2025 Life Logs, Day 42: Book Club, More Prep, Wheels Turning
Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Weather: Mostly Sunny; High Temp 31, Low 26 degrees F
Location: At Home on Lakeview Avenue with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett was the book our book club chose for this month and today was the discussion. When I came home, I put the finishing touches on my Voyage of Windbird presentation for tomorrow. Shadow and I walked this morning and played in the snow this afternoon. I am loving that we have had snow on the ground for a few days. It makes the cold weather worth it.
Tonight when I caught up on the news of the day, I felt just a tad of hope on the political front. After showing protests all over the country and outlining what the House Democrats have said they will do to save the Department of Education, Rachel Maddow said the following:
And so you’ve got direct action. You’ve got legislation threats effectively. You’ve got threats in terms of the political system on Capitol Hill. You’ve got the press being alerted to what is going on. You’ve got Democrats doing everything they can including no business as usual to try and stop it. And no, I don’t know if that will save the Department of Education. And now if this lawsuit will stop Trump and Musk from what they are doing. But I do know that they’ve got public opinion against them on this, too. Right? What Trump and Musk are trying to do to the Education Department, they don’t have the people with them on this. A huge majority of voters in this country, more than 60 percent of the people in this country want the Department of Education not to be eliminated. And so I know that the public is going to fight them on this. I know the Democrats are fighting like heck for it. I know that the courts are standing up against what they’re doing here. And I know that the people are out in the streets in Washington, DC, and all over the country, even in places you wouldn’t expect. Not just for protests. They are coming out in huge numbers for organizing events, to organize everything they can to stop what Trump is doing. And no, I do not know if it will work. But I do know if you don’t do it, they will take all the ground they can. And I do know if they are going to get stopped, it is going to take everything all at once. It’s going to take public opinion. It’s going to take Democrats being smart. It’s going to take organizing in the streets. It’s going to take organizing in clever and unexpected ways. It’s going to take people standing up and saying, “No. We’re not doing this.” And I do know that from ‘Sea to Shining Sea’ Americans are looking like they’re willing to do that. That they are willing to do what it takes to say no. (end quote)
It looks like those slow wheels of democracy are starting to turn.
