72 days out, because I, Andrea Hoxie, a life-long Independent, am compelled to respond to this kind of nonsensical attack on Democrats

    1.     It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that a pre-born human baby is not a human being deserving of protection from killing, and neither is a baby that was born 10 minutes ago if the mother decides she doesn’t want to keep it.

Hoxie says that Democrats don't want to kill babies.  They value life and understand that birth is just the beginning, that children need adequate food and shelter, that children should be nurtured and loved, not warehoused, caged or sold for the pleasure of deviant, pedophiliac micreants or slave labor.

    2. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that  capitalism, which has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and despair worldwide, is evil; but socialism, which has caused the oppression, impoverishment, starvation, and death of hundreds of millions of people over the past century, is the only hope of the future.

Hoxie says that the last three Democratic presidents had to clean up the messes of their Republican predecessors.  Capitalism has not  lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and despair; in recent years it has created more wealth for people who are in need of no more.  It is not evil, but the people who abuse it are.  Capitalism has exported American jobs to foreign countries, putting more people out of work, with the domino effect of foreclosures, evictions, homelessness, and declining health.  

   3.     It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that  the best solution for rioting, looting, arson, and violence in the streets is to defund the police.

Hoxie says that a worthwhile solution for rioting, looting, arson, and violence in the streets is 1) for police to cease their abuses of authority and stop killing people in the streets; 2) keep your white skinfolk from contributing to chaos by deliberately destroying property and starting fires; 3)  divert some funds from police (who should not be outfitted, equipped and armed as soldiers in combat in the first place) and use those funds to deal with issues police should not have to deal with, like social services and mental health.

    4. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that all the gains in the economy under Trump were really caused by Obama, but the worldwide economic crash following China’s unleashing of a pandemic was caused by Trump.

Hoxie says that all the gains in the economy under the Obama administration have been lost under the current administration, not because China unleashed a pandemic, but because the current administration failed to do what could be done to contain it. 

    5.     It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that  Trump has a plan to rig the next election that involves making the Obama Administration remove thousands of mailboxes several years ago. Also, that the Post Office is removing little-used mailboxes in Oregon because the key to Trump’s reelection is for him to win Oregon.

Hoxie says that *45 has a plan(s) to rig the next election just as he did his first.

    6. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that on that [previous] subject, that nobody ever complained about the US Post Office being slow, inefficient, and unreliable until Trump was elected.

Hoxie says that the US Post Office has become even more slow, inefficient, and unreliable because of the removal of sorting equipment, among other measures, that further slow down delivery of mail.

    7. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that  America is an oppressive, racist, white supremacist nation that’s the root of all evil in the world and its culture is inferior to that of other nations, including the many nations where people are willing to risk their lives just for the chance to come to America.

Hoxie says that America has become more of what it used to be:  an oppressive, racist, white supremacist nation, not the root of all evil in the world, but a contributing factor to the birth of terrorist organizations whose initial leaders were used, abused, misused and cast aside by American agencies.  We can be better than that.

    8.     It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that Trump built “cages for children” on the border during the Obama Administration.

Hoxie says that while the fence enclosures were built during the Obama administration, they were for temporary use, not to warehouse children for months, and not to deny parents the right to reclaim their children as has been done in the current administration.  Records will show that the current administration made little attempt to even track children so that they could be reunited with their parents.

    9. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that viruses spread like wildfire at church services, but not at crowded protest rallies for leftwing causes. Also, viruses spread at bars that serve chips, but not at bars that serve sandwiches. Because “science!”

 Hoxie says that the threat of Covid-19 does not discriminate between bars and sacred spaces, and that “opening up the economy” has been detrimental to many.  (The threat of ebola was contained under the Obama administration but allowing our medical and scientific experts to do what they are equpped to do.  Three people died of ebola in the United States.  Compare that to 170,000+ who succumbed to Covid-19.) And because God gave us not only the desire to gather for worship, but a brain that we should not have to check at the door.  So, for many, worship in the “church of the livingroom” is safer and healthier than elbow-to-elbow in a sanctuary.

