In just one week

Today is the 3rd day of the 44nd week, the 29th day of the 10th month, the 303rd day of 2024, and:

• International Internet Day - the anniversary of the first "node-to-node" communication between two computers in 1989 via ARPANET.  Just stop and think about all the changes we have seen in the past 35 years!   
• National Cat Day
• National Hermit Day
• National Oatmeal Day
• Snowmobile Day
• UNESCO World Coding Day 
• Vote Early Day
• World Psoriasis Day
• World Stroke Day
• Voyager 1 is ~22h 58m 04s of light travel time from Earth (2024:303:120000:1L)

Quote of the day:

"Try not to turn away from those whose appearance is disturbing, from the ragged and unwell. Try never to think of them as inferior to yourself. If you can, try not even to think of yourself as better than the humblest beggar. You will look the same in your grave."

~  The Dalai Lama, “Consider Yourself a Tourist”

There has been an awful lot in the news about homeless people and immigrants and some very unkind things being said about both.  

I have to admit that I myself neither like nor trust beggars, and when I see them on the street corners approaching cars, I make sure my doors are locked because I am uneasy.  I was not at all comfortable with people sleeping in my building at The Enclave and worried about those times when I had to be out and about at odd hours on my own.  So, when you come right down to it, I don't feel like I have the high moral ground here and am not free to get preachy.  

But I don't feel the need to demonize them either.  It is important to acknowledge their humanity, and accept that they too have the same basic rights as any other being.  And it is equally important to acknowledge the fact that I am precariously perched in my privilege - like many of us, I am just one illness, one job loss, one accident, one disaster away from being homeless myself.  

And,  for the first time, I find myself contemplating that someday my political views might indeed label me "an enemy within" and have the consequence of sending me or my family into an irreversible tailspin that could result in seeking asylum elsewhere.  That is an uncomfortable thought and makes me look at the immigration issues in a different way, imagining the horrors of everyday life that would make an entire family just pick up and leave for another country, not even knowing if they can get in or not.   And even if I could get in at 74, how would I function?

And if I stay, how would a fare in a criminal court if tried for "political crimes"?  Would I end up in prison or in a concentration camp doing forced labor - or would I be discarded because I am not fit?  Would my family be persecuted because of my activities?  What would happen to them?  Both are disabled, would they be also thrown into a camp and slated to be eliminated?  What about my blind friend?  Would she also be considered a burden on society and euthanized? 

American concentration camps have happened before, after all....    And the billionaire owners of media are either hunkering down or joining the forces advocating for just such camps.  

In the early 1930's, few Germans recognized that was going to be the end result of the rising power of the Nazi party's when they agreed that the socio-economic landscape proved that democracy had failed and it was time to try something different.

In 2020 we found out that there were people here, right here in my country, who felt the same way and were willing to force their opinion on the rest of us.  Will they succeed in 2024?

There isn't a whole lot I can do to stop it from happening again other than support those who stand against it with my voice and my vote. I continue to feel that there are more of us who believe in the current system with all its flaws than want to try autocracy or oligarchy.  But if we are going to prove that theory, we have to all show up and VOTE

Get out and let your voice be heard this election.   Whether you vote via mail-in/drop box, participate in early voting, or stand in line next Tuesday, don't sit this one out.