worked in a factory, then for the Post Office.
Slowly we made friends together, but it was so hard. I used to say to new friends: ‘Look, I have to tell you this before I invite you to my home — my husband is black.’

My father died when I was 30 and although we were reconciled by then, he never did approve of Jake.
Today we have been married for 63 years, and are still very much in love. I But gradually life became easier. I got teaching jobs, ending up as a deputy head teacher. First Jake worked in a factory, then for the Post Office.
Slowly we made friends together, but it was so hard. I used to say to new friends: ‘Look, I have to tell you this before I invite you to my home — my husband is black.’

My father died when I was 30 and although we were reconciled by then, he never did approve of Jake.
Today we have been married for 63 years, and are still very much in love.

Other stories and photos at:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2045815/Our-love-colour-blind--families-werent-Mixed-race-couples-generations-tell-stories.html

June 19, 2020

Baby Monkey Saves Baby Chicken

June 11, 2020

Dogs pee in toilets

(although he didn't lift the seat!)

And epic fail.....

June 9, 2020

This 'Mister Rogers' moment broke race barriers.

The scene aired amid racial tensions in the U.S. over segregated swimming pools, and many see it as Rogers taking a stand against racism.

Mr. Rogers is known for the kindness he displayed on his kids' show, "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," which aired from 1968 to 2001. Today, his messages are just as powerful as people across the world protest racial injustice in the wake of George Floyd's death in Minneapolis police custody.

Two scenes in particular — one aired in 1969 and the other in 1993, according to NPR — have stood out to social media users who've been sharing them on Twitter and Instagram. Both scenes show Rogers, who died in 2003, and Officer Clemmons, played by black actor François Clemmons, placing their feet in a wading pool together.

The first scene aired amid civil unrest over pool segregation policies in the U.S., and many perceive it as Rogers taking a stand against racism. The same year it aired, the Supreme Court ruled that pools could not be segregated by race, according to The New York Times.

In the scene, Rogers is spraying his feet in a wading pool when Officer Clemmons stops by, and Rogers asks him to join. Clemmons initially responds that he doesn't have a towel, and Rogers offers to share his.

Twenty-four years later, in the pair's last episode together per NPR, the show broadcast a similar moment. Rogers tells Clemmons that he's soaking his feet because they're tired and asks if Clemmons would like to try. "Sure!" Clemmons responds.

Clemmons discussed these striking clips in the 2018 documentary about the show, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?", and while promoting his memoir published in May this year.

"They didn't want black people to come and swim in their swimming pools, and Fred said, 'That is absolutely ridiculous,'" Clemmons recalled in the documentary.

In an interview with public radio outlet WBUR last month, Clemmons said he initially thought the 1969 scene was "kind of light" because he was expecting it to involve Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated the year prior, or even the president at the time, Lyndon B. Johnson.

Martin Luther King III discusses protests, injustice and finding a way forward
JUNE 1, 202006:46
Explaining how Rogers offered him a seat and a towel, Clemmons told WBUR, "My God, those were powerful words. It was transformative to sit there with him, thinking to myself, 'Oh, something wonderful is happening here. This is not what it looks like. It's much bigger.'"

He continued: "Many people, as I've traveled around the country, share with me what that particular moment meant to them because he was telling them, 'You cannot be a racist.' And one guy ... I'll never forget, said to me, ‘When that program came on, we were actually discussing the fact that black people were inferior. And Mister Rogers cut right through it.' ... He said essentially that scene ended that argument."

Social media users all over are agreeing with this notion. Actress Brittany Snow shared a photo of the 1993 scene and its historical background in her caption. "Disagreeing with Mr. Rogers is like hating puppies, laughing & calorie free ice cream," she quipped.

"Mr. Rogers ... (broke) the color barrier live on television," tweeted a third.

Clemmons, now 75, has also spoken openly about what it was like to portray a cop as a black man — and how the pool scenes actually comforted him.

In a February 2018 interview with StoryCorps, he recalled that Rogers' suggestion he become Officer Clemmons "stopped me in my tracks."

"I grew up in the ghetto, and I did not have a positive opinion of police officers," he said. "Policemen were siccing dogs and water hoses on people, and I really had a hard time putting myself in that role. I was not excited about being Officer Clemmons at all."

But Clemmons believes the pool scene made "a very strong statement" by showing his "brown skin in the tub with (Rogers') white skin as two friends," he said.

"I still was not convinced that Officer Clemmons could have a positive influence in the neighborhood and the real world neighborhood," he added. "But I think I was proven wrong."

https://www.today.com/popculture/how-mister-rogers-pool-moment-broke-race-barriers-t183635

June 4, 2020

Yikes! Snapping Turtle!

Found this guy in one of our goat pens this morning. Snapping turtles are like little alligators--bite first, and no questions later. They don't even bother to pull their heads in their shells. He was at least 12 inches across. My brother had one almost rip his kneecap off years ago when he tried to pick it up by its tail.

I came out later, and didn't see him. I hope he didn't head to our pond, or we could be missing some ducks. I definitely don't want the dogs getting their nosey noses torn off.

June 4, 2020

Lincoln, NE police dance with protesters

Protesting for reform. Bring everyone together and dance.