    10. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that  people with male genitals are women just because they say they are, but people who say that actually having female genitals makes them women are intolerant, transphobic bigots.

Hoxie says that until some people have a family member who is predisposed to deviate from their physiological gender, they treat all such people as “other.”  Those so predisposed are also Americans too.  

    11. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that hospitals must be forced to give gynecological exams to “women” with male genitals, and taxpayers forced to pay for abortions for them.

Hoxie says that from her perspective, abortions are not acceptable measures of birth control, but if an unborn life is not viable and would suffer endlessly, or a mother’s life is in danger, or, God forbid, conception is the result of rape, the decision to abort is between a mother and God.  Hoxie cannot see how taxpayers are okay with paying millions for *45's golf outings but would deny a woman relief under some circumstances.  

    12. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that, again on that subject, that someone born male who developed a muscular masculine physique before deciding he was a girl has no unfair physical advantage in sports over the much smaller teenage girl whose face (s)he is crushing into the wrestling mat.

Hoxie says that the one point on which I agree:  “that someone born male who developed a muscular masculine physique before deciding he was a girl has no unfair physical advantage in sports over the much smaller teenage girl whose face (s)he is crushing into the wrestling mat.” Problem is, I do not believe Democrats believe this.

    13. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that Trump botched the response to COVID-19 by xenophobically shutting down travel from China and crashing the economy with a shutdown, but Democrats would have prevented both the pandemic and the crash by not stopping travel from China and shutting down the economy sooner, harder and longer. Also, it’s absolutely impossible for Trump to keep people from crossing our border, but he could have kept a virus from crossing our border.

Hoxie says that *45 indeed botched the response to COVID-19, not by shutting down travel from China, but by throwing out the pandemic play book left to him by the previous administration (you know, the one that cleaned up the mess of ITS previous administration), by stifling our medical and scientific experts, by pirating medical supplies purchased by organizations and institutions for their own use, by not maintaining our stockpile of supplies and equipment.  Some stuff should be rotated out periodically because over time it looses its efficacy.  It’s called rotating the stock.

    14. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that t an acceptable way to express how much you care about black lives is to burn black neighborhoods, loot black-owned businesses, and tear down statues of abolitionist leaders. Also, that all black lives matter except those of black cops, black Republicans, and black pre-born babies.

Hoxie says that all lives will not matter until Black lives matter, and all looting and burning and destruction are not effectuated by Black people.  As to Black cops, Black Republics, and Black pre-born babies:   Black cops have been beaten by their white co-workers.  Black Republicans who pledge allegiance to *45 are no longer Republicans; they are Trumplicans.  Black pre-born babies, when born, deserve the care as white babies, an idea that is lost on those who care only for their “pre-born” status.

    15. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that t free healthcare is a right, free college is a right, free food is a right, a guaranteed paycheck is a right, and citizenship for illegal immigrants is a right, but free speech and freedom of religion are not rights.

Hoxie says that no human being is illegal, even though said human being may be undocumented.   Nothing is free – not healthcare, college or food.  How they are acquired, however, should not be oppressive.  Other countries have found a way to balance basic needs like healthcare, education and food.  Many of our institutions, especially those Ivy League monstrosities built on the backs of Hoxie's fore parents, are more financial sound than many countries.  There is no such thing is a guaranteed paycheck.  The guarantee should be that people have access to education and training so that they can be responsible citizens and provide for themselves and their families through work for which they are fairly compensated.  Citizenship for undocumented workers who were brought here as children, and who know only this country as home, should not be obstructed by onerous regulations and should not be used as bargaining chips.  Free speech and freedom of religion are rights, AND the rights of each stop where the rights of another start.   Say what you want, and if you incite hate, riotous behavior that puts another in jeopardy, you have gone too far.  Worship whomever and however you want, and don’t try to dictate to others whom and how they should worship.  

    16. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that  the people who presided over the rise of ISIS, the Iraq and Afghan wars, a nuclear Iran and North Korea, and even Iran falling to the Mullahs in the first place, are trusted diplomatic professionals, while the man who crushed ISIS, dealt with Iran and North Korea, and crafted a historic Middle East peace agreement is a dangerous amateur who’s destroying our foreign policy.

Hoxie says that to this day, thee is no such thing as peace in the middle East.  That is as it has been for decades.  And yes, *45 is a dangerous amateur who has all but destroyed our foreign policy. 

    17. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that  disproven rumors are evidence that Trump colluded with Russia to undermine a presidential election, but Democrats paying Russians for disproven rumors and using them as “evidence” to launch a Deep State coup is NOT collusion with Russia to undermine a presidential election.

Hoxie says that now, even some critically thinking Republicans have accepted evidence that *45 colluded with Russia to undermine a presidential election,  There is no Deep State coup being planned.  There is only a deeply deluded, demented  occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, whose swift disposition I pray for daily.

    18. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that  2 + 2 only equals 4 because of white supremacy.

Hoxie says that 2 + 2  equals 4 AND white supremacy is a reality.  One has nothing to do with the other.  Hoxie also says that many white people, bless their little souls, think they’re superior just because they lack melanin.

    19. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that  there are 57 genders but only one acceptable political viewpoint.

Hoxie says that regardless of the number of genders and their variations due to chromosomal differences, hormonal imbalances or whatever, there are lots of political viewpoints.  And then, there is what is the sound, reasonable viewpoint that without a change, the country will get to a point of no return and there will be no redemption.  Politics be damned!  This is NOT the time for us vs. them, red vs. blue, black vs. white, gay vs. straight.  In Hoxie's lifetime, this is the most critical time for people to unite and hold this country before a few misplaced folks at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC, destroy it.

    20. It is said that to be a Democrat today, you have to believe that  burning a flag is protected free speech, but objecting to someone burning a flag is not.

Hoxie says that courts have ruled that burning a flag is protected free speech.  It is objectionable to her, only because of what is supposed  to symbolize, and to many.   It is far more objectionable that men and women who have dedicated their lives, and many who have given their lives, in defense of what the flag is supposed to symbolize, to be treated like they are less than and other, by those who have hidden behind their parents' wealth and dishonest doctors, to escape their duty to serve.

Thank you Mike, whoever the heck you are, for your list that was so offensive and reprehensible that it inspired me to create my own.  

Grieving for the Lost

As a young girl in Houston in the 60s, my exposure to racial unrest was minimal, as the kinds of events that occurred in other southern cities were not as widespread in Houston, Texas. I recall just a couple of years ago, Rev. William Lawson, Pastor Emeritus of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, explaining in a sermon that paralleled the civil rights struggle with the Old Testament struggle of the children of Israel, that there was some kind of negotiated agreement between local Black leaders and others of the paler national about desegregation. I do not recall demonstrations in Houston where people were assaulted with fire hoses or beaten or spat on or killed.

That is not to say there were no racial injustices; there were plenty, but not on the scale of Selma, Birmingham, Little Rock or other places. I can cite instance after instance of my own personal experiences, but this writing is about something so much larger than I; it is about all of us. Still, I have to get personal. Because observations, experiences, feelings and impressions are first personal. What one sees, takes into the mind, and filters through knowledge and past experiences, and, hopefully, objectivity, still has a tinge of "it’s personal." So the accumulation of stuff that one sees, hears and experiences day after day – the good, bad, positive, negative, indifferent, ugly, outlandish, vile, unspeakable, disrespectful, encouraging, savage and uncivilized – can be overwhelmingly depressing. And that is personal. Did you notice that the bad outweighed the good? It was so easy to think of the negative stuff. And that is depressing.

So, what does all of that have to do with weeping for the lost? I’m glad you asked. Fast-forward to the present, remembering a bit of what has happened in the past.

I do not believe in coincidence. While leaving Birmingham I took the wrong exit and found myself on the wrong freeway. Getting off at the next exit, I happened to look at my gas gauge which showed I had about a quarter of a tank of gas. Even a Prius can’t get very far on that, so I pulled into the first gas station I saw and filled up. Getting back on the street I began to make my way to the right entrance, and observed a sign – "16^th Street Baptist Church." Not yet realizing the significance of that sign, I headed toward 16th St. I cannot describe how strange this was. It was one of those funny feelings I get when something is about to happen and I have no explanation but just know the funny feeling means something. I turned right onto 16^th street, drove a couple of blocks, and there it was – the 16^th Street Baptist Church. I took advantage of parking on the street in front of the church and I got out of my car and looked at the building, taking note of this post

with painted messages that was just to the left. Then it hit me: this is the church that was bombed in the 60s, the church where the four girls were killed one Sunday.

As I walked up the steps that funny feeling was overwhelming. As I stood at the door of the church I knew I was looking at different doors and windows but it really hit me that this is where something painfully significant happened. This is where a house of God was attacked by people who claimed to believe in Him. This is where four young lives were destroyed and the lives of their families were changed forever.

My imagination ran wild, and in my mind’s eye I could see horror and violence — vicious dogs, men on horseback wielding clubs, others with fire hoses, people posing around bodies burned beyond recognition, hanging from trees, men behind bars whose only crime was an aspiration to be treated with basic human dignity and have the same rights as others. Tears streamed down my face, streamed freely as I stood there struggling to compose myself. Why is this happening to me? Why can’t I stop crying? Part of it was deep sorrow, part was gratitude and part of it was prayer.

I grieved for the loss of life. Only the Giver of life should take it.

I grieved for those girls who would never grow up and experience the joys and sorrows of having done so.

I grieved for the families who lost their precious, priceless treasures.

I grieved for the unjustifiable hatred.

I grieved for the senseless destruction and damage to God's house

I grieved that such evil existed in the first place.

I grieved that it still does.

Even while I grieved for the past, I grieved for the present –

That decades later racism still abounds.

I grieved for the hatred that still exists and for people who want to conserve a way of life that would stifle opportunities and rights of some so they can perpetuate their false sense of superiority.

I grieved for their ignorance.

And even harder, I wept for the lost, those who now take for granted what decades ago others fought so bravely and endured so much, even death, to obtain for themselves and their progeny. Those who do not vote. Those who refuse to go to school and get an education. Those who waste opportunities to improve their quality of life. Those who refuse to take responsibility for themselves.

And being keenly aware that the sacrifices made there and in other places by people I will never know, have impacted the quality of my life. I am grateful beyond words.

And I prayed. I prayed for the peace that we still don't have.
I prayed to see that peace before I breathe my last. 

Only in America

A. NOT-SO-RANDOM RANTS

1. In Fall 2008, I started this blog out of sheer frustration from listening to the pundits, talking heads, and frenzied crowds who were touting Sarah Palin as the next best hope. While I respect her supporters' right to take whatever stand they choose, please respect my right to say this: What absolute and utter nonsense.

POINT: Only in America can a lame-brained fast-talking woman of the paler nation quit a job in midstream and declare it a success, and go on to pursue bigger and better things with the support of so many because of her paleness, quasi decent look, and/or snappy eyeglasses, while being totally unable to construct a sentence that: a) is concise; b) is confined to one idea or concept; and c) is understood by persons of average intelligence who understand English, more so than by infants and toddlers whose vocabularies consist of two words.

2. When Bush 43 was elected President, he inherited a budget surplus. While some may argue this point, it is safe to say that the country's financial situation was definitely not what it was when he left the office.

POINT: Only in America can a man who could not be an effective owner of an oil company or a baseball team be charged with the responsibility of upholding the Constitution of the United States and carrying out its executive responsibilities.

