2024 US Election ( with additional revisions , footnotes )

INAGURATION DAY  Jan 2025 

[Update]

         J M STARZ           SHEPARD FAIREY

My Personal View of New Administration

*******

 First, they came for the illegal and legal immigrants

and I did not speak out because I am not an illegal immigrant. I am a second-generation immigrant.

Then they came for women who asked for an abortion or had one in the past and I did not speak out because I am too old to get pregnant nor did I have one in the past.

Then they came for transgender people and again I did not speak out because I am not transgender.

Finally they came for me, a poor, disabled senior on .... with social security and no savings.

and there was no one left to speak for me.

(an adaptation of 

a poem by Niemöller in Hitlers Germany)

"It is what it is...."

I will speak out, even writing this blog may allow the administration to act in retaliation. I am a second-generation immigrant. We are a nation of immigrants.

I am now a "foreigner in a foreign land."

I, as a woman , live in the most sexist nation, even over racism. As a 75-year-old, I have fought  every inch for the right to live, work and educate myself.My parents had to leave school to survive the depression. I have a graduate degree. The first!

Voters have chosen a political puppet, criminal, convicted felon, womanizer, liar, with plans to trash our Constitution and Bill of Rights. Two strong women ran in opposition in 2016 and 2024 and America chose Donald tRump.

The American Dream is an illusion and will be only for the wealthy 1%.

NOT PROUD to be an American Citizen

I AM a proud American woman born into a lower middle class suburban home outside Portland Oregon. 

I chose in many battles to stand up for my rights to live , work and be educated.

I accomplished high grades in order to escape my abusive neglect filled home and family. And with scholarships and two jobs, attended three state universities.

I graduated in 1973 with a graduate degree ,BFA ,after several battles to receive the same respect from professors as did my male counterparts.

I stood up to a rapist in 1970 at 19, when even my family did not believe me.

I did not back away from workplace threats of termination, 1971, by my supervisor to keep a "dress" code when slacks were needed to perform my job.

I demanded my family name be returned to me by the judge at my divorce proceedings 1975.

I led a strike , 1982, in a large construction camp of 200 men in Alaska.  My all-female crew, kitchen and housekeeping, were continuously harassed verbally along with sexual graffiti. We won.

I stood my ground, 1989, verbally in  public to the Abbot of the Zen Community/monastery over his verbal and emotional abuse.

J M Starz

November 7, 2024

Privileged Entitled?

PS: My final observation and conclusion IS that the stronger women in America become, the more attempts there will be to oppress US. Keep moving "Forward". " Keep the light on".

Lyrics from female contribution to new release , song by Cold Play September 2024.

                "We Pray"

Pray that love will shelter us from our fears

Oh I pray, you trust to let me wipe off your tears

Confront all the pain that we feel inside

With all the cards we have been dealt in life

Pray I speak my truth and keep my sisters alive

So for the ones that parted the seas for the ones following dreams

For the ones that knocked down doors and

Allowed us to pass down the keys

Pray we speak with a tongue of honesty,

And that we understand how to be modest

Pray she looks in a mirror and sees a queen, a Goddess.

And so we pray..  

Footnote: Election numbers show 208 million eligible voters. Republicans received 35% of eligible voters and 51% of registered voters. A minority of voters will dictate to the other two-thirds including millions of non-eligible voters. The future generations. This is democracy for a minority vs the majority.. and American citizens are ....?

From recent interviews with minority ethnic groups the American Dream is alive.Yet it is clear by their voting for this leader/party they are willing to give up human rights for the money they believe is proof of success in America. They may have left a war torn , poverty stricken and economic disaster of a country, familiar, and now in America they are willing to accept a loss of liberty, even if OTHERS do. By 2050 half of citizens will be Latino. I fear money over life and liberty will become the distorted " American Dream". I will not be here, yet I can see it already in the 2024 election...  Including a national abortion ban planned, more anti-LGBTQ laws especially transgender, "Snitching" laws about abortion, as in Texas, and an erosion of enforcement of the Constitution and Bill of Rights..........

