July 2, 2022

Posted bysusancasslangmailcomPosted inUncategorized

I don’t think I have ever so appreciated summer.  Knowing that its beauty and this time we share with loved ones is only temporary… peaks the joy of this experience.

Some loved ones have been torn apart by the polarity in this country.  I remember reading about the Civil War when “brother fought brother.”   I know now how history repeats itself and in oh so many ways.  I have been hearing sad stories about some families.  One friend said that because her mother is a devotee of Fox News, she has favored the offspring who share her political views.  Thus, my friend, who sees things differently, doesn’t know if she’ll be cut out of the will.  Another friend told the story of a family funeral, where there was a fight about masking and vaccination status.  There ensued a huge argument and some members stomping off early and then cutting off all contact with siblings. The episode destroyed what was to be a solemn ceremony and the honoring of a dear one’s life.

Terrible, that in spite of our differences, people cannot maintain some form of civility and respect.  Perhaps that is one good thing coming of the January 6th Hearings.  Republicans and Democrats are talking to one another. We haven’t seen that in a long time.

Although some take heart with the January 6th hearings, the Supreme Court acts rapidly with its assigned tasks of strategically dismantling democracy.  Although I support the hearings, I do hope we are not distracted by that bright shiny media object – Trump.  He is simply the hood ornament on an entire engine of dastardly deeds.  He could have never pulled off the hoist of the country alone.   His enablers helped them but not out of blindness.  This was a carefully crafted plan.

Someone called in last night to the The Thom Hartman Program. “I feel like I’ve been beat up,” he said of the recent Supreme Court rulings.  I feel the same.  Despairing.  And with the November election looming it is hard not to catastrophize.  How not to?  That is the challenge.  A friend points to other peoples who have overcome worse adversity in political systems.  She said the Haitians keep resisting even though they are starving. Perhaps I should read Masha Gessen’s book: Surviving Autocracy

Inevitably, all of us will need to find out how to maintain peace of mind as we move forward.  That is a challenge.

Published by susancasslangmailcom

Susan Casslan is a writer and a nurse. Her writing touches on spirituality and issues pertaining to social justice. Casslan lived for a decade in the San Francisco Inner Mission District, and she was greatly inspired by the Latinx culture of that neighborhood. The Inner Mission emerges in her books Conversations with Richard Purcell: The Adventures and Reflections of a Renegade San Francisco Priest and That Which Wavers with the Night, as well as in her chapbook 24th Street and Other Poems. Additionally, Casslan’s nonfiction articles have appeared in El Tecolote, an Inner Mission newspaper.

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