There's no healing in America.

America is a Gun

England is a cup of tea.    
France, a wheel of ripened brie.    
Greece, a short, squat olive tree.    
America is a gun.

Brazil is football on the sand.      
Argentina, Maradona's hand.      
Germany, an oompah band.  
America is a gun.

Holland is a wooden shoe.    
Hungary, a goulash stew.      
Australia, a kangaroo.    
America is a gun.

Japan is a thermal spring.    
Scotland is a highland fling.      
Oh, better to be anything      
than America as a gun.

Brian Bilston

Ethics mean nothing to people who have no shame.

                No shame = No accountability 

Has American culture normalized violence?        
Normalization creates complacency.

"This earth of ours is a very violent place to live and we're a very violent species."    
-- Anne LaMott

School shootings continue and Congress shamelessly lacks the will to do anything about it.    
Do we care that kids are being killed in our schools?    
Why do we not exert the energy to elect lawmakers who support gun safety and are committed to passing legislation that creates gun-free zones in proximity to our schools?     
In America today there are congressional representatives who flaunt combat ready weapons as a show of patriotism.

We have no shame.

No one person in our government should wield the power Joe Manchin presumes is his to wield.    
It is fair to question Joe Manchin's motivations and his ethics if he fails to honor his prior commitments after months of productive negotiations.

"By way of example, families all around West Virginia and the country will soon receive their last check from the Child Tax Credit program and, as such, thousands of families here at home will once again fall beneath the poverty line," not to mention failing to provide free preschool and aid for child care.  
In the face of climate change, Manchin would be choosing to "shield the carbon extraction industry of his native state from further economic erosion, and simultaneously protecting his accumulation of wealth in his own business portfolio."

Joe Manchin touts himself as a "man of his word".      
If he wants to oppose the Build Back Better legislation, "He should have the opportunity to do so with a floor vote as soon as the Senate returns."

Representative Pramila Jayapal is relentlessly constructive.

America's largest coal mining union that represents West Virginia coal miners is urging Joe Manchin to "revisit his opposition" to the Build Back Better Act. The United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) listed out the ways the BBB legislation would benefit the coal miners he was elected to represent.    
The UMWA also supports passage of voting rights legislation, and strongly encourages Joe Manchin and every other Senator to be prepared to do whatever it takes to accomplish that.

There is no planet B.    
If we want to keep our republic, we need leaders who work for the common good.    
Voting rights is not a partisan issue, debate should be allowed on the Senate floor.

Reality is paradoxical.    
Wisdom and judgment are a transformation of consciousness and mere intelligence. Wisdom and judgment are the ability to bear the contradictions of reality, to embrace loyalty to what is and risk for what needs to be.

"Liberals' scrutiny creates cynical people for whom life is about being informed on issues to be fixed.

"Conservatives hunker down on their own and call it "good";    
the illusion of what already is is to be trusted.

"Liberals and conservatives offer us a choice between 'unstable correctness' and 'stable illusion'."

Formidable challenge lies ahead in 2022; creeping darkness is on the threshold. There is a determined effort by some to redefine the meaning and practice of democracy. We live in the context of rumors, innuendos, lies, and whacky conspiracy theories. We can't even agree about the efficacy of vaccines, dismissing the efforts and knowledge of public health professionals.  

This is not good news in heartbreaking times.      
Good people are afraid to speak up; others are fatigued.

It is necessary that we challenge the darkness of our time, that we stare down the hatred that wants to stop us in our tracks.    
Along with the bridge-builders, the activists, and the fact-checkers, we must join with those with the gift of humor and others with the gift of tears, and motivated by noble ideals, be brave.

Courage in 2022! to bear the contradictions of reality, and with wisdom and judgment move forward, loyal to what is and risk for what needs to be.

Persuasion matters.

Yes, cases of Omicron are surging,

it's a grim story of a highly transmissible variant of COVID-19,

but let's not downplay the fact that Vaccines are Working,

Vaccines are Saving Lives.

Let's expect positive coverage

and upgrade to more effective masks.

We must never forget January 6. We saw an inflamed mob attack Congress performing its Constitutional duty.    
We have seen domestic violence metastasize into a political cancer attacking local school boards, election officials, medical personnel; infesting a political party to attack the whole electoral process to prevent free and fair elections.      
It's not over, the threat continues.      
What are we going to do about it?

What we have learned in the past year is that we need honor for our country, based on our Constitution and the rule of law, to function properly. If we no longer value facts and truth there is no honor; if fairness no longer guides our actions there is no honor. Honor is not something that can be legislated or enforced; it is a norm of behavior which lies at the heart of who we understand ourselves to be, inculcated in us by family and community. Without honor and commitment to work for the common good we will not keep our Republic.

We cannot take the survival of our republic for granted.

There are U.S. Senators behaving like a "confederacy of dunces" while our hospitals are overcrowded with people infected with COVID, and depleted medical teams who are working to exhaustion to save their lives.

The urgency of now is upon us.
Do we want democratic principles to survive?    
Our country is in a moment of decision.

Superathlete voices now send the message that they are exempt from our common struggle. They owe nothing because they create so much. They are the value. They are why we watch. Heroic professional athletes have chosen to diminish themselves by focusing completely on themselves, unburdened by community or responsibility to others.

The Australian Open is nicknamed the "Happy Slam" because of the customary festive energy on the grounds. But now in the arena of his greatest dominance, Djokovic faces heightened distrust and hard feelings, with continued risk of deportation. In winning the possibility to play, Djokovic has already lost, his athletic prowess tarnished before maybe, maybe not, he hits his first ball of the tennis season.

-- with attribution to Howard Bryant, ESPN