Dear Robert (and vital Managing Editor!!) — I appreciate your thinking and your words every day. Thank you both. Your conclusion this evening and particularly your “amendment” touched me with your respectfulness. As a therapist who addresses traumatically injured minds everyday, I find myself saying similar things to my clients. “You are right — that abominable event DID happen and it caused deep harm. And it’s also true, it could happen again. But something else could also happen. The past is done, but the future is uncertain. Let’s not imagine the future by locking our gaze on the past. In truth, the future is uncertain and the unexpected is always arising. Let’s see what you can do to help a new out come emerge.” It seems to me that people jam up when they get insistent about what IS GOING TO HAPPEN. That’s silly, right? Who knows the future? Robert, you do a beautiful job of being optimistic without being righteous or insistent. You hold an opening for your readers to see the present moment more clearly while also remaining open to a future that may well surprise us. You help me (and lots of others) keep heart as we act toward a future that needs us. ///. Please consider this very admiring Fan Mail!!! Warmly, Cynthia
Remarks about the rise of white nationalism are correct. As a practicing Jew I have noticed a rise in Anti-Semitism in the last 15 years. I live in Montana. My brother, who lives in NY, just began to notice it around 5 years ago. In a discussion I was wondering why it took so long for him to notice. On a brave note we have one of the bravest woman I have ever met living in Montana. Her name is Tanya Gersh. She was doxed and trolled by Andrew Anglin of The Daily Stormer. She has won a $14 million judgement against him. (The trial was eerie...I was there). Tanya has not only stood up to movement but risen above this experience. She talks about it. She travels around the country speaking only for expenses. Also, there is an Indie Film being made about her and a Holocaust survivor. These are the kind of people we need to stand up to hate and falsehoods. We have heroes in our midst. As as many signs say in shop windows in Montana "No Hate in our State."
I appreciate the deft manner in which you reframed the entreaty for optimism. The responsibility is not for the downtrodden or beleaguered to fix themselves, it is for those of us so fortunate to be able to self-correct back to optimism to share that empowerment with those who need it. Thank you for the heart you put into your thoughts.
Jul 14, 2022·edited Jul 14, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
Call on Congress to pass the Youth Voting Rights Act.
But I would say: call on the SENATE to pass H.R. 5746 which includes voting locations and registration not just on campuses and universities but across America, setting federal standards for voting laws so your zip code doesn't define what ID you need to vote, where ballot boxes are located, whether you have early voting, how elections are managed and validated, correcting State Legislative and Supreme Courts decisions which have been suppressing or reduce voting rights.
Here is how to contact your US Senators and in particular, speak to the offices of Senators Collins, Portman, Murkowski, Sinema, Manchin and Romney (after all: they represent all Americans when they vote or filibuster) and ask them to End The Filibuster and debate and vote on HR 5746.... EAsy to do: do it now.
Jul 14, 2022·edited Jul 14, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
With full respect to trauma survivors who have varying sensitivities and triggers, there are other "Debbie Downers," including men, whose defeatist comments are dis-spiriting--damping the energy of already-fatigued activists working hard on behalf of all of us. I think it is a reasonable request to contain one's hopeless comments to private communications and topical support groups, rather than a public forum, for the sake of the greater good.
As evident by Holocaust survivor memoirs, hope is a survival skill. Jessica Craven writes on her Chop Wood home page, "HOPE is an ACTION. 🔥" Action is wonderfully good medicine for feelings of hopelessness, and can start with something as simple as taking a walk outside.
Robert, haven’t you seen a profound shift in the thinking/emotional intelligence of so many? I think there must be a field in which hope, curiosity, tolerance builds generation after generation. My mother could not imagine defying the Catholic Church’s restrictions on birth control and so the “rhythm” method produced ten of us kids. Yet she was far from devout. It’s just that she had no other choice and died in great peace having left the institution of Catholicism behind. All this is to say that what our parents or grandparents couldn’t imagine as possible are 2nd nature to us , in less than two generations. Women now esp have agency, authority, self-definition. I share your radical optimism and thank you for the beautiful and deeply spiritual way you lift us up because you help us recognize we are not passive observers of our own fate, but co-creators in the great unfolding of Nature’s mysteries.
Optimism grows when your efforts and energies start to yield positive and wanted results. Optimism has to be more than just hoping something will happen. It grows when you are making things happen. Robert has documented tons of people getting engaged and making things happen like he mentioned today. But you need to carefully look around at what is happening. Voter registration in Kansas and Missouri has substantially increased and there is a shift towards the D’s and more younger voters are graduating from high school and over the summer registering to vote. There has been a reduction in voters who believe that Trump won the election and even a member of the Oath Keepers told the J6th committee that members of his organization and other similar organizations should “ take their blinders off”. The biggest thing that we should be optimistic about is the J6th hearings are doing something the D’s themselves could never do. More Republicans and Republican leaning Independents are listening to fellow Republicans during the hearing from Barr, Cipollone, etc categorically state they told the President there was no fraud and he lost the election. Many Trump insiders all delivered the same message and Trump choose not to believe them and believe the “ crazies”. Only Republicans can fix and take back their party and the optimism is that the J6th hearing is starting to do that slowly and momentum is building. Think about what that could mean and that is why we need your efforts and optimism now.
If Meadows flips, the whole conspiracy will come to light. In the sprit of Robert's optimism: I hope Meadows talks and talks honestly. Unfortunately - I think Meadows, Bannon et al are just fighting and fighting and praying that Kevin McCathy shuts down the Committee in January when he becomes speaker. It's incumbent upon all of us to vote blue to keep McCarthy's hand far away from the Speaker's gavel. His lust for power has long subsumed any remaining shred of morality he might once have had.
"Someone should drag Steve Bannon before a grand jury." Amen to that, along with the suggestion that someone should also drag Pat Cipollone, Ginny Thomas, Mark Meadows, Donald Trump and numerous others, including several members of congress, before grand juries as well. But it's not happening. Trump and his supporters have boldly demonstrated their intentions to place their hold
on power above the will of the voters in their criminal effort to pull off their coup d'etat and destroy what's left of America's experiment in representative democracy. Their actions are seditious and treasonous, yet no binding legal action ensues. Bearing in mind that patience is a virtue, it's also important to remember that we cannot afford to tolerate the Republican lawlessness that continues to evade the rule of law. Ignoring the Republican assaults on the traditions of democratic freedom and the laws of the land that support those virtues is not only bad for morale, it also undermines the credibility of the nation's institutions of governance. In short, our precious liberty as defined by the Constitution is at stake. Someone (Merrick Garland?) needs to squirt a generous shot of oil on the wheels of Justice and get the perps in question appropriately outfitted in orange jump suits.
I've discovered, after losing hope during the last several very dark years, that I literally must have optimism to survive. Thank you for your radical optimism. It helps as I try to find my way out of the darkness.
Another comment on the press. It bears repeating --- where are the headlines, naming again and again - the Republican members of Congress who have lied and continue to lie I have yet to see a bold headline -- GRAHAM DEFIES SUBPOENA REGARDING HIS CALL TO GEORGIA TO FIND VOTES
Jul 14, 2022·edited Jul 14, 2022Liked by Robert B. Hubbell
Perhaps the greatest source of pessimism and anxiety among nearly all Americans is the endless harping by the media on the recent burst of PRICE inflation. Persistent, indeed near daily, recitations of the escalating prices for a variety of key expenditures, most especially gasoline, keep all of us in thrall to a gloomy view of America's economic prospects. What is totally missing is any attention to the concomitant surge in WAGES. We have had the figure 9.1%, up from 8.7% a month earlier, of the year-on-year price increases drummed into our consciousness by the media. The so-called "liberal media" have been just as complicit as the shrill voices on the Right. How many of us, even those paying close attention to the news, are even vaguely aware that hourly wages--those of the great bulk of US workers--ROSE 6.8% for the 12 months ended May, 2022, per the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. This means that the average worker's purchasing power declined in these 12 months 1.9%--not a good thing but far from the scare headline number of 9.1%.
Of course not everyone has received these wage increases, especially those on fixed incomes. But that 6.8% average wage increase means that many workers have received pay increases well ABOVE 6.8%. (Social Security recipients will receive a major boost come next January, following a 3.2% rise this past January.) While the constant purveyors of present-day gloom scare people with references to the truly frightening inflation of the early 1980s, they rarely mention the huge gap at that time between those runaway prices and the far more modest growth of wages under the policies of then-President Ronald Reagan. Obviously inflation is not a good thing. But the real (adj. for inflation) decline in the purchasing power of the average worker is roughly 2%, not 9%.
