AN OPEN LETTER TO BERNIE SANDERS

It's amazing, Bernie.  Your stamina is keeping you going day after day, month after month, with little rest in-between.  You arrive at your rallies, bare-headed and bald, ready to go whether it's rain, shine, or just downright cold (where's your hat?!).  You jump onto the plane, fly cross country or across ocean, jump off the plane, do what you need to do, then it's back to the plane again, retracing steps or creating new ones to the  next place, the next talk, the next rally.  When do you stop?!

You are not young anymore, Bernie.  In fact, you are my age, mid-seventies.  At this age, bodies are not meant to sustain constant abuse.  I know -- I've tried outrunning my years but it hasn't worked.  How is it for you Bernie?  Let's take stock.

When you begin your campaign, it seems a little like Donald Trump's -- not taken very seriously by you, thought of more like an experiment?  You seem relaxed, clear-thinking, speaking about ideas already voiced when you've been interviewed periodically as a Senator outside the Capitol building.  But this is new.  Here is your opportunity to have a wider audience, much wider, and it is invigorating.  You come across as a smiling, grandfatherly, well-meaning figure -- relaxed and ready to go.

Many months and many miles later, what do I hear, what do I see peering from my screen?  For the most part, the smiling and relaxed Bernie is gone.  Except for times when greeting picture-takers or supporters on a one-to-one basis, your personna comes across as grumpy, short-tempered, and argumentative.  Your words at rallies come more slowly; your voice more gravelly.  But these aren't the only problems that have emerged of late.  Consider the following.

Sarcasm has now become part of your public speaking, like in debates.  When responding to Hillary's assertions that she took big banks to task, you sarcastically berate her with something like, "And I bet they were really scared when you did that!"  Waving hands and arms in the air, you sound and look decidedly un-presidential.  

It isn't just the words you speak but also words from people like Dr. Song who precedes you at a New York rally.  He uses the phrase "corporate whore" referring, as everyone understands, to Hillary Clinton.  If the phrase weren't bad enough with a large amount of the crowd cheering, it takes you a full night of sleep to realize what had happened then respond with a tweet of "inappropriate" language.

More and more, especially in New York, your approach has been to use personal negative attacks against Hillary.  This is particularly puzzling because "going negative" is something you vow over and over that you will not do during your campaign.  In your talk now and in your campaign ads, you imply that Hillary can't be trusted and that she is corrupted by money.  You use baseless accusations to accuse her of illegal actions.  As a congressman, you are aware that, while in office, you cannot accept speaker fees.  But Hillary is not in office when she gives her speeches, so she has every right to accept fees.  You imply that her fees are taken illegally, or that she is corrupt because she take the fees.

You note the importance of transparency in the presidential race and keep demanding copies of Hillary's speeches.  And yet, Bernie, transparency is not a part of your campaign.  For example, this past weekend, you fly yourself and Jane, children and grandchildren, to Italy and the Vatican.  You say you are going despite the fact the trip is not part of your campaign; you would never forgive yourself if you didn't go, you say.  Prior to your leaving, Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC asks your wife how you are going to pay for the trip.  "I don't know," she responds.  This is someone who, from all accounts, figures your taxes every year.  Andrea later approaches Jeff Weaver, your Campaign Manager, with the same question.  "The Campaign will pay for it," he quietly responds.  There is no follow up question then and none since your return.

How, Bernie, can your campaign pay for your trip to the Vatican if the trip (and your speech) is not a part of your political campaign, something you repeatedly admitted?  Politicians time and again are tripped up by misuse of political campaign funds.  It would seem that you demand transparency on the part of Hillary Clinton when she gives speeches (about which there is no evidence of corruption), and yet, when it comes to you, there is no transparency at all.

The latest violations from Hillary's campaign, your campaign alleges, are that she and the DNC are in cahoots about a joint funding account and it's illegal, Jeff Weaver says.  "It must be stopped," Jeff Weaver says.  The truth is, Bernie, that the account Hillary has with DNC is also offered to your campaign.  It is signed early on, but never used.  Just as Donald Trump realizes that delegate-hunting is something he should have started long ago, so now your campaign is also found wanting.

It's sad.  "Hypocrisy reigns supreme," says someone describing your campaign.  Your current bombastic, self-righteous, and dishonest approach to running a presidential campaign is disappointing, to say the least.  How will it all end?  One of your advisers accuses Hillary of making "a pact with the devil".  Both you and your campaign need to get back to a higher level of rhetoric if we can expect to heal wounds and hold the White House this fall.   




 

PLOMing -- again

I got word the other evening from Carol's List that they are endorsing me as a pro-choice Democratic candidate for MT State House District 40 (Carol's List is the Montana group that works in conjunction with Emily's List, the national group that helps pro-choice Democratic women attain public office).  I stood up a little straighter and stuck out my chest a little further.  What an honor!  I've also been invited to attend a one-day training session with other endorsees of Carol's List in Helena in a week's time -- and to bring my "key campaign staff or lead volunteer".  I went to bed feeling excited and hopeful.  This is one endorsement for which I'd been encouraged to apply, and it has come through.  I'll celebrate and make plans tomorrow, I tell myself.

In the clear light of day, however, reality hits.  The catch in this whole thing is that there is no one with whom I can truly celebrate and I have no "key campaign staff or lead volunteer" to go with me to the training.  Running "blue" for office in a very "red" part of a "red" state can be a lonely endeavor.  This was true last time around in 2014, but that was an experiment and not taken too seriously.  This time my goal is to be out in the community, starting a conversation, mostly listening and learning, and also sharing my point of view (knowing full well that achieving election is a long way down the road, if ever -- gotta start somewhere though).

