2024 US Election ( with additional revisions , footnotes )

INAGURATION DAY  Jan 2025 

[Update]

         J M STARZ           SHEPARD FAIREY

My Personal View of New Administration

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 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

My Chosen Theme

What has LOVE got to do with it?

EVERYTHING.

First of all, I am 70 years old and do not profess to know the full meaning of this word, or what it means to love another, let alone myself. I will spend my whole life and probably the life of this blog writing about the only subject I could deem worthy.

Second, the word LOVE here is capitalized because for me it is interchangeable with GOD. It is with this Love,  He came to be with us. This is my deepest knowing as a follower of the teachings of Yeshua, Jesus. When asked, he spoke of only two commandments, both equal. Love thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength and Love thy neighbor [with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength, my understanding and imperfect practice. ] as thyself.. Mark 22:37

 To me God is LOVE and LOVE is God, so I will be asking also "What has God have to do with it?"

This question has been with me since my first clear memory at the age of five. I was standing, hidden away from view by any family member, standing up against the huge picture window facing the front lawn. The floor-length floral curtains and large maroon tufted couch hid me from anyone even knowing I was in the room. I could see the whole world out there, neighbors walking and cars driving past my house. We lived in one of the newly built "suburbs" of the fifties, just commuting distance from Portland, Oregon. An old farmstead purchased outside a small town called Milwaukie, with an "ie," I used to always say as a kid and even an adult.

I still remember what I was feeling that day, with all my strength, as a child in pain, asking from my mind, "It is not supposed to be this way", from my heart, "Why don't they love me?" and my soul, " I feel so alone?"

Was I being heard that moment, in that room, on that day? It was perhaps my first prayer. Did I know even then as a child someone was listening?

  This is when, I know now, my journey and path began to open up to me. It was not going to be one I would have tolerated or allowed for a child and will eventually influence me to consider later to not raise children myself. The greatest sacrifice of my life came from the fear I was too much like my parents. I did not learn from them how to feel connected and cared for. I learned about drinking, screaming, hitting, crying, hiding, hunger, loneliness, shame, blame, beatings, and worst of all neglect.

What has GOD got to do with that?

This leads to my next post, Born into LOVE, and forgiveness for me and my parents.

John 4:16