One other aspect of inflation that gets zero attention is the huge benefit enjoyed by the 69 million Americans who own their residences, one-third of those homes free of any mortgage. Since the beginning of Covid in March 2020, the average market value of their homes has risen by more then $80,000. This is equity against which homeowners can borrow should they choose to or money they will receive if and when they sell. But the inflation data include "rents" and those increases, while burdensome for renters, are only currently borne by those who have recently moved or whose leases have expired. I realize none of this fits on a bumper strip. But it is a reality that needs far greater attention to keep people from descending into a "slough of despond."
My friends and I cannot understand why it is a disgrace to show film of the police at Uvalde. Why aren't we hearing the screams and seeing pictures of the carnage, that is what these children had and their parents have to endure and all we are allowed is this sanitized version that keeps the horror of this type of weapon in the dark. Hooray for the TV station that had the fortitude to step out and at least show what the 'heroic' police were up to. Some of these children were so destroyed that they could only be identified by DNA. The public needs to SEE what this kind weapon is designed for.
Another excellent letter with great advice on how to become involved. A couple thoughts on Uvalde. First, the event and now the video lays to rest the ridiculous idea that the way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun! There were dozens of "good guys" -- trained police, or so we are told -- with all kinds of guns and body armor. So much for the good guy with a gun proposition. Second, the trained, heavily armored and armed police were clearly terrified of a single gunman with an AK47! They were scared. If we continue to allow individuals to own these weapons of war can we really expect the police to protect us? Isn't this yet another example of why we must ban such weapons from our society?
And my closing thoughts! Turns out the 10 year old pregnant victim of rape really existed, despite disclaimers from Fox, Rep. Gym Jordan and others, and had to flee from Ohio to Indiana to get an abortion in order to avoid the horror of carrying that fetus to term. Two points: First, no, a woman's (in this case girl's) body doesn't shut down and thus doesn't become pregnant when raped. What a stupid, stupid argument! (Nor, I'm sure, did she simply relax and enjoy it as some Republican's have recommended.) And second, this is a real-life example of the horrors brought upon our society by radical justices on the Supreme Court.
Dear Robert (and vital Managing Editor!!) — I appreciate your thinking and your words every day. Thank you both. Your conclusion this evening and particularly your “amendment” touched me with your respectfulness. As a therapist who addresses traumatically injured minds everyday, I find myself saying similar things to my clients. “You are right — that abominable event DID happen and it caused deep harm. And it’s also true, it could happen again. But something else could also happen. The past is done, but the future is uncertain. Let’s not imagine the future by locking our gaze on the past. In truth, the future is uncertain and the unexpected is always arising. Let’s see what you can do to help a new out come emerge.” It seems to me that people jam up when they get insistent about what IS GOING TO HAPPEN. That’s silly, right? Who knows the future? Robert, you do a beautiful job of being optimistic without being righteous or insistent. You hold an opening for your readers to see the present moment more clearly while also remaining open to a future that may well surprise us. You help me (and lots of others) keep heart as we act toward a future that needs us. ///. Please consider this very admiring Fan Mail!!! Warmly, Cynthia
Remarks about the rise of white nationalism are correct. As a practicing Jew I have noticed a rise in Anti-Semitism in the last 15 years. I live in Montana. My brother, who lives in NY, just began to notice it around 5 years ago. In a discussion I was wondering why it took so long for him to notice. On a brave note we have one of the bravest woman I have ever met living in Montana. Her name is Tanya Gersh. She was doxed and trolled by Andrew Anglin of The Daily Stormer. She has won a $14 million judgement against him. (The trial was eerie...I was there). Tanya has not only stood up to movement but risen above this experience. She talks about it. She travels around the country speaking only for expenses. Also, there is an Indie Film being made about her and a Holocaust survivor. These are the kind of people we need to stand up to hate and falsehoods. We have heroes in our midst. As as many signs say in shop windows in Montana "No Hate in our State."
I appreciate the deft manner in which you reframed the entreaty for optimism. The responsibility is not for the downtrodden or beleaguered to fix themselves, it is for those of us so fortunate to be able to self-correct back to optimism to share that empowerment with those who need it. Thank you for the heart you put into your thoughts.
Call on Congress to pass the Youth Voting Rights Act.
