March 20, 2026

Requesting permission to share our story from the daughter of a 2nd Lieutenant who volunteered for duty in Vietnam in 68

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221107654

Since I wrote it, I think the 4 paragraph rule is not in force.

All errors or incorrect use of terminology is my own. This is true.

I can't think of a better place to share it than here, but I understand this forum is for veterans, not for families of; I will remove immediately it if you folks feel I've put it in the wrong forum.

And thank you for all you've given the United States. Always.
-
In 1969 a young 2nd Lieutenant who'd volunteered to serve, recruited for special forces, posted to the tri-border

region of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos arrived in the Central Highlands village where he was to spend the next year. He was embedded with a Jarais tribe of Montagnards.

In the orientation materials and reports allegedly written by his predesessors, provided to him by the US Army, he anticipated arriving at a village that had the following:

A well-built school fully equipped with desks and chalkboards, made of concrete, fully staffed with an administration including a principal, teachers, and maintenance workers. These posts were all on payroll and were paid every month. Those people did not exist.

A complete clinic with medics (Bouxi,) an administration and maintenance workers also all on payroll every month, also did not exist.

Wells made of concrete, without regard to the fact that Montagnards will only drink running water such as that in a stream. They are animist people. They will never drink standing water as would be found in the well. That “well” functionally did not exist anyway, as it was made with such inferior cement, overmixed with sand to steal every possible penny, that it was crumbling. The Jarais used it as a place to throw rubbish.

At least the well existed. The “schools” and “clinic” were vaporware. The paychecks though- those were real. That money was going somewhere, for sure.

When he reported these details of what he had found on the ground to his 'superiors' in Da Nang in the cool comfort of their air conditioned offices, he expected that they too would be alarmed at the corruption.

Guess what?

They not want to hear about it. Worse, if he said anything further about it to them or anybody, he would be punished- very severely. To show him they meant business, they no longer allowed him any money at all. He could only survive on what he could catch and kill himself or trade for, fully independent of any support from the US Army. (I don't understand why he didn't arrange to reduce the money he sent home to my mother for our support, but maybe the answer is in the question.)

Can you just try to imagine that for a moment?

Just a few months ago you were the head of the marketing department at a bank in your hometown. You volunteered to serve your country, thinking you were doing the right thing. You grew up looking up to the Hawaii 442nd like they saved the world, which they did. You left your family and arrived to discover that you're in the middle of a major corruption racket. And now the Army that you loved wasn’t even going to pay you your money for food, much less provide any meaningful material support to the villagers. And you are in the middle of a war, essentially cut adrift, getting shot at and worse by the VC, who were now secondary to the threat posed by our own government.

How’s that for some bullshit?

Had did it not been for a network of people he knew if from where he grew up, he questioned whether he would have even survived.

That the immense gift of his sacrifice and service was so abused for nothing was only part of what broke his heart there. To summarize, we were to adopt 12 year old Jarais boy, Jaol. His father, the village chieftain, had been beheaded as he would not force the subsistence farming villagers to instead collect sticks and make coal for the VC.

Jaol became attached to my father. My father sought Jaol's mother's agreement to adopt him and bring him home to the US, to our family. She wanted him to come to the US with Dad. My Mom agreed to this; we were looking forward to welcoming him as a brother, though I knew nothing of this yet.

Jaol did not survive. There are other things to say about this that I don't feel like sharing.

Back to the disgusting corruption:you know it has not gotten any better.

All of this is a disgrace at a scale I cannot even comprehend, and here we are all over again, blowing people up with our tax money. It makes me want to vomit all day.

I am still so deeply angry for what happened to my beautiful, smart, funny and heroic father. (I am told I am one to always look for the silver lining, so, silver lining here: Donald Jessica Trump was sidelined by his dreadful case of bone spurs, so at least there was no chance he was assigned to my father. Because my Dad would very likely have liberated some of DJT's teeth.

Back to Dad's true story. We only learned of all this after he passed from his written documentation to the VA. He had quit the army days before he would’ve been eligible for his pension. He had had it.

Assholes in suits from the CIA kept showing up at our front door trying to recruit him over the years. He told them very clearly to fuck off. He was a tall, imposing physical presence, and a very bright man with a huge heart who loved his country. When he told them to fuck off, they scuttled off quick.

It’s way past time for us to change, people. For real for real. I don’t want this to happen to anybody's Dad or Mom or sibling from anywhere in the US. And I can not tolerate the cruel indifferent mass violence on people who didn't do anything to us! All those kids! My God in heaven!

This bullshit has GOT to STOP!

March 19, 2026

In 1969 a young second Lieutenant who had volunteered to serve in the special forces in the tri-border region of Viet-

nam arrived in the Central Highlands village where he was to spend the next year embedded with a Jarais tribe of Montagnards.

In the orientation materials and reports allegedly written by his predesessors, provided to him by the US Army, he anticipated arriving at a village that had the following:
A well built school equipt with desks, chalkboards, made of concrete, fully staffed with an administration including a principal, teachers, and maintenance workers. These posts were all on payroll every month.

A complete clinic with medics (Bouxi,) an administration and maintenance workers also all on payroll every month,

Wells made of cement, without regard to the fact that Montagnards will only drink running water such as that in a stream. Thete are animist people. They will never drink standing water as would be found in the wellbut that functionally did not exist anyway, as it was made with such inferior cement, overmixed with sand to steal every possible penny, that it was crumbling.

When he reported to his superiors in Da Nang in the cool comfort of their air conditioned offices what he had found on the ground, he expected that they too would be alarmed at the corruption. guess what? They not want to hear about it. Worse, if he said anything else about it to anybody he would be punished- and I mean very severely. To show him that they meant business, they no longer allowed him any money at all. He could only survive on what he could catch and kill himself or trade for, 100% independently of any support from the US Army.

Can you just imagine that for a moment? Just a few months ago you were the head of the marketing department at a bank in your hometown. You volunteered your ass in there, thinking you were doing the right thing you got there and you found out that you were in the middle of a giant corruption racket. And now the army wasn’t even hoing to give you money to be fed, much less provide any meaningful material support to the villagers.

How’s that for some bullshit?

Had did it not been for a network of people he knew if from where he grew up, he doesn’t think he would’ve lived.

That the immense gift of his sacrifice and service was so grossly abused for nothing was only part of what broke his heart there.

You know it has not gotten any better.

It’s a disgrace on a scale I cannot even comprehend, and here we are all over again, blowing people up with our tax money. It makes me want to vomit all day.
I am still angry for what happened to my beautiful father. I only found out after he passed from his written documentation to the VA. He had quit the army days before he would’ve been eligible for his pension. He had just absolutely had it.

Assholes from the CIA kept showing up at our front door, trying to recruit him, and he told them to fuck off. He was a very tall, very imposing and very intelligent man who had a huge heart and who loved his country.

I think it’s time for us to change, people. For real for real.

March 13, 2026

That would have to be us.

I'm not trying to be snarky. Ainʻt nobody coming to save us. We voted for this shit -rather, 70,000 people who voted for that man and the
90 million who could've voted, but chose not to do so, made the difference. when asked why they dodʻt vote, the most frequent reason cited was that nobody was talking about their issues. Not affordability- poverty! ( Rev Dr William James Barber, 3.2026, Honolulu, Hawaii.)

I don't expect funded effort to reduce our voting rights. voting will be any easier this time of course. I am aware of the concentrated focused and well- But it is up to each of us, one on one. One awkward, often long-avoided conversation at a time. (Or maybe several sequential convos,) thoughtfully, with love, solid message plan, unifying, a moral fusion in Rev Dr William James Barberʻs words, to help them see that:
Veterans,
Our people currently serving their country in uniform,
Black folks,
Brown folks,
Women,
Minorities of all origins,
Poor folks,
People of other faiths than fundamentalist Christians including progressive Christians, Muslims, Hinu, Sikh folks, atheists, all other beliefs and those who choose none,
Scientists,
Public health professionals whose jobs are cut or under threat,
People who would like their kids and grandkids to grow up in an apocalyptic dystopia,
People who would like not to sell our hope for a livable climate for the benefit of that manʻs family, friends and the fossil fuel industry,
Medicaid enrollees,
Medicare enrollees by and by probably because where else will the immense tax cuts for billionaires come from?
Students who want to be able to get an education without mortgaging their their futures,
Including future doctors and nurses,
Current medical workers,
and so many other groups experiencing gross unconstitutional and illegal injustice!
People who would like to have medical care in the future, need to join in common cause!

We need to understand and figure out how to help those non-voters see the value in not being passive perfectionists, waiting for the perfect candidate this go round. Not saying this is anywhere your message but we must understand that telling people they are stupid and wrong, that will not persuade anyone of anything. We must offer better.

