A Talk with a Young Politician
I just had the pleasure of meeting a freshly minted Boston College graduate who, in the fall, will become an intern for Democratic Whip (second highest ranking House Democrat) Katherine Clarke (pictured). The young man is quite excited about his new position, as he himself aspires to a career in politics.
A couple of highlights from our talk:
I told him that if I run into him in the future, I would love to hear everything he did to remove Trump from office. (I got a hearty chuckle in reply.)
He acknowledged that these are dark days for America, but he said, “If you’re going to be in politics, you’re going to run into both good and bad times. Falling prey to pessimism or despair isn’t a healthy approach.” To which I responded, “Hey, that’s profound. Go get ’em.”
We’re all seen graphics that remind us that blue states tend to be far wealthier that red states; one of which is at the left. Note that all the wealthiest top six states voted for Harris in 2024, and all the poorest eight voted for Trump.
As American actor Jeff Daniels points out, the United States finds itself on the brink of authoritarianism.
The answer to Dr. Goodall’s question at left is our intelligence is only part of the package that is humankind. We mustn’t forget about our greed, tribalism, and cruelty.
In fourth grade, at age 9, we learned how eclipses work, and why the garbage at left is impossible. How sad that, a generation or two later, we live among morons.
From 
I’m trying to guess how many replacements for wood we have around us. For decks alone, there are at least eight. We don’t have “a” company replacing wood as building materials; we have many dozens.
Being on some criminal’s “list” and writing letters about “beautiful secrets” are not crimes.
The strangest part about the Trump phenomenon in the United States is that, until very recently, this country had a profound reverence for its Founding Fathers and their perspective on how American government should function (see left).
The rest of the globe still can’t believe this has happened to the United States. Sure, it’s the type of thing that happens in developing countries constantly, but not here, where until recently, we were the envy of most of the peoples of the planet.