But I would say: call on the SENATE to pass H.R. 5746 which includes voting locations and registration not just on campuses and universities but across America, setting federal standards for voting laws so your zip code doesn't define what ID you need to vote, where ballot boxes are located, whether you have early voting, how elections are managed and validated, correcting State Legislative and Supreme Courts decisions which have been suppressing or reduce voting rights.
Here is how to contact your US Senators and in particular, speak to the offices of Senators Collins, Portman, Murkowski, Sinema, Manchin and Romney (after all: they represent all Americans when they vote or filibuster) and ask them to End The Filibuster and debate and vote on HR 5746.... EAsy to do: do it now.
https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm
Not voting is a vote for Donald Trump and the growing fascism/racism in America. To do nothing is not an option if you respect democracy.
With full respect to trauma survivors who have varying sensitivities and triggers, there are other "Debbie Downers," including men, whose defeatist comments are dis-spiriting--damping the energy of already-fatigued activists working hard on behalf of all of us. I think it is a reasonable request to contain one's hopeless comments to private communications and topical support groups, rather than a public forum, for the sake of the greater good.
As evident by Holocaust survivor memoirs, hope is a survival skill. Jessica Craven writes on her Chop Wood home page, "HOPE is an ACTION. 🔥" Action is wonderfully good medicine for feelings of hopelessness, and can start with something as simple as taking a walk outside.
Robert, haven’t you seen a profound shift in the thinking/emotional intelligence of so many? I think there must be a field in which hope, curiosity, tolerance builds generation after generation. My mother could not imagine defying the Catholic Church’s restrictions on birth control and so the “rhythm” method produced ten of us kids. Yet she was far from devout. It’s just that she had no other choice and died in great peace having left the institution of Catholicism behind. All this is to say that what our parents or grandparents couldn’t imagine as possible are 2nd nature to us , in less than two generations. Women now esp have agency, authority, self-definition. I share your radical optimism and thank you for the beautiful and deeply spiritual way you lift us up because you help us recognize we are not passive observers of our own fate, but co-creators in the great unfolding of Nature’s mysteries.
Optimism grows when your efforts and energies start to yield positive and wanted results. Optimism has to be more than just hoping something will happen. It grows when you are making things happen. Robert has documented tons of people getting engaged and making things happen like he mentioned today. But you need to carefully look around at what is happening. Voter registration in Kansas and Missouri has substantially increased and there is a shift towards the D’s and more younger voters are graduating from high school and over the summer registering to vote. There has been a reduction in voters who believe that Trump won the election and even a member of the Oath Keepers told the J6th committee that members of his organization and other similar organizations should “ take their blinders off”. The biggest thing that we should be optimistic about is the J6th hearings are doing something the D’s themselves could never do. More Republicans and Republican leaning Independents are listening to fellow Republicans during the hearing from Barr, Cipollone, etc categorically state they told the President there was no fraud and he lost the election. Many Trump insiders all delivered the same message and Trump choose not to believe them and believe the “ crazies”. Only Republicans can fix and take back their party and the optimism is that the J6th hearing is starting to do that slowly and momentum is building. Think about what that could mean and that is why we need your efforts and optimism now.
If Meadows flips, the whole conspiracy will come to light. In the sprit of Robert's optimism: I hope Meadows talks and talks honestly. Unfortunately - I think Meadows, Bannon et al are just fighting and fighting and praying that Kevin McCathy shuts down the Committee in January when he becomes speaker. It's incumbent upon all of us to vote blue to keep McCarthy's hand far away from the Speaker's gavel. His lust for power has long subsumed any remaining shred of morality he might once have had.
"Someone should drag Steve Bannon before a grand jury." Amen to that, along with the suggestion that someone should also drag Pat Cipollone, Ginny Thomas, Mark Meadows, Donald Trump and numerous others, including several members of congress, before grand juries as well. But it's not happening. Trump and his supporters have boldly demonstrated their intentions to place their hold
on power above the will of the voters in their criminal effort to pull off their coup d'etat and destroy what's left of America's experiment in representative democracy. Their actions are seditious and treasonous, yet no binding legal action ensues. Bearing in mind that patience is a virtue, it's also important to remember that we cannot afford to tolerate the Republican lawlessness that continues to evade the rule of law. Ignoring the Republican assaults on the traditions of democratic freedom and the laws of the land that support those virtues is not only bad for morale, it also undermines the credibility of the nation's institutions of governance. In short, our precious liberty as defined by the Constitution is at stake. Someone (Merrick Garland?) needs to squirt a generous shot of oil on the wheels of Justice and get the perps in question appropriately outfitted in orange jump suits.
Your optimism is not couched in phony bravado. It exists and persists, fully knowing the truth. That is a gift to us all…
I've discovered, after losing hope during the last several very dark years, that I literally must have optimism to survive. Thank you for your radical optimism. It helps as I try to find my way out of the darkness.
Another comment on the press. It bears repeating --- where are the headlines, naming again and again - the Republican members of Congress who have lied and continue to lie I have yet to see a bold headline -- GRAHAM DEFIES SUBPOENA REGARDING HIS CALL TO GEORGIA TO FIND VOTES
Perhaps the greatest source of pessimism and anxiety among nearly all Americans is the endless harping by the media on the recent burst of PRICE inflation. Persistent, indeed near daily, recitations of the escalating prices for a variety of key expenditures, most especially gasoline, keep all of us in thrall to a gloomy view of America's economic prospects. What is totally missing is any attention to the concomitant surge in WAGES. We have had the figure 9.1%, up from 8.7% a month earlier, of the year-on-year price increases drummed into our consciousness by the media. The so-called "liberal media" have been just as complicit as the shrill voices on the Right. How many of us, even those paying close attention to the news, are even vaguely aware that hourly wages--those of the great bulk of US workers--ROSE 6.8% for the 12 months ended May, 2022, per the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. This means that the average worker's purchasing power declined in these 12 months 1.9%--not a good thing but far from the scare headline number of 9.1%.
Of course not everyone has received these wage increases, especially those on fixed incomes. But that 6.8% average wage increase means that many workers have received pay increases well ABOVE 6.8%. (Social Security recipients will receive a major boost come next January, following a 3.2% rise this past January.) While the constant purveyors of present-day gloom scare people with references to the truly frightening inflation of the early 1980s, they rarely mention the huge gap at that time between those runaway prices and the far more modest growth of wages under the policies of then-President Ronald Reagan. Obviously inflation is not a good thing. But the real (adj. for inflation) decline in the purchasing power of the average worker is roughly 2%, not 9%.
One other aspect of inflation that gets zero attention is the huge benefit enjoyed by the 69 million Americans who own their residences, one-third of those homes free of any mortgage. Since the beginning of Covid in March 2020, the average market value of their homes has risen by more then $80,000. This is equity against which homeowners can borrow should they choose to or money they will receive if and when they sell. But the inflation data include "rents" and those increases, while burdensome for renters, are only currently borne by those who have recently moved or whose leases have expired. I realize none of this fits on a bumper strip. But it is a reality that needs far greater attention to keep people from descending into a "slough of despond."
My friends and I cannot understand why it is a disgrace to show film of the police at Uvalde. Why aren't we hearing the screams and seeing pictures of the carnage, that is what these children had and their parents have to endure and all we are allowed is this sanitized version that keeps the horror of this type of weapon in the dark. Hooray for the TV station that had the fortitude to step out and at least show what the 'heroic' police were up to. Some of these children were so destroyed that they could only be identified by DNA. The public needs to SEE what this kind weapon is designed for.
Another excellent letter with great advice on how to become involved. A couple thoughts on Uvalde. First, the event and now the video lays to rest the ridiculous idea that the way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun! There were dozens of "good guys" -- trained police, or so we are told -- with all kinds of guns and body armor. So much for the good guy with a gun proposition. Second, the trained, heavily armored and armed police were clearly terrified of a single gunman with an AK47! They were scared. If we continue to allow individuals to own these weapons of war can we really expect the police to protect us? Isn't this yet another example of why we must ban such weapons from our society?
And my closing thoughts! Turns out the 10 year old pregnant victim of rape really existed, despite disclaimers from Fox, Rep. Gym Jordan and others, and had to flee from Ohio to Indiana to get an abortion in order to avoid the horror of carrying that fetus to term. Two points: First, no, a woman's (in this case girl's) body doesn't shut down and thus doesn't become pregnant when raped. What a stupid, stupid argument! (Nor, I'm sure, did she simply relax and enjoy it as some Republican's have recommended.) And second, this is a real-life example of the horrors brought upon our society by radical justices on the Supreme Court.
I appreciate you more every day and more than I can even express in a Comment. Thank you!!