We must not be defined by those who would take our rights. We alone define ourselves. We will not be divided.

Aloha!

December 28, 2025

This message was self-deleted by its author

This message was self-deleted by its author (mahina) on Sun Dec 28, 2025, 08:43 AM.

August 17, 2024

How to avoid tons of pilikia (trouble) when a loved one passes. I am filling this book out now for my family; I'm well.

Wait, Don't Die Yet by Annette Kam, a complete guide to all the things nobody wants to think about but everyone needs to before, during and after a loved one passes is a very useful book, also available for free as a pdf. (Because Annette has real aloha spirit. I consider her a friend in real 3D life.)

My family can spend weeks together happily and have, but nobody feels like it's a good idea to ask Mom how she has things organized in her will, or ask my beautiful Auntie what it feels like to be 93, how she thinks about mortality, if she might consider leaving my great Auntie's house, (that went to my Uncle after Great Auntie passed), to family members when she passes?

Because it's none of our damn business* what she does with it, it belongs to her, and she can do with it exactly what she pleases! It just would be so nice if it went to the next generation after me as housing in Honolulu seems impossible for the young folks...but yeah, nobody can ask.

(There's a program here that helps family members talk about these things if they want to through the Mediation Center of the Pacific. Perhaps there is something like it there).

I heartily support finding a good estate attorney.

But also I must suggest reading my friend's book, "Wait, Don't Die Yet" by Annette Kam. She has made it available for free in a downloadable pdf or it's available in bookstores including Planet Bezos (Amazon). Not just who do you want your pet to go to but who is the veterinarian? What do all these keys go to? Is there a safety deposit box, and if so, where is the key? What accounts and loans exist? What are the monthly bills, how do you pay them, what is your email password, bank account numbers...or if there are documents for any investments and accounts putting them in a trust, need to know that they are in the name of the trust so that the assets transfer directly to the beneficiary upon death or incapacity of the owner. Many other things without which
a) peoples' assets are tied up in probate, costing @30-50%+ of the value, and b) upon passing or incapacity of the owner, bills start racking up and they need to be paid while things get sorted out. I want to clear all the landmines for my eventual survivors.


Full of incredibly useful information that has proved invaluable for many.

Here's Annette on our TV news

Longer, recent, just 6 mos ago at a Buddhist temple with slides Annette starts about 20 minutes in. She speaks at Rotary meetings, churches, Hongwanjis, any kine community meetings. ?si=cqXSnZd04e-Zfu4t

I adore her. I bought the book and downloaded the pdf. She is such a lovely and warm person. The best of us. So generous to share this with an open heart, real aloha.

Of course then I think how smart is it to have a book containing all my dang passwords and account numbers in my house

But my plan is to wrap it in brown paper and write something like

HOA Board Meeting Minutes 1998
or
Accounting 101

or ? on the spine

Good luck, aloha!

(I decided to make this an op after Deuxcents found it useful in comments in another thread. I'll crosspost later...probably





*tm Tim Walz

January 21, 2024

Aloha Mississippi DUers. Our newspaper, The Honolulu Star Advertiser, is likely being acquired by Carpenter Media Group.

What can you tell me about them?

What publications do they operate? What editorial and operational bent do you discern, if any? If they prevail, are we likely to see real journalism or a right wing media push?

Thank you for your kind responses.
https://www.civilbeat.org/2024/01/mississippi-publisher-looks-to-buy-struggling-star-advertiser-and-other-hawaii-papers/

Mississippi Publisher Looks To Buy Struggling Star-Advertiser And Other Hawaii Papers
31
Media mogul David Black, who merged Honolulu's two daily newspapers, has filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada.

By Stewart Yerton / January 17, 2024
Reading time: 6 minutes.

When David Black acquired the Akron Beacon Journal for $165 million in 2006, it seemed like a big win for the Canadian newspaper mogul who several years before had bought the Honolulu Star-Bulletin – and who would buy The Honolulu Advertiser and merge the two Honolulu papers in 2010.

Black was coming off failed bids for two Philadelphia newspapers at the time of the Akron deal and told long-time media columnist Jim Romenesko, “I wasn’t going to lose a third time.”

Two decades later, the Akron deal looks like anything but a win.

Black’s media empire is in financial shambles, insolvent and for sale, with a publisher who lives in Natchez, Mississippi, making the first, “stalking horse,” bid. Black announced his retirement from the company this week as well.

