Beth Klein Boulder Attorney suggests ways and reasons to help refugees.

“Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

As America balances on the head of the pin of the future, two camps firmly believe in polar opposite scenarios about refugees.  And each camp is entrenched in a siloed world view, and the silos must be broken.

Over the past year nationalism has vilified terrified Syrians running for their lives and made them virtual human punching bags with a tiny chance of fleeing to the United States.   So little truth is known, but red-Americans firmly believe that the United States’ interests are served by shutting out the terrified refugees.  Helping refugees and ensuring education and safety is the better path.  Beth Klein Boulder’s suggestions on how to get into action instead of just believing are at the bottom of this essay.

About 5 million Syrians have fled since the war began in 2011. The U.S., which took in only about 2,000 refugees in the first several years of the war, has increased the number to about 12,000 this year. The federal resettlement program is administered via nine agencies that depend on the work of volunteers.

More than 4.5 million refugees from Syria are in just five countries Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt:

Turkey hosts 2.5 million refugees from Syria, more than any other country worldwide

Lebanon hosts approximately 1.1 million refugees from Syria which amounts to around one in five people in the country

Jordan hosts approximately 635,324 refugees from Syria, which amounts to about 10% of the population

Iraq where 3.9 million people are already internally displaced hosts 245,022 refugees from Syria

Egypt hosts 117,658 refugees from Syria

The UN’s 2015 humanitarian appeal for Syrian refugees was just 61% funded by the end of the year.  Funding shortages mean that the most vulnerable Syrian refugees in Lebanon receive just $21.60 per person month or around US$0.70 cent a day for food assistance, well below the UN’s poverty line of $1.90.  86% of Syrian refugees in urban areas in Jordan are living below the local poverty line.

Selfish memes garner electronic blue thumbs up on Facebook.  Then sorrowful memes of pictures of dead children – how did we stand by and watch this happen?  Neither are useful to middle class people reduced to nothing and starving.  Action matters.

How can we, the privileged and “exceptional”, be debating hope in the face of Aleppo and the Syrian diaspora.  How can kind people become so fearful, that they turn away from kindness?  When kindness turns away, a violence becomes a reality.  Violence becomes the norm birthed from fear and horror.

Sunday, 47 children inside the orphanage near the front line in eastern Aleppo  some in “critical condition from injuries and dehydration” were bused out of hell There are many other “vulnerable children” among untold thousands of people still inside eastern Aleppo, according to estimates from the U.N. and humanitarian agencies.

France’s U.N. ambassador , Francois Delattre, urged immediate deployment of U.N. monitors to former rebel-held eastern Aleppo to avoid new atrocities. The goal of the French-Russian compromise resolution adopted Monday is to avoid a repetition of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre of nearly 8,000 Bosnian Muslims – “to avoid new mass atrocities by the forces on the ground and the militias in particular.”

On Monday buses drove residents toward the western countryside, where aid workers greeted them. Many were exhausted and distressed after a nightmarish journey from an area that U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has described as a “synonym for hell.  About 5,000 people have been bused out since midnight, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross, bringing the total number of evacuees to 15,000. Buses are expected to run through the night.

Despite what is said by France, the Russian Federation denies and  questions reports of “mass atrocities every day.”  But today, solitary men on shoestring budgets can bring superpowers to the knee for a time – with violence and horror.

The UN human rights office said it had reliable evidence that up to 82 civilians were shot on the spot by government and allied forces who entered their homes, or at gunpoint in the streets, over the past few hours.

“The reports that civilians – including children – are being massacred in cold blood in their homes by Syrian government forces are deeply shocking but not unexpected given their conduct to date. Such extrajudicial executions would amount to war crimes,” said Lynn Maalouf, Deputy Director for Research at Amnesty International’s Beirut Regional office.

“Throughout the conflict Syrian government forces, backed by Russia, have repeatedly displayed a callous disregard for international humanitarian law and utter disdain for the fate of civilians. In fact, they have regularly targeted civilians as a strategy, both during military operations and through the mass-scale use of arbitrary detention, disappearances and torture and other ill-treatment. As government forces gain full control of eastern Aleppo the risk that they will commit further atrocities raises grave fears for thousands of civilians still trapped.

Consider:

Donate or Volunteer With the International Rescue Committee

The International Rescue Committee works globally and has been providing critical humanitarian aid to Syrians since 2012. They provide services from cash vouchers for Syrians to purchase food, legal assistance, employment, and education.

The IRC will be providing $100 to 500 of the most vulnerable families fleeing the current situation in Aleppo. While supporting 12 health facilities in Idleb governorate and five schools providing an education for 4,000 children.

In the United States, you can sign up to volunteer at a local resettlement office.

Donate to International Red Cross

The International Red Cross is standing at the ready to help Syrians still trapped in Eastern Aleppo. You can support their efforts to treat the wounded, make sure children are properly fed and cared for, and to get people to safety as quickly as possible by donating.

Work for refugees when they can’t

Double up your support by donating your time and money to refugees. Fear that refugees will take jobs, and lack of economic opportunities for refugees contributes to a difficult environment for refugees to generate income. Combine this with the lengthy time it takes to process work visas for refugees and it can be hard for refugees to feed their families.

This is part of what inspired #WorkforRefugees. A project from World Vision New Zealand where students contributed a portion of their earnings to charities supporting refugees.

You can do this too. Donate a small portion of your effort to show support for refugees and #WorkforRefugees to show your efforts.

Translate for a Syrian refugee

Lend your time in any way you can with the skills and tools you have. If you’re bilingual, especially in Arabic, