Joe Biden is deeply saddened by what we all saw happen in Afghanistan four days ago, but he stands squarely behind his decision to end the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. I stand squarely with President Biden's sadness and with his decision to end the U.S. mission.      
Joe Biden is the fourth U.S. President to oversee a U.S. deployment in Afghanistan, and said he "will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth president." Age is manifesting itself in Joe Biden with courage his three younger predecessors - George W Bush, Barack Obama, Donald Trump - did not display.    
The realistic choice former President Trump's signed 2020 deal with the Taliban left President Biden was to either pull out or double down, given the Taliban's strength and willingness to attack Americans if their deal with Trump fell apart.

Yesterday we lost 100 Americans to gun violence, 1000 Americans to Covid-19. We lost no Americans in Afghanistan.

My support of President Biden does not preclude my wish that withdrawing from the mission in Afghanistan was a more orderly process, that the rights of women were more secure, and our allies there protected. Yet I doubt there was any way to withdraw from Afghanistan without chaos. We have spent 20 years trying to drag Afghanistan into the 20th century, forget the 21st. It is clear the majority of Afghans are not committed to that goal. There are threats to the U.S. and human rights problems all over the world including here in the U.S.    
President Biden's choice was either to follow through on Trump's signed agreement with the Taliban to withdraw our forces or to escalate the conflict and send thousands more American troops back into combat in Afghanistan.

Have you heard of "The Human Library"?        
The Human Library is an international organization and movement that first started in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2000, to promote human rights and forge new connections between people which ultimately creates social cohesion. Human Libraries provide an intentional space where real people are "Books" that are on loan to "Readers" who have the opportunity to listen to first-hand stories and ask questions to learn about people they would not normally meet. People are challenged to work through stereotypes and prejudices through empathetic dialogue. The Human Library Organization is active in more than 80 countries including the U.S. where there's been a special interest and significant growth. There are a few permanent permanent Human Libraries but most happen as events.

Oshkosh Area Public School District reversed its previous (masks are optional) COVID-19 protocols to require students, staff, and visitors to wear face masks in Oshkosh public school facilities. In fact, the school district's call for optional masking on school buses is outside the school district's purview. The Department of Transportation requires people to wear masks inside public transit which includes school buses.  
As they should, the school district's new protocols requiring face masks regardless of vaccination status as the delta variant of the coronavirus spreads across the country now align with protocols issued by the City of Oshkosh and UW Oshkosh. This is the time to protect our children's health and the collective good.

"The zone where two communities overlap, called an ecotone, shares characteristics of both communities and therefore is diverse. That is, the edge of a community is more diversified than it's center, a phenomenon also known as "edge effect." ...the region where the land and sea overlap...is one of the best examples of edge effect in the world."      
-- Allan Schoenherr 

"Edges are odd. If one doesn't surrender to fear at the edge... people at edges learn to cooperate in creative ways to solve problems. 'Edge theory' in environmental science has long noted that edges are places of great bio-diversity... If we overcome our fear of being on the edge (not lost in what's familiar), the edge emerges as a location of possibility, innovation, community, and transformation... At the edge, there is danger and fear. But it transforms us. (If) we face it, steady ourselves, just perhaps, (we'll) see the horizon of our own lives and future differently... we might just find the courage to... get on with the work... (the) journey to heal this broken world. Toward a horizon of hope."    

-- Diana Butler Bass

A Prayer for Afghanistan

"For those who are fleeing: sanctuary  
 For those who are staying: safety
 For those who are fighting: peace
 For those whose hearts are breaking: comfort
 For those who see no future: hope"
-- Unsure of the origin

Indeed there are consequences for poor decisions, some of which could kill us.    
As Jamelle Bouie wonders in the New York Times, "Might those so adamantly working against public health recommendations accurately be described as 'pro-Covid'?"

Pro-life actions some have taken: A jab. Another jab. A mask... A third jab when eligible.

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters by Portia Nelson

Chapter 1
I walk down the street.    
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.    
I fall in.    
I am lost... I am helpless.    
It isn't my fault.      
It takes me forever to find a way out.

Chapter II 
I walk down the same street.    
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.      
I pretend I don't see it.      
I fall in again.    
I can't believe I am in the same place  
but it isn't my fault.        
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter III
I walk down the same street.      
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.      
I see it is there.      
I still fall in... it's a habit.      
My eyes are open.          
I know where I am.    
It is my fault.        
I get out immediately.

Chapter IV  
I walk down the same street.    
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.      
I walk around it.

Chapter V
I walk down another street.

(I'm getting better at recognizing and avoiding holes. jke)

You don't like President Biden's new vaccination rules? How would you do better? What do you propose to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control? What's your plan?

Again we are facing a dire COVID-19 emergency.    
Hospitals across the country are staggering under the pressure of overflowing ICUs.

We have the tools to mitigate the COVID-19 catastrophe.      
What is Republicans' alternative to vaccine mandates?
Republicans have the power and responsibility to help bring about solutions.

Unless Republicans stop their unstinting opposition to President Biden and start offering solutions rather than devoting their policy energies against vaccine passports and mask mandates, we are left to conclude they are encouraging COVID's spread.

"Are Republicans engaged in an organized, party-wide effort to sabotage our national COVID response?" might not be the right question to ask.
The reality of Republicans' response to COVID is nuanced: at best, Republicans are demonstrably seeking to undermine confidence in vaccines (and masks) in ways that lack serious or discernible public interest rationale and go far beyond mere standard-issue GOP suspicion of government mandates, for plainly instrumental purposes.

"The Republican response deserves scrutiny on its own, as a form of deceptive bad-faith conduct in public service that is itself a big contributor to our crises. The Republican response should not be merely accepted as a natural and inevitable background condition of our politics."

Opinion by Greg Sargent, The Washington Post, September 13, 2021

Chaos does not help us achieve policy goals or solve problems. Chaos can make it impossible for anyone to govern. The farther we're pulled down that path, the harder it will be to return to governance and for America to survive. Republicans are embracing Chaos Conservatism to defeat Democrats and President Biden. The sad reality is that the chaos threatens to poison our entire national life.    
-- with attribution to Paul Waldman, The Washington Post, September 14, 2021

Who can forget the words: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." ?      
from A Tale of Two Cities, the 1859 historical novel written by Charles Dickens.        
No way the words in his famous introduction would be considered for a novel telling the story of our time.

More likely the words Thomas Paine wrote in December 1776 to begin his essay Crisis: "These are the times that try men's souls."

Harrowing as those days were for our fledgling nation, Thomas Paine's words could as easily be said today.

History will record that over the past two years our country has been tested as never before. We were struck with a pandemic that has slain close to 700,000 and counting Americans. In the ensuing months of a national shutdown we suffered an economic decline similar to the market crash in l929. Racially motivated police brutality led to increased urban unrest. Things only got worse when we moved into a viciously disputed national election. This led to the Presidentially inspired insurrection of January 6 which threatened our Democracy in a moment that resembled firing on Fort Sumter. And then a second impeachment of the U.S. President who was impeached only a year before.

All of this has been accompanied by right-wing news and social media that have served up lies and false conspiracies to a public reeling from the traumas of our time, coupled with a political party hell-bent on attacking science and empirical evidence.

We are living in a toxic brew.

Special thanks to our public servants (particularly at the local level) who must suffer the irrational anger of those demanding they neglect their duty. There is no tougher office than school board member in the midst of the Covid pandemic.
Parents of our young are struggling to keep their heads above the water line to give their children as normal a life as possible under the threat of Covid-19.

Nevada's Clark County has adopted a resolution declaring misinformation about COVID-19 a public health crisis.

"COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on our economy, our children's education, and the health and safety of our community, and the spread of false and misleading information has only made matters worse.

"It's important for our governing board to declare health misinformation as a public health crisis and commit to doing all we can to combat the falsehoods that continue to jeopardize the lives of our citizens."

-- Commissioner Justin Jones

Without facts there is no truth,  
without truth there is no trust,    
without trust there is no democracy.

President Biden is in Scotland, and Senator Joe Manchin took the opportunity to angrily insist he's not ready to commit to the reconciliation package. The child tax credit represents one of the most effective youth anti-poverty efforts in modern history, but Manchin's concern seems focused on protecting billionaires rather than investing in America.

Again today Manchin came out to push back against the reconciliation package.

Are we up to democracy?    
Living in a democracy takes work.

"The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well."    
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Commonwealths were formed to provide for the "common wealth" of its citizens.    
A community formed for the common wealth is a community formed for the common good and welfare of all - commonwealth is a traditional term for a political community that makes laws to protect its citizens.

There are four U.S. states officially designated as Commonwealth of ----

three were original colonies: Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Massachusetts.
Back when the colonies declared their independence from England, Kentucky was a county of Virginia which extended west to the Mississippi River. In 1792, Virginia's Kentucky County became its own state, and took on the name, Commonwealth of Kentucky.