Summer

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I am inclined to believe that the summer of the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army, 2025, will be the time we, the people of the United States of America, decide on our future as a nation.   This is OUR decision, not “THEIR”….  What will YOU do this summer?

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In these parts, the time called “summer” basically starts with Memorial Day weekend (this year May 24-26), and ends with Labor Day (this year Sep 1), more or less 100 days.  Nowhere is this written in statutes, but I don’t think I’m off base when it comes to colleague citizens.

I’ve had this writing ‘hobby’ for over 20 years, and I’m not done yet.  What I am going to try to do in the coming 100 or so days is to just do my thing, but not send out reminders of new posts.  I will keep writing.

For me, life is normal.  If you’re wondering what’s on my mind any time, just check in and look at the archive for the time period in question, for instance, May, 2025.

If you go to the May archive, you’ll find four recent posts: May 23 (Federal Budget), May 25 (George Floyd & Gandhi Mahal), May 26 (Memorial Day), and May 31 (my Congresswoman Betty McCollum’s Town Hall, please read).  I’ve also added a few items at the beginning of my blog on the new Pope, May 8.

As for upcoming posts, I have no idea, except I doubt there’ll be much dead air.  There is a huge number of crucial issues, and credible sources of deeper information, especially Heather Cox Richardson (current and past history) and Joyce Vance (Law) and many others readily accessible (see below).

The temptation is to make predictions.  I won’t.  Every one of us needs to be “on the court”, in particular this summer.  There are countless options everywhere.  Everything is in play, it seems, and not for the ordinary citizens….

I find a wealth of reliable information on-line.  I emphasize “reliable” – information I can trust.  Top of my daily list is historian Heather Cox Richardson, and Law professor Joyce Vance.  Tim Snyder and Ruth ben-Ghat are sources on fascism, specifically.  (under their names is the link to their most recent post).  There are many others.  Most of my sources are part of Substack.  The ones I most rely on, I subscribe to, even if I can get them for free.  We take expertise for granted.

I keep up the subscription to the daily Minnesota Star Tribune (of which, I’ve been keeping the front section since Jan 20, 2025).  I also pay the minimal subscription rate to New York Times to keep occasional articles accessible.  Freedom is not free.

Below is my favorite tee-shirt piece of advice, seen at a demo at the Minnesota State Capitol on May 17.  Use this as your motto for the remainder of the 100 days of “summer” and on into the following months and years.

Have a good summer.

Political tee-shirt at MN State Capitol May 17, 2025

Looking back to November 5, 2024

I took an interest in the actual vote and the above graphic was as reported by the Associated Press days before the required report on election results to Congress in early January, 2025.
Of course, “Not Voting” was not part of the report.  I did the best I could to ascertain the number of eligible voters, and from that how many likely did not vote at all.  Of course, some who do not vote have legitimate reasons – unexpected illness, injury and the like.  But the vast majority of that 90 million (or whatever) were simply people who didn’t make participation, even in only the presidential elecion, a tiny priority.  Many didn’t know who the candidates are or didn’t even care.  And that’s how their (and our) democracy can die…simple lack of interest.