 

All for the rights to buy MORE.......costs will always be on the rise here and around the world. As populations soar, demand grows for jobs, commodities / especially food ( also affected by climate changes), housing, this list goes on... as more immigrants flee countries in already dire conditions. At the University, 1970, over population was the main issue facing us. Now 55 years later, I can see where we are headed after little concern by next generations to this issue...anti-abortion laws will only add to this future of ...   ?

                                                           **************"

"Ask not what your country can do for you... ask what you can do for your country"..JFK 1960

We PRAY

Baraye Song from Iran

" Out My Window" July 2022 Series

To Love my country's Declaration of Freedoms

July 4 2022

The first Port Angeles Wa  parade since 2020 lockdown mandate was smaller and very few floats. Even the large, loaded logging trucks were missing. I remembered at the 2019 parade shouting out, " lets morn the trees." Logging a main source of industry, employment and shipping to the orient countries for Port Angeles. It was not appreciated. Wrinkled foreheads told it all.

This year was very intimate and full of children lining the streets with their family groups. Camp chairs and coolers of drinks lined the sidewalk below my window.  The elements were there with marching band and music from floats along with candy flying through the air.

Celebrating our country's birthday along with the evening fireworks reminds me of the battles to 

 declare our freedom from the tyranny and taxation with no representation in England.

No representation is the main issue and taxation with no voice, no vote.  With voting scheduled in the fall, I pray all those who are in need of safe abortion healthcare will be heard and supported by the majority by voting. Now we are experiencing a minority imposing religious beliefs over healthcare for the poor. A heated issue and rightly so. For me our voting process needs reform. We are 50 states and many territories with population concentrations now dictating. Currently Midwest over west and east coast with larger population centers. Major legislation affecting ALL women needs to be voted on a national level.. Not by the states separately...noting the states now banning abortion have the larger poor populations in need of care and equal access to healthcare.

Teaching: to vote and not become discouraged. As a country we are 246 yrs old and have yet to accomplish what the Declaration of independence says as written:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal

that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Note: women have only been included since 1926, and Black voters provided enforcement of the Rights to vote in the 1960's.

We are in a process to become all we have written as laws, and we must vote to keep our government representatives from abusing their power. At any time politicians can ignore enforcement of these laws..so the strong discrimination of Blacks was dismissed by the prevailing attitudes in a part of this large land.  Equally women faced being treated as " unequal". I consider this country is only 50 years into a full voting representation. Now is the time after two presidential elections ignored the popular votes over electoral ones!  Reform the electoral college in this age of technology is necessary and NOT relying on horseback transportation to cast votes

in the 1800's our norm!

********

Footnote

Active gunman event during a parade in Highland Park Illinois. Seven dead including children.

 Voting has not 

resulted in gun control legislation over the last 30 years of mass shootings.....How can this happen? 

money and gun lobbyists have VOTED without our representation......and almost anyone can buy a lethal weapon and not to defend from overtake by another country as the Bill of Rights amendment stresses, so as not to be colonized again, but to mass murder of children by children?.......

 

*********

July 11 2022

July 11 2022

This late Sunday morning I find the shop owner is watering the doorway flower tubs. The Alley Cat boutique is painted in a pale pink. It borders the alley I walk to the lot where my car is parked. It has whimsical women's clothing, much like the ones I would have passed by while living in the "Haight Ashbury Street" neighborhood in the 70's. I made extra money-making clothing for sale in a consignment shop. Jean skirts were my specialty. Sewn from recycled jeans and sewn on a treadle sewing machine.  It is quite impossible for me to not reference my past experiences. 

Especially the creative ones and sharing them with others. My quilted part of the skirt was usually of mountains, oceans, and trees. Not city life, but where my heart was longing to be.

I have yet to go in. My sizes are usually not found in boutiques of this kind. Yet I fancy this woman has her story to tell me and it would be nice to see how she finds her stores treasures.