As described in documents filed under Canada’s equivalent of U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring, the Akron deal played a big role in Black’s financial troubles.

The result for Hawaii is a likely new owner for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the state’s largest newspaper, as well as The Garden Island on Kauai, The Hawaii Tribune Herald, West Hawaii Today and Midweek.

In a news release, Black Press Ltd. said it had entered into a proposed sale to Black’s debt holders and Carpenter Media Group, which owns more than two dozen small town newspapers in the South, including publications like the L’Observateur of LaPlace, Louisiana, and the Batesville, Mississippi, Panolian.

Carpenter has proposed to put up $7 million in cash and note holders $7 million in debt to buy Black’s entire empire, which also includes three newspapers in Alaska and 35 newspapers and websites in Washington, according to documents filed in the Canadian court proceeding. Black also has secured up to $5.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing from Canso Investment Counsel Ltd. to fund operations while the restructuring is worked out.

Black’s Demise Tracked Fall Of Print Newspapers

Black Press Ltd. lays out a familiar narrative in its petition to the court. For years, Black’s newspapers — like many others in the U.S. — generated consistent revenue and profits, the documents says.

“In the past decade, however, the newspaper and publishing industry has been negatively affected by digital transformation and consolidation pressures,” Black Press wrote.

The company’s print newspapers were losing readers “on account of the shift in the way readers obtain their news,” Black told the court.

The company’s revenues were further battered by “the dramatic decline in advertising revenue caused by the loss of small retailers in the communities the Company’s newspapers serve.”

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the problems.

The company highlighted the $165 million Akron Beacon Journal purchase as a particular source of pain.

“Beacon lost money every year following the acquisition,” the document says.

To cut its losses, Black sold the paper for $16 million in 2018. But that wasn’t the end of the bleeding. Black Press remained saddled with some $45 million in pension plan liabilities for its Akron workers.

The company took steps to fix its financial problems. Since 2016, it sold real estate holdings worth more than $45 million and cut $30 million in annual costs throughout the chain. For instance, in Hawaii in March 2019, the company, through its subsidiary Oahu Publications Inc., entered into a sales and leaseback transaction on its Kapolei printing press facility for $38.9 million, resulting in an $8 million gain on sale, according to the court filing.

But none of this was enough to enable Black to pay its bills, court documents say.

In Hawaii, those expenses included a weekly payroll of $405,000 — about $21 million a year — for 272 employees.

According to the court filing, Black’s Hawaii subsidiary also was spending $286,322 per month to lease back the print facility that it sold and $141,964 for space for its offices at Waterfront Plaza. In addition, the company was paying for two condos in Honolulu: a studio at the Island Colony in Waikiki for $1,600 per month and a two-bedroom, two-bath condo at the luxe Hokua high-rise in Kakaako for $5,800 per month. The condos are listed in the court filing as “office for publication.”

Eventually, to avoid restructuring, Black hired a firm that specializes in newspaper deals, but that “did not result in a viable bid for any portion of the Company or its assets,” Black said.

Union Leaders: Star-Advertiser Newsroom Morale Is Low

It’s not clear where this leaves Black’s Hawaii publications and its employees.

Carpenter Media’s chairman, Todd Carpenter, is a capable publisher with a good track record, said Ken Stickney, a long-time editor in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.


Business
Mississippi Publisher Looks To Buy Struggling Star-Advertiser And Other Hawaii Papers
31
Media mogul David Black, who merged Honolulu's two daily newspapers, has filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada.

By Stewart Yerton / January 17, 2024
Reading time: 6 minutes.

When David Black acquired the Akron Beacon Journal for $165 million in 2006, it seemed like a big win for the Canadian newspaper mogul who several years before had bought the Honolulu Star-Bulletin – and who would buy The Honolulu Advertiser and merge the two Honolulu papers in 2010.

Black was coming off failed bids for two Philadelphia newspapers at the time of the Akron deal and told long-time media columnist Jim Romenesko, “I wasn’t going to lose a third time.”

Two decades later, the Akron deal looks like anything but a win.

Black’s media empire is in financial shambles, insolvent and for sale, with a publisher who lives in Natchez, Mississippi, making the first, “stalking horse,” bid. Black announced his retirement from the company this week as well.

Star Advertiser newspaper office Restaurant Row. 27 may 2016
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s owner has filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2016)
As described in documents filed under Canada’s equivalent of U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring, the Akron deal played a big role in Black’s financial troubles.

