With all the recent news about Michael Cohen lying to the Special Counsel, Trumps on again off again plans to meet with Putin, and talk of a split among Dems on supporting Nancy Polosi for Speaker of the House, I am wondering what happened to the recent excitement over the results of the mid-term election. Sure, not enough Senate seats were turned over to fresh new voices, but plenty of House seats were.
But is is just back to business as usual? Those in power still hold the power and are the fresh voices going to be heard?
I sure hope so, because the fresh voices have fresh ideas that just might work.
Even though he didn’t win the Senate seat in Texas, Congressman Beto O’Rourke is still very much involved in current affairs, and he sends out letters to his constituents with his views on what is happening. His most recent letter addressed the issue of immigrants at the Texas/Mexico border as hundreds of refugees attempt to enter the United States for sanctuary. Here is just part of that letter:
It should tell us something about her home country that a mother is willing to travel 2,000 miles with her 4-month-old son to come here. Should tell us something about our country that we only respond to this desperate need once she is at our border. So far, in this administration, that response has included taking kids from their parents, locking them up in cages, and now tear gassing them at the border.
People are leaving violent countries where they fear for their lives. Without money, they are subsisting on hope for their kids, for themselves, that they can get to safety. After being denied the ability to lawfully petition for asylum for the last 10 days, they are desperate.
We choose how to respond to this challenge.
New York Congresswoman-Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez weighed in on the topic with this on Twitter:
What if instead of sending 5k troops to the border, we had sent 5k caseworkers to review + process visa applications? In addition to averting moral crisis, it also would‘ve saved enormous amount of resources. But we don’t talk about the financial recklessness of GOP admins, do we?
There are so many opportunities now to push against the establishment, and established ways, in Washington, and we need to act on that.
A long time ago, so long ago I can’t find the blog post, I wrote that if a woman was a leader in Washington, things would change. And now we have a lot of women in Congress who are those fresh voices with fresh ideas. Can they affect change?
I sure hope so, because Washington needs a cleanup.
NOW FOR SOME FUN
Four men are in the hospital waiting room because their wives are having babies. A nurse approaches the first guy and says, “Congratulations! You’re the father of twins.”
“What an odd coincidence,” the man says. “I work for the Minnesota Twins.”
A few minutes later another nurse tells the second man, “Congratulations. You’re the father of triplets.”
“That’s weird,” the second man says. “I work for the 3M company!”
A nurse goes up to the third man saying, “Congratulations! You’re the father of quadruplets.”
“How odd,” the man says. “I work for the Four Seasons hotel!”
The last man begins groaning and banging his head against the wall. “What’s wrong?” the others ask.
“I work for 7 Up!”
Neither my husband nor I worked for the Minnesota Twins, but we were more than a bit giddy when we found out we were having twins many years ago. Twins don’t run in either of our families, so this was quite a surprise. The doctor explained it by saying, “Well, someone has to start the genetic tendency.”
Funny how I remember the exact words after so long. 🙂
That’s it for me folks. Have a great weekend. Be safe. Be happy