3. Bush was given his second term of the Presidency by the Supreme Court, during which term he continued to sink this country in more debt with creative accounting to finance a war the purpose of which still begs justfication.

POINT: This country's economic woes did not begin on January 20, 2009. And many of the folks who profited from the war are long gone while at least one left behind an adult daughter who has taken to the airwaves, whining in defense of her father whose machinations are in part responsible for God only knows how many thousands of lost lives and broken families.

4. At a town hall meeting this week, a woman asked President Obama when he would restore the Constitution as our founding fathers intended it.

POINT: If the Constitution was restored as our founding fathers intended, Obama would never have become President of the United States, and millions of people, including this writer, would never have had the opportunity to vote for or against him, or anyone else.

5. The general election is long over and I am still being inundated with emails trying to convince me that the 44th POTUS is unqualified for office because he was not born in the United States.

POINT: I have no doubt that all who opposed Obama have overturned every rock, and peered in every nook and cranny for a way to discredit him, long before the first Tuesday of November 2008.

B. WHY THE BURR IN MY BUTT TODAY?

1. I have had my fill of hate/fear-mongering and negativity.

2. Obama is much more intelligent, more knowledgeable of the Constitution, and basically just more fit to the executive position than the imposter who just moved out of the Whitehouse.

3. Having been in a similar situation on a much tinier (microscopic) scale, I can identify with on of Obama's problems, and here is the first:

There are folks who are blinded by their on dislike of what comes natural for people like me, while they have to buy tanning-bed time and risk skin cancer to get it. Many of them don't have a clue, or perhaps are just unwilling to see their prejudice for what it is: prejudice. These are the same folks who hired the blond-haired, blue-eyed, pretty young thing who made a mess of the place, then called me to clean up the mess when the PYT didn't "work out."

And the second is this:

There are folks who are really miffed because their team did not win. Since I've never been a "party" person, I can say that some of my candidates won, some of my candidates lost, and some of my candidates were the victims of theft. (Yes, there was some thievery going on in Harris County, Texas on the first Tuesday of November 2008, and I'm not talking about the foreclosure sales -- I'm talking about the polls.) But now that the contests are over, factionalism will get in the way of any meaningful progress if we let it. Unfortunately, there are folks who stupidly pray for Obama's failure because their team didn't win. That's really stupid, since in the grand scheme of things, there is only one USA.

4. Bush 43 sacrificed how many lives in pursuit of what in Iraq?

5. And, dare I ask, was the pivotal point in the Bush 43 era -- "911" -- a domestic production? Or could it have been prevented?

C. NOW WHAT?

Search your heart. Look in the mirror and ask yourself:

1. Was 43 one of the brightest bulbs in the chandelier, or was he a few watts (or more) short? Come on, now. Didn't you sometimes hang your head in shame when you saw him on television?

2. What does Sarah Palin really have to offer other than gibberish?

3. Are the folks on Capitol Hill, regardless of party affiliation, trying to work together to formulate meaningful and effective legislation? (Okay, I know, there is the Pelosi factor [barf]).

4. Do you really think this Country is going to hell because the 44th POTUS looks a tad different from the first 43? Really? The truth be told, this Country has been in a downward spiral for a long, long time -- when it was solely controlled by people who don't look like me and who are not of my gender (you know, the rough drafts).

5. Look at your own elected representatives. Some have been around longer than you've been alive. Are you really that pleased with their service? Oh -- you didn't know they are there to serve you?

D. AND FINALLY --

I DO NOT SUPPORT ALL OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S POLICIES. For instance, even though I have been without health insurance for all of this century (sounds more dramatic than saying for the past 10 years), I am concerned about any attempt to eventually eradicate private health insurance. Am I saying this because I am a licensed insurance agent? Absolutely not! What I do believe is that we should have a choice. Right now, my choice for health insurance is something far beyond my budget, so I try (most of the time) to take care of the old 'bod and I budget for regular checkups (which for me, are quarterly, not annually).

FAMILY FEUD: Like it or not, there is but one United States of America. And just as in any family, we have disagreements. But at some point, the family unit has to come together -- to unite -- to move forward. Otherwise, the family unit disintegrates.

STILL, ONLY IN AMERICA can I write this blog without fear of my door being broken down and my being handcuffed/shackled, pushed into a vehicle with no interior door handles, hauled away to some dark, dank cell that smells of old urine and has a partition of tin behind which there sits a really nasty toilet.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I might get some strange looks when I go out tomorrow. That's okay. I have lived with strange looks all my life.

John Lewis Should Not be Renounced, Denounced or Whatever

The only authentic African American of whom I know, is the son of an African man and an American woman.   While he is lumped in with all the rest of us members of the darker nation (if this term is unfamiliar to you, I commend you to Stephen Carter's The Emperor of Ocean Park), the timing of Barack Obama's birth excluded him from the experiences of folks like John Lewis.  

The problem is that John Lewis types exist.  The JLs of this country remind us of a time when folks were less accepting, less loving.    So many think they should take the superficial freedoms they have won and go away quietly, sink into a Lazyboy, channel surf and sip beer, watching endless hours of television -- guys chasing funny-shaped balls in open fields -- taunting, maiming, crippling, killing each other while audiences of sufficient number to populate small towns pay much too much money for the thrill of it all, and even more money for unhealthy food and drink --  until they die.

There are folks who think we should not remember the days when Americans of the darker nation, many times joined by Americans of the paler nation, subjected their bodies to billy clubs, well-trained dogs, fire hoses, jail cells smaller than my bathroom, nooses, and even the grave, to achieve what most Americans take for granted now.  And while the notorious acts of that era are no longer commonplace, let us not be disillusioned.   In many ways there is still a lack of acceptance. There is still a lack of love.   We see it and hear it all the time.  

Yes, the "N" word may be socially unacceptable, politically incorrect, or whatever.  But what about EXOTIC -- UNQUALIFIED -- OFF WITH HIS HEAD -- HE'S AN ARAB -- KILL HIM.   These words and phrases, no doubt uttered with venom and spittle spraying those nearby, reflect hatred that can be felt even through television.   I know, because I felt them.  And I felt the mob-type murmurings that followed -- felt them in my knotted gut.  And then I remembered what I saw on television decades ago.   Bodies plastered against buildings by the force of water from a fire hose.  Dogs barking and biting at flailing limbs.  Charred bodies, now faceless, hanging from trees that on any other day might be refuge from the sun.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., lying in a pool of his own blood on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel.     These images, once viewed by this writer, who knows that but for the grace of God, could have been a subject of the photographer rather than a beneficiary of suffering, cannot be forgotten.  

A German-born Jewish American (too many labels for me, but necessary to make my point) works at a place I visit often.   During our last encounter I could tell that he was not having a good day.   It turns out that for the first time, he saw on television the night before, footage from the civil rights struggle of the 60s.   He expressed shock, dismay and disgust, having had no idea of what happened during that time, and confessed that it was nothing that he was exposed to in school; and because those events happened during his lifetime, they were in some ways even worse for him than the Holocaust.  We both agreed that neither of those events should be forgotten.  Their lessons are far too important for either to be glossed over.  If our kids can watch the gore and violence produced by television and movies, and can play video games fraught with purposeless violence, why must they be shielded from the reality of the 60s?

So I ask you, does John Lewis not have a right to remind us of the dangers of inflammatory speech?  Is it an okay thing for a speaker to evoke such language, but not okay to speak of the dangers of one doing so?  No.  Should we forget the struggles and sacrifices of the 60s?  No.  Should the JLs of the world be required to act as if their experiences are meaningless and forgotten?  No.  Should we all make sure those events are not repeated, even if it means dredging them up again to remind us?  What do you say?  I say YES, and that is my final answer.

Rather than renounce John Lewis, we should thank him for reminding us of the oppressive barbarism of the 60s and those who fought to overcome it.