Teaching: For me to find a common ground and reach out more in my neighborhood. We all have more in common than differences. The pandemic for me was a time to live in a mood of mistrust and a need to just survive. Time to thrive again.

July 11 2022

I could no longer wait to drive out to the point on the 3-mile spit that surrounds the coastline of Port Angeles. I drove out to the end that houses the Coast Guard Station. It is visible from my studio window and look back from across the water. In the photo I aimed it to be right above the stump to find it easily in the photo.

My apartment is in a historic building former Hotel Lee Plaza. It is the tallest building in town and easy to see from this distance. Saved from destruction 20 years age it now houses apartments for low income and disabled. 

I has been two years since I took my small convertible smart Car for a drive to my favorite spot in Port Angeles. Early morning brings only a few residents and visitors out to walk, run and walk their pups.

Meditation on the spot directly across from my apartment brings me a sense of belonging. A sense of "place" I have not felt since moving here a few months before Pandemic lockdown. 

Teaching: Remember to give myself the opportunity to see from as many angles, views and locations. My apartment is not the only safe place to explore. I am ok., I made it through the worst of it. 

Hopefully.

********

 

January 6 2021; Inagguration 2021 Update

Update  Inaguration 2021: A Young Bright Woman of Light  The Future of America

***

                                                                        1 John 2:15

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. Love for the Father is not in them."

***

I am writing to all my friends. The politics of this world has divided us. I am a friend that can no longer be blind to the choices made by some to follow conspiracies that are not about love for others our neighbors. You have chosen to " be in this world"  instead of "of this world". A world full of conspiracies only provides the "glasses" that see conspiracies everywhere in our elections, our congress, our opposition leaders, fake news reporting,  and ignorance of our Constitution.

***

Romans 12:2

"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is. His good, pleasing and perfect will."

***

Our country was founded by people wanting democracy to be tempered by spiritual values of justice , equality and liberty for all. 

A mob of rioters, intent on harm and destruction came to the Capital to express only their extreme minority views of 

"STOP THE STEAL"

They believe not in our democratic process with verified and audited elections or the Constitution. They are filled with anger, and only a love for a country THEY want, that THEY no longer SEE in the faces of many citizens of America. The mob was clearly predominantly WHITE. [Whites will be in the minority by 2050.]

It is our responsibility to pursue the truth and make choices that reflect LOVE not hate for others in any form or venue. We do not have the right to create the truth we want or prefer and then choose the ones we want to believe. It is AMERICAN to love the ideals of "Justice and liberty for all" and to be able to "pursue happiness." These are the spectacles I wear when in the world of politics.

I can understand the 2021 election disappointment when the 2016 election results did not reflect my values or even my candidate. Many friends were so disillusioned they curled up into a ball and withdrew from participation in life. They did not look to others for a conspiricie or riot before the Capital. Even when the antiquated electoral college did not reflect the popular vote win by the opposing candidate.. Approval by the electoral college winner Trump did bring to mind how I remember his outrage of Obamas win  in 2012 with the electoral college , and said it was in need of reform.

"The electoral college is a disaster for democracy... a total sham and a travesty..Donald Trump 2012

I would rather see ..simple votes....Trump "60 minutes 'November 2016

1+1=2, not 3, we don't get to choose 2 or 3, what we believe has no bearing on the truth, it just is.

Our responsibility is to search and pursue the truth regardless of what I or others want to believe.

" The receptivity of the masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him/her to understand by your slogan. .........The great masses of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one." [ Qanon is an example of a "Big Lie", " how could it not be true? It is so evil that pedophile democrats [ not republicans?] rule our country and harm children. Who wants to NOT be for the protection of children.]

Mein Kamph by Hitler

"WE won by a landslide....THEY stole the election.....We must fight....I will walk with you.....I love you, you are special.....

HIS TRUTH, THE TRUTH?