The result for Hawaii is a likely new owner for the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the state’s largest newspaper, as well as The Garden Island on Kauai, The Hawaii Tribune Herald, West Hawaii Today and Midweek.

In a news release, Black Press Ltd. said it had entered into a proposed sale to Black’s debt holders and Carpenter Media Group, which owns more than two dozen small town newspapers in the South, including publications like the L’Observateur of LaPlace, Louisiana, and the Batesville, Mississippi, Panolian.

Carpenter has proposed to put up $7 million in cash and note holders $7 million in debt to buy Black’s entire empire, which also includes three newspapers in Alaska and 35 newspapers and websites in Washington, according to documents filed in the Canadian court proceeding. Black also has secured up to $5.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing from Canso Investment Counsel Ltd. to fund operations while the restructuring is worked out.

Black’s Demise Tracked Fall Of Print Newspapers

Black Press Ltd. lays out a familiar narrative in its petition to the court. For years, Black’s newspapers — like many others in the U.S. — generated consistent revenue and profits, the documents says.

“In the past decade, however, the newspaper and publishing industry has been negatively affected by digital transformation and consolidation pressures,” Black Press wrote.

The company’s print newspapers were losing readers “on account of the shift in the way readers obtain their news,” Black told the court.

The company’s revenues were further battered by “the dramatic decline in advertising revenue caused by the loss of small retailers in the communities the Company’s newspapers serve.”

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated the problems.

The company highlighted the $165 million Akron Beacon Journal purchase as a particular source of pain.

“Beacon lost money every year following the acquisition,” the document says.

To cut its losses, Black sold the paper for $16 million in 2018. But that wasn’t the end of the bleeding. Black Press remained saddled with some $45 million in pension plan liabilities for its Akron workers.

The company took steps to fix its financial problems. Since 2016, it sold real estate holdings worth more than $45 million and cut $30 million in annual costs throughout the chain. For instance, in Hawaii in March 2019, the company, through its subsidiary Oahu Publications Inc., entered into a sales and leaseback transaction on its Kapolei printing press facility for $38.9 million, resulting in an $8 million gain on sale, according to the court filing.

But none of this was enough to enable Black to pay its bills, court documents say.

In Hawaii, those expenses included a weekly payroll of $405,000 — about $21 million a year — for 272 employees.

According to the court filing, Black’s Hawaii subsidiary also was spending $286,322 per month to lease back the print facility that it sold and $141,964 for space for its offices at Waterfront Plaza. In addition, the company was paying for two condos in Honolulu: a studio at the Island Colony in Waikiki for $1,600 per month and a two-bedroom, two-bath condo at the luxe Hokua high-rise in Kakaako for $5,800 per month. The condos are listed in the court filing as “office for publication.”

Eventually, to avoid restructuring, Black hired a firm that specializes in newspaper deals, but that “did not result in a viable bid for any portion of the Company or its assets,” Black said.

Union Leaders: Star-Advertiser Newsroom Morale Is Low

It’s not clear where this leaves Black’s Hawaii publications and its employees.

Carpenter Media’s chairman, Todd Carpenter, is a capable publisher with a good track record, said Ken Stickney, a long-time editor in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

Star Advertiser staffers Rob Perez, left and right, Bryant Fukutomi hold signs Save Hawaii News outside the Honolulu Star Advertiser offices.
Star Advertiser staffers rallied in 2017 to “Save Hawaii News.” The newspaper company has been suffering financial losses for years. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2017)
“If he buys it, he thinks he’s got a way to make it work,” said Stickney, who worked for Carpenter as editor of The Port Arthur News in Texas from 2017 to 2019.

Carpenter did not respond to requests for comment.

Current employees aren’t convinced. In a press release issued on Monday, the Star-Advertiser union noted that news of the pending sale, which has been widely rumored for months, came just days after the newspaper announced it was laying off four newsroom employees, including longtime photographer Cindy Ellen Russell.

“These losses and the continued lack of transparency have deeply hurt newsroom morale,” the release said.

In an interview, Kevin Knodell, a staff writer who serves as the paper’s union unit chair, said the staff has been especially frustrated the paper’s publisher, Dennis Francis, has refused to communicate with them except through news releases and letters.

“We’ve never heard directly from Dennis,” he said.

In a letter to Francis signed by more than 40 editorial staffers from the company’s various papers, employees expressed their concern that experienced local journalists would be sidelined and their apprehension over a new owner.

“We deserve to know who these buyers are and what their intentions are for the largest media
organization in Hawaii,” they wrote. “The Honolulu Star-Advertiser is the paper of record for Hawaii, and OPI’s other papers more broadly make up the majority of the newspaper industry for all of the islands. Whoever takes on the company takes on that kuleana. And there has perhaps never been a more critical time to ensure that we maintain well staffed, well resourced newsrooms to serve our communities.”

/
asking forbearance from the 4 paragraph rule because this article contains many one-sentence paragraphs, and we are at very significant risk from the impending change.

January 10, 2024

On persuasion of our friends and fam on the right.

There is no amount of money in the world that can buy enough tv ads between now and Nov 2024 to get this work done.

So we have a responsibility to engage where we have politely ignored radical anti-American thought in prior years, for years, to preserve our own relationships and equilibrium.

I finally found out why it is so hard to to change their minds in the face of so much evidence. Listening to Andrew Huberman's podcast (as I often do,) his guest Dr Conti explained that emotion trumps logic every time. Link at the bottom of post (hint- if the ads bug you, it's better on the podcast, sponsors' messages up front and at the end only.)

One example he gave was that it is irrational to run into a burning building- but if one's loved ones were in the building? People do so all the time.

Anyway.

Dr Conti explained that cognition and emotion fire in completely different parts of the brain. There are a biological bases for the problem we face persuading these people.

So to engage actual thinking when they are deep in the emotion, we have to reach the emotion through thinking. I'm not explaining this really well...when time allows I may find the transcript and share it here.

The right wing and their apologists are not conservative. There is nothing conservative about trump. He is antidemocratic, authoritarian, anti-conservative, and is trying to burn down the treasure of democracy that our family bled for over 248 years. We are now tasked with the granular and tedious work of raising questions in the minds of our fam and friends, one by one, causing them to think through some of what they think they know.


Here is a good start...
https://thebigtruthbook.com

?si=HUFz30J-6QoC0hVY
?si=CbGEN8sgYFnO9L-k

With love. Always with love.If not love, then with kindness, and always with a vision of reconciliation and grace in mind.

Wishing you courage and aloha. It's about what is right, not who is right.
?si=CtComxRPYMkxmYiN

May 30, 2023

Who's listening to Dan Pfeiffer's audiobook (or reading) Un-Trumping America:

A Plan to Make America A Democracy Again?

Pod Save America listeners will recognize Dan Pfeiffer as one of the crooked media squad.

He served during Barrack Obama’s first presidential campaign through 6 years in the Oval Office, traveling with the President, as deputy communication head and the top communication aide, often refining and chiming in at critical points. He encouraged Barrack in his instinct to stay on message against the RW and donor /pac pressures.


A phenomenal look back into what we all just went through from the nerve center, and a comprehensive overview into the massive changes that our organizing systems have not caught up with at all.


Also what must be done!

Some things I learned: people who run communications for campaigns usually get a cut of the TV ad buy, so *that’s* why we keep getting solicited for money to run TV commercials when they clearly are not going to reach the majority of 18-35 year old demo that we know we must win.

December 5, 2022

I've always thought that people are basically good mostly everywhere

That when you scratch the surface of Americans you would find we care about children, we care about our neighbors, our communities, we care about kids’ futures - not just our own kids but everybody’s kids.

I always thought our hearts were good and people were kind mostly. I still hold on to that idea.

But it is dinged up more than a bit by the 30% /x of this country on the extreme right. If I ever have to leave the islands I’d always thought I’d find a nice quiet neighborhood in America. Now I’m not so sure.

Is the meanness we are reading about and watching something that you see changing people where you are, or are they still mostly kind?

November 29, 2022

All across this country people who voted Republican their whole lives are trying to figure out

What is next. They are thinking about us and thinking about the nutballs, measuring us v them to figure out where to make their home.

We’ve been told for a really long time there’s no point talking to people who are past persuading. there was a time that that made sense to me too but it doesn’t anymore.

With the head full of lies they’ve been told about us for the last several years and making these decisions with that information largely. One thing you can do to help us is to be kind and hold a space for them. None of us are right all the time. We’ve all made mistakes and almost all of us deserve forgiveness. Try not to rub it in if you can. Try to make space for civil discussion and help them find common ground.

On my part I think it will help me to think about where the wingers went way off the rails as far as our values as Americans. I’ll start there.