After several days of PLOMing (Poor Little Ole Me), I've decided to reframe my whole outlook, pulling myself out of this funk.  I can view this episode as an opportunity instead of a drawback.  How do I do that?

1.  Face the fact that I am a volunteer.  I get to choose where and how I spend my energies and my time.  If that's true, I must take responsibility for those choices and accept any results coming from them, whether positive or negative.
2.  Remind myself that change is a part of life (as I remind my daughter).  Life is different now than when I was in my thirties, forties.  Then, there were many other women who felt as I did, who changed with the times, who came to realize their own worth and to build on it. We formed consciousness-raising groups, encouraged and supported each other along the way.
     Now the "red-headed-ness" tenor of the country tries to quash that in any way possible.  "We know what's best for you," they say, "particularly if you're poor.  We will go backwards and take away your rights to affordable healthcare, to decide what is best for you when it comes to all healthcare including abortions.  We will not help you reach your full potential:  no equal pay for equal work, no affordable child care, no healthy planet on which to live, no being different from us, etc. etc.  It's NO!NO!NO!"  I can scream sometimes with the frustration of it all!
3.  Understand that there is at least one advantage to aging.  One can learn from past experience and become wiser in the process.  As tempting as it may seem at times, I will not go back to a time of non-awareness (as on "I Love Lucy" in other words).  I will not un-learn all the lessons from the past.
4.  Re-visit my actions and desires since moving to Montana.  How can I take what I've been doing and turn that into a meaningful, more uplifting project for the foreseeable future?  This election process in which I'm involved can be much more than imposing my viewpoint on others.  Through listening and learning from local residents, I can better appreciate their experiences and value their approach to life.  In that process, I learn more about our town -- as it is, as it was.  Much of the written history has been written by men, focused on men, like miners and ranchers, but very little on women and what they've achieved.  It's time to change that.
     Aging is not an easy process, for men or women.  I'm aware that one way for men to find solace and understanding in that process is to relate to other men through common ground, even if philosophies of life may differ.  For example, if enjoyment comes through a hobby or sports, relating to others on that level brings about a camaraderie that can transcend other differences.  The same thing can be true with women.  In my case, a greater understanding of other women's experiences, finding commonalities in our backgrounds despite philosophical differences, can bring about greater appreciation for their (and my) unique paths in life (hasn't worked so far with my sisters but maybe it's too early to give up).
     It's for this reason that recently I had been considering researching the process of aging in women.  Research would take the form of interviews with older women, learning from them how they have been able to work with the hand they'd been dealt.
5.  Use suggestions from others in the community (longtime residents and particularly female, those women who describe themselves as moderate Republicans -- and there is at least one, younger community activists) who will help guide my path.

Along the way, I may be able to complete a goal I'd set for myself in 2013.  It was to tell the stories of women in our community, compile them into one volume, and include them as part of the archives in Musselshell Valley Historical Museum (on whose Board I still sit).  What better culmination to a project that originally looked so daunting (activities connected to election-running, learning more about area history through eyes of women, create a bond with women who seem to sit on another side of the proverbial fence, and complete a long-held goal).

All the steps above can be achieved, more gradually than not.  But, if anything goes right at all, it may be that in my eyes, "red" won't seem so red, nor "blue" so blue.  If we get to purple and create some authentic understanding among us, that will be a healthy improvement!  And maybe a lot less PLOMing...

 

What are you Doing about the Real World, may I ask?

"Babies are MURDERED here," reads a hand-made sign as I pull into the parking lot of my destination.  A young woman holds the sign over her head and, across the long space of green, she gazes directly at my car.  Well, that's an interesting question, I muse, climbing out and beginning my vigil.  Just where is "here"?

My first thought of course is ISIS, or Daesh (a better name to use since the group hates it).  Yes, Daesh cruelly tortures/kills babies, children, adults, every one they hate.  I think of the toddler whose body washes up on a Mediterranean beach this summer.  Yes, he is murdered by many -- those in his country who make it impossible for families to be safe, those who peddle in human trafficking, and those who build fences bordering anti-refugee countries.  I think of the 14-year-old who has just starved to death early April, 2016.  Yes, Assad's Syrian government obstructs humanitarian aid to his village for the express purpose of killing him and his family.  I think of the very young to the very old who are murdered because of overwhelming numbers of guns (including assault rifles) flooding our country.  Yes, it happens daily because of the greed of NRA in the name of gun manufacturers.

But here?  No, Virginia, babies are not murdered at Planned Parenthood Health Centers.  Instead, violence here comes from extremists who, as in Colorado, murder bystanders in the parking lot or patients and staff inside the medical center.  Despite that, courageous doctors and nurses carry on.  They provide health care for women who arrive for medical consultations, preventive care, screenings, birth control pills.  The patient may also decide that, for her own health, an abortion, a constitutionally-sanctioned medical procedure, is necessary.

Open your eyes, Virginia, to where death really occurs.  Help ease burdens of refugee families.  After all, as Jesus taught in your Bible in Matthew 25:40, "Verily, I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."  Welcome to your neighborhood someone who may not look like you.  Help prevent rampant overflow of guns across our country.  Become educated on gun safety and how it can eliminate deaths of young children.  Join the real world.  Contribute time and money to those programs that can REALLY make a difference in peoples' lives.