I would like everyone to note there were no riots prior to the January 2017 inauguration of Trump. Obama was cordial during the transition. We who lost accepted our democratic election results. Even though the popular vote elected Clinton and previously Gore in 2000. I as an 'independent" have voted for the person, not the party. [ Independents are a third of registered voters and growing in numbers each election. Independents make up to 50% of the tallied Democratic and Republican voters. This results in half or more not being Republican or Democrats...We are 50,000 plus strong and not included in many surveys]

***

This cartoon is an homage to the American Revolution that created this flag.  I saw how it can speak for us all in this political climate by adding the capital building being embraced by the snake. It stands for the building itself, the democracy it represents, and also the rioters that feel their America is slipping away. Including the first and second amendments being threatened and a "way of life" being lost. Their vision is in the right, as evidenced and confirmed by the phrase "Make America Great Again"..an America of white Christian faces, unenforced constitutional equality, vigilante just-us, to carry guns for killing openly, and ......? WE have the right to vote and elect representatives and protest peacefully if not being heard., yet clearly our nation is moving ahead of our past filled with bias, discrimination and only the dreams of the wealthy.

The America I can support is one that People the world over responded to after Jan 6.  The top democratic nations were broken-hearted by the actions of a few to commit crimes in the name of "Democracy". There were three non-democratic countries that responded with jokes and celebration in the events unfolding from Jan 6. Iran, China, and Russia. This should say very clearly about the TRUTH of these events...Where do you stand about this event?.. Democracy is inclusive of all equally ......I am for the freedom of speech I have to speak my mind and heart as I do today. My dearest friend, a 10 year immigrant from Russia, has been disheartened by these events. She has lived under authoritarian leaders most of her life and can see all too familiar behaviors by some in this country...She did not have a voice to speak up for human rights as we do here. The first amendment does not include incitement to attack the democracy that gives us the freedom to express ourselves politically or spiritually.

My slogan is to "Make America the Best It Can Be" To be a country of inclusion, tolerance, equality, justice for every color of our country's' citizens. 

What has love got to do with this event?

 

It was a selfish love and mislead passion that has been fueled by untruths, fears, hatreds, loss of a lifestyle. and more.

WITH LOVE WILL COME A DESIRE TO FIND A PEACEFUL PATH IN OUR COUNTRY' TO GUIDE US ALL

MAKE AMERICA PEACEFUL AGAIN.

A country dedicated to evolving in a changing world, where we include all who live on this land. Where WE pursue a greater purpose, a higher intention to have opportunities for every citizen, every child of God to be safe, secure, and proud to be involved in making this happen....this is when America and my faith come together.

***

DOVE

by my art student

JoEllen Shannon

2021

***

More timeline of Jan 6 2021

President Biden Speech at Inaguration 2021

                                  

Jennifer Lopez This Land

Garth Brooks amazing Grace

Lady GaGa American Anthem

One Hundred Years in the Making: Equal Representation in Government

The faces of the President-Elect  Biden and Vice President-Elect Harris referred to as "Next in Line"

The faces of our country as it exists. Half men and half women,  along with the multiracial makeup of this country. As I and many other women have expressed, I am so aware that all girls and those to be born after this election will know the reality to be seen as the co-leader of our country. Yet an even greater awareness is how every male child as of this day will see a woman in this role. Women have been asking for equality, have already seen their ability to govern and to lead.

It began with the movement to vote as equals to men.

A feminist movement in the midcentury asked that women be seen in new ways along with men. Both were to be released from cultural norms.

"It's not fair " has become a cry of "it is our time !"

All women that have kept the goal in view are to be thanked by us all. Men and women both.

Women head corporations and men can stay at home with the children. Liberation comes to everyone when all are free to pursue their goals. " The pursuit of happiness," is meant for ALL.

Again thank you for believing in yourselves and any sacrifices made personally to see us reach this goal of equality in representation.

I have waited 50 years of my voting life to see this happen and know how important this is to those who follow. 2008 and 2016 held the promise before us. 

"A beautiful noise"

Bravo to all that voted on November 3, 2020.

***

God loves all equally. It is in praise and to honor our Creator when we see others as God does.