I was walking with my daughter through a neighborhood in Portland last year.
From an upstairs window of a lovely home someone shouted "You're a freak - get out of this neighborhood ".
Of course anyone who knows me understands I wanted to go bang on that door and demand they come out and say it directly to us.... my daughter kept walking and without missing a beat told me to ignore it, that it happens and it's not worth my getting so angry - that she's used to it and let's it roll off of her.
How sad that someone gets "used to" having hate speech directed at them. It broke my heart in that moment. But it also made me realize that my daughter is just so freaking brave. She's my hero.
I'm also certain that she would never come back upstate to live, no matter how wonderful our local Pride chapter is. Whole different world here than the West Coast.
The level of vitriol towards the trans community can be seen on a daily basis via social media. I can't read the comments because I get angry. If I'm not angry I sink into despair so working on finding a place in the middle.
I recently found out that my daughter's dad voted for trump. Needless to say this is a huge problem within my family unit. It broke her heart, and their relationship at this point is non existent. I do not think it is repairable. I can't wrap my head around it and had to swear that I would not respond. Again, if you know me, I've about chewed my tongue off at this point.
I honestly believe that this administration wants to exterminate trans people. If they could load them up and make them disappear I think they would.
Listen to Nancy Mace screaming "tranny
tranny tranny " while conducting official business. Horrifying.
And who's next? None of us are safe....will it be the chronically ill next? Who gets to thrive in the new *Merica* ?
I think about leaving..but my daughter is a prisoner in America due to trumps new policies regarding trans travel. I can't leave her here.
So here we are.
Thank you for these columns. I can read the comments without losing my mind.
I saw congresswoman Nancy Mace R-SC, ignore protocol in the chamber and yell tranny, tranny, tranny all while wearing a crucifix around her neck or in her pierced ears. Jimmy Carter was a true Christian as is Bishop Budde. So sorry for your pain as your child merely seeks happiness and peace. Trump seeks to divide us and fill us with hate. As history has taught us time and time again, hate never ends well. You do, indeed, have a wonderful, compassionate daughter.
This sort of hate transforms the person who is expressing it. It's hard to watch Nancy Mace when she is inhabiting her hateful self, just like it's hard to look at photos of white people screaming at black children as they integrated schools in the South, and it's awful to look at the photos of smiling white people at a lynching
25 Years ago a young reporter at The Post-Star wrote a story called "Growing Up Gay" and we ran a photo on the front page of two men kissing. The phone calls and letters we received were the most vile I've ever seeen. Yet, 12 years later, New York passed marriage equality and being is more/less accpeted. I can only hope that will be the future, The story about "Growing Up Gay" is chronicled in The Last American Newspaper and the play version.
I remember that article. The last name of one of those two men was the same last name as a distant relative of my Father's first wife. When I was 5 or 6 years old, Dad, myself, and my Mother (my Dad's second wife) use to visit that distant relative. I was told to address this distant relative as Aunt R-----, even though she was not my Aunt. Dad passed away when I was 12. By my early 20's I was into genealogy. I have never been able to "connected the dots" regarding my Father's first wife; the who's, why's, and where's. I saved that article in hopes of someday speaking to one of these men to help me understand my Dad's earlier years. I have yet to connect with them but would like to some day. I hope these two men and similar couples are doing the best they can despite the turmoil in today's "Merica". If people looked in the mirror before casting a stone, they would not be breaking a window (or breaking their home and family apart).
Your daughter is blessed to have such a broad-minded and deep-hearted Mom like you, Beth Ann.
(One of my framed quotes is “I speak my mind…because it hurts to bite my tongue.”)
You, like Will, have enhanced our insight into parenting, with genuine unconditional love, through all your passionate writings. Despite the distance, and denial of your daughter’s travel rights right now, you will always be her bridge of Truth and Love for her to always feel “at Home” with you.
...[You are not, but] It would be easy [would it not?] to dehumanize: those [MAGA, et alia] who would dehumanize. But whoever said, "Two wrongs don't make a right" wasn't wrong: they were right...
The name of the diabolical sociopathic narcissist’s game is chaos. The dysfunction is being put in place for one reason and one reason only. It is to camouflage Constitutional destruction The orange monster and his minions are only interested in advancing a dictatorial agenda. If we are not vigilant, we will loose our democratic republic to the Fourth Reich.
There is no bottom to the cruel ignorance of this administration.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has been told to scrub all references to LGBTQIA or face defunding. The research indicates children who fit those descriptive are 3x as likely as those who don’t to become missing and/or exploited.
The most vulnerable people in our society are being targeted less than 3 weeks into this administration.
We have been told to never compare people to Nazis because somehow it denigrates those who suffered under Nazism, I guess?
The evidence shows our nation is in the hands of literal and figurative Nazis.
We cannot assume there is some level of cruelty too heinous for them to commit.
When Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde asked Trump for mercy at the National Cathedral inaugural prayer service, I was almost certain it was falling on deaf ears. We now have proof that it did. There is no humanity in the Trump administration.
Listening, storytelling, satire, journalism and poetry are just some of the places of refuge these days. Thanks for sharing this comforting place with us.
I vacillate between anger and dismay, and hope. But the hope is not that somehow Trump will find some empathy and wisdom or that the people around him aren’t as vile as they seem to be, but rather they will be so horrible while burning down what it took 249 years to build, that like a phoenix rising from the ashes a better, stronger America will emerge. We weren’t perfect before, obviously, because there was enough discontent for them to use to their advantage. Maybe the more perfect union will eventually arrive…I hope.
Thanks, Will, for this morning’s columns, and for sharing the Carella poem. Since I do not follow soccer very closely, I found the Banda piece and the emphasis on appearances to be of particular interest.
Since church worship was cancelled on this snowy morning, here is a text from the Good Book to go with the Banda piece: “…the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearances but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
(If our ultra-conservative friends can prooftext—cherry pick— why can’t the rest of us?)
This is how it's done. It's like attending a town hall type event that is crammed with red hats who are loudly cheering for the speaker. No. You're not going to convince this crowd that the speaker who is demonizing trans people is fundamentally wrong. That he is cruel, lacking in compassion, and - let's face it - ignorant of scientific fact. But by standing up and firmly stating your disagreement with the speaker, someone in that room who needed you in that moment heard you. A parent of a struggling teen, the struggling teen himself who feels utterly alone. You threw that soul a lifeline. And, maybe a few of the red hats listened and questioned their position.
That's what you did today, Will, and what you and Ken do every day. May you be blessed this day and all days.
I do not love Nancy Mace, whose shocking behavior and failure to understand ALL of humanity makes her despicable, no matter how many crucifixes adorn her.
In this new AMERIKA we are only OK if we're rich white Christian men. The rape of the agencies that take care of us will lead to misery and deaths, both here and abroad. And it will NOT lower the price of "GROceries." You will not see Donald and Elon in the supermarket either.
"The Danish Girl" came out in 2015 starring actor Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander and was based on the life of Danish painter and gender reassigned Lili Elbe who wrote the book "Man into Woman". It's both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Well worth the watch.
Reading the words of those who are trans, what I hear is their need to be authentic, to feel the integrity and fullness of their deepest being. The same with those who are gay, are lesbian...the recognition of who they are, of who they love-although it often means a struggle with what they have been taught, the words of parents, of culture, of church, all the socialization of a society and all the rejection that sometimes comes when they claim who they are and say, "I am, who I am." What is clear is the courage to be who one is. There is a cemetery in Brattleboro where I have seen a stone in the Jewish burial section for a Rabbi, gentle. kind, and wise. The stone speaks of the courage of the Rabbi in his/her later years to be who she was-and inscribes her female name.
The question I always have is why some hate, feel a rage, against someone for being who they are--of people who do no harm to them. What is the fear that provokes unexplainable violence against another, a fear that is clearly manipulated by those who want and need control and power. In terms of Nancy Mace when she was first elected I heard a quite wonderful interview with her. I respected her voice as a moderate Republican. She spoke thoughtfully about being a woman, of being raped at a young age; I actually called to thank her for her voice, her openness. Then something happened and she became strangely hateful...I thought what happened. What happens when we do not want to see, to become conscious, to allow in who we are. From where does that hate, that fear, spring?
Just to say, Will, thank you always for your deep consciousness....
That isn't our Constitution for the united States of America. That is the US corporation that over threw our country officially in 1871. It began will Abraham Lincoln's first 100 executive orders. The history of Lincoln is not what we were taught. Lincoln was bought by the same bankers who run the current shit show. The history books have been rewritten. I LOVE my country but not the government.
Lincoln vs. the Constitution | by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
We can each play a part in resisting the cruel policies and actions that are being implemented. Start with the organizations that are enablers.
Here’s a list. You know what to do: Write, Call, Email, Protest…Boycott.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2025/02/08/gm-pepsi-amazon-appear-to-remove-some-references-to-dei-from-annual-reports-here-are-all-the-companies-rolling-back-dei/
I was walking with my daughter through a neighborhood in Portland last year.
From an upstairs window of a lovely home someone shouted "You're a freak - get out of this neighborhood ".
Of course anyone who knows me understands I wanted to go bang on that door and demand they come out and say it directly to us.... my daughter kept walking and without missing a beat told me to ignore it, that it happens and it's not worth my getting so angry - that she's used to it and let's it roll off of her.
How sad that someone gets "used to" having hate speech directed at them. It broke my heart in that moment. But it also made me realize that my daughter is just so freaking brave. She's my hero.
I'm also certain that she would never come back upstate to live, no matter how wonderful our local Pride chapter is. Whole different world here than the West Coast.
The level of vitriol towards the trans community can be seen on a daily basis via social media. I can't read the comments because I get angry. If I'm not angry I sink into despair so working on finding a place in the middle.
I recently found out that my daughter's dad voted for trump. Needless to say this is a huge problem within my family unit. It broke her heart, and their relationship at this point is non existent. I do not think it is repairable. I can't wrap my head around it and had to swear that I would not respond. Again, if you know me, I've about chewed my tongue off at this point.
I honestly believe that this administration wants to exterminate trans people. If they could load them up and make them disappear I think they would.
Listen to Nancy Mace screaming "tranny
tranny tranny " while conducting official business. Horrifying.
And who's next? None of us are safe....will it be the chronically ill next? Who gets to thrive in the new *Merica* ?
I think about leaving..but my daughter is a prisoner in America due to trumps new policies regarding trans travel. I can't leave her here.
So here we are.
Thank you for these columns. I can read the comments without losing my mind.
I saw congresswoman Nancy Mace R-SC, ignore protocol in the chamber and yell tranny, tranny, tranny all while wearing a crucifix around her neck or in her pierced ears. Jimmy Carter was a true Christian as is Bishop Budde. So sorry for your pain as your child merely seeks happiness and peace. Trump seeks to divide us and fill us with hate. As history has taught us time and time again, hate never ends well. You do, indeed, have a wonderful, compassionate daughter.
This sort of hate transforms the person who is expressing it. It's hard to watch Nancy Mace when she is inhabiting her hateful self, just like it's hard to look at photos of white people screaming at black children as they integrated schools in the South, and it's awful to look at the photos of smiling white people at a lynching
25 Years ago a young reporter at The Post-Star wrote a story called "Growing Up Gay" and we ran a photo on the front page of two men kissing. The phone calls and letters we received were the most vile I've ever seeen. Yet, 12 years later, New York passed marriage equality and being is more/less accpeted. I can only hope that will be the future, The story about "Growing Up Gay" is chronicled in The Last American Newspaper and the play version.
I remember that article. The last name of one of those two men was the same last name as a distant relative of my Father's first wife. When I was 5 or 6 years old, Dad, myself, and my Mother (my Dad's second wife) use to visit that distant relative. I was told to address this distant relative as Aunt R-----, even though she was not my Aunt. Dad passed away when I was 12. By my early 20's I was into genealogy. I have never been able to "connected the dots" regarding my Father's first wife; the who's, why's, and where's. I saved that article in hopes of someday speaking to one of these men to help me understand my Dad's earlier years. I have yet to connect with them but would like to some day. I hope these two men and similar couples are doing the best they can despite the turmoil in today's "Merica". If people looked in the mirror before casting a stone, they would not be breaking a window (or breaking their home and family apart).
Your daughter is blessed to have such a broad-minded and deep-hearted Mom like you, Beth Ann.
(One of my framed quotes is “I speak my mind…because it hurts to bite my tongue.”)
You, like Will, have enhanced our insight into parenting, with genuine unconditional love, through all your passionate writings. Despite the distance, and denial of your daughter’s travel rights right now, you will always be her bridge of Truth and Love for her to always feel “at Home” with you.
My heart goes out to you! This administration is also.about dividing families and friends and neighbors, and creating chaos.
...[You are not, but] It would be easy [would it not?] to dehumanize: those [MAGA, et alia] who would dehumanize. But whoever said, "Two wrongs don't make a right" wasn't wrong: they were right...
Shocking, even in this horrendous point in
America's history. I admire your daughter' s courage and decision to be who she is.
The name of the diabolical sociopathic narcissist’s game is chaos. The dysfunction is being put in place for one reason and one reason only. It is to camouflage Constitutional destruction The orange monster and his minions are only interested in advancing a dictatorial agenda. If we are not vigilant, we will loose our democratic republic to the Fourth Reich.
There is no bottom to the cruel ignorance of this administration.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has been told to scrub all references to LGBTQIA or face defunding. The research indicates children who fit those descriptive are 3x as likely as those who don’t to become missing and/or exploited.
The most vulnerable people in our society are being targeted less than 3 weeks into this administration.
We have been told to never compare people to Nazis because somehow it denigrates those who suffered under Nazism, I guess?
The evidence shows our nation is in the hands of literal and figurative Nazis.
We cannot assume there is some level of cruelty too heinous for them to commit.
Only the humanities can save America.
I read a quote recently, a Sumerian proverb:
Do not bend your neck for that which cuts necks.
When Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde asked Trump for mercy at the National Cathedral inaugural prayer service, I was almost certain it was falling on deaf ears. We now have proof that it did. There is no humanity in the Trump administration.
Listening, storytelling, satire, journalism and poetry are just some of the places of refuge these days. Thanks for sharing this comforting place with us.
I vacillate between anger and dismay, and hope. But the hope is not that somehow Trump will find some empathy and wisdom or that the people around him aren’t as vile as they seem to be, but rather they will be so horrible while burning down what it took 249 years to build, that like a phoenix rising from the ashes a better, stronger America will emerge. We weren’t perfect before, obviously, because there was enough discontent for them to use to their advantage. Maybe the more perfect union will eventually arrive…I hope.
Thanks, Will, for this morning’s columns, and for sharing the Carella poem. Since I do not follow soccer very closely, I found the Banda piece and the emphasis on appearances to be of particular interest.
Since church worship was cancelled on this snowy morning, here is a text from the Good Book to go with the Banda piece: “…the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearances but the Lord looks on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7).
(If our ultra-conservative friends can prooftext—cherry pick— why can’t the rest of us?)
We are stronger together,trump an his. Regrind will be just a memory in 4 years if he plash s that long,democracy will prevail
...yes, To the N.C. Light Brigade- bright lights: in a dark time...
On another topic. And I don’t think the Post-Star has published this aspect of their lack of publication over the past week. It is due to a cybersecurity event. Could it be ransomware? User data compromised? https://augustafreepress.com/news/lee-enterprises-faces-cybersecurity-attack-affecting-news-operations-in-virginia-nationwide/
Other Lee newspapers have reported the cybersecurity attack.
It’s the whole chain. NYT reporting it also. I’m thinking no one in GF office around to do a localized story.
This is how it's done. It's like attending a town hall type event that is crammed with red hats who are loudly cheering for the speaker. No. You're not going to convince this crowd that the speaker who is demonizing trans people is fundamentally wrong. That he is cruel, lacking in compassion, and - let's face it - ignorant of scientific fact. But by standing up and firmly stating your disagreement with the speaker, someone in that room who needed you in that moment heard you. A parent of a struggling teen, the struggling teen himself who feels utterly alone. You threw that soul a lifeline. And, maybe a few of the red hats listened and questioned their position.
That's what you did today, Will, and what you and Ken do every day. May you be blessed this day and all days.
I LOVE the Light Brigade!
I do not love Nancy Mace, whose shocking behavior and failure to understand ALL of humanity makes her despicable, no matter how many crucifixes adorn her.
In this new AMERIKA we are only OK if we're rich white Christian men. The rape of the agencies that take care of us will lead to misery and deaths, both here and abroad. And it will NOT lower the price of "GROceries." You will not see Donald and Elon in the supermarket either.
"The Danish Girl" came out in 2015 starring actor Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander and was based on the life of Danish painter and gender reassigned Lili Elbe who wrote the book "Man into Woman". It's both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Well worth the watch.
Excellent movie.
Reading the words of those who are trans, what I hear is their need to be authentic, to feel the integrity and fullness of their deepest being. The same with those who are gay, are lesbian...the recognition of who they are, of who they love-although it often means a struggle with what they have been taught, the words of parents, of culture, of church, all the socialization of a society and all the rejection that sometimes comes when they claim who they are and say, "I am, who I am." What is clear is the courage to be who one is. There is a cemetery in Brattleboro where I have seen a stone in the Jewish burial section for a Rabbi, gentle. kind, and wise. The stone speaks of the courage of the Rabbi in his/her later years to be who she was-and inscribes her female name.
The question I always have is why some hate, feel a rage, against someone for being who they are--of people who do no harm to them. What is the fear that provokes unexplainable violence against another, a fear that is clearly manipulated by those who want and need control and power. In terms of Nancy Mace when she was first elected I heard a quite wonderful interview with her. I respected her voice as a moderate Republican. She spoke thoughtfully about being a woman, of being raped at a young age; I actually called to thank her for her voice, her openness. Then something happened and she became strangely hateful...I thought what happened. What happens when we do not want to see, to become conscious, to allow in who we are. From where does that hate, that fear, spring?
Just to say, Will, thank you always for your deep consciousness....
Will’s words summarize the Truth,
Beth’s word’s summarize Unconditional Love, Bernice’s words summarize the simple meaning of Peace.
To read words from all three of you today helps me cling to hope just a little bit tighter.
Thank you!
May Truth, Love and Peace help to inspire us all.
That isn't our Constitution for the united States of America. That is the US corporation that over threw our country officially in 1871. It began will Abraham Lincoln's first 100 executive orders. The history of Lincoln is not what we were taught. Lincoln was bought by the same bankers who run the current shit show. The history books have been rewritten. I LOVE my country but not the government.
Lincoln vs. the Constitution | by Thomas J. DiLorenzo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVmgUqv8ZcE&t=203s