So encouraged by this open, honest, and courageous exchange. I’ve seen JoJoFromJerz posts on Substack and have, on occasion, “liked” them. I’m generally withholding of “likes,” especially when I’m unfamiliar with the author. I’m glad to have been introduced to Joanne Carducci and will look for more from her. For now, I appreciate this conversation.
I attended a virtual town hall of my Republican congressional representative last Wednesday night. It was frustrating in its entirety. Listening to the same ol’ GOP false narrative is getting old. I participated online so I could drop questions into the portal that appeared to invite these, which I did much of the meeting’s duration; not one was answered. And I was “in the queue” to be called upon during the call; which never came to fruition.
Among the flurry of abominable comments, the congressperson said, “[T]rump is the only person on the face of the earth that can get this done,” that of “the peace initiative between Ukraine and Russia.” I was outraged.
As it turned out, I learned the next morning, that on the very night my representative said this, Moscow began launching missile and drone strikes across Ukraine after the US stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv. Innocent lives were lost for a decision that was NOT about peacemaking.
I followed up with calls to the congressional DC and to the district office—where on Monday, February 17, I participated in a protest of more than 600 people.
During the town hall, the congressperson suggested that two of the “progressive” groups who attended the rally hadn’t responded to an invitation to return to the district office for dialogue. While I believe in the tenets of nonviolent communication, of which I am far from being practiced in, given the apparent lack of genuine and meaningful discourse available, I understand the groups’ returned silence.
Still, I realize I cannot become immobilized by anger and fear in these uncertain times. Our words and our activism matter, somehow. Alexander Vindman’s voice is lesson enough to know this is true. And as we’ve heard it said, we must act as if our freedoms depend upon it. Because they do. Ours, and those of the world over.
So encouraged by this open, honest, and courageous exchange. I’ve seen JoJoFromJerz posts on Substack and have, on occasion, “liked” them. I’m generally withholding of “likes,” especially when I’m unfamiliar with the author. I’m glad to have been introduced to Joanne Carducci and will look for more from her. For now, I appreciate this conversation.
I attended a virtual town hall of my Republican congressional representative last Wednesday night. It was frustrating in its entirety. Listening to the same ol’ GOP false narrative is getting old. I participated online so I could drop questions into the portal that appeared to invite these, which I did much of the meeting’s duration; not one was answered. And I was “in the queue” to be called upon during the call; which never came to fruition.
Among the flurry of abominable comments, the congressperson said, “[T]rump is the only person on the face of the earth that can get this done,” that of “the peace initiative between Ukraine and Russia.” I was outraged.
As it turned out, I learned the next morning, that on the very night my representative said this, Moscow began launching missile and drone strikes across Ukraine after the US stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv. Innocent lives were lost for a decision that was NOT about peacemaking.
I followed up with calls to the congressional DC and to the district office—where on Monday, February 17, I participated in a protest of more than 600 people.
During the town hall, the congressperson suggested that two of the “progressive” groups who attended the rally hadn’t responded to an invitation to return to the district office for dialogue. While I believe in the tenets of nonviolent communication, of which I am far from being practiced in, given the apparent lack of genuine and meaningful discourse available, I understand the groups’ returned silence.
Still, I realize I cannot become immobilized by anger and fear in these uncertain times. Our words and our activism matter, somehow. Alexander Vindman’s voice is lesson enough to know this is true. And as we’ve heard it said, we must act as if our freedoms depend upon it. Because they do. Ours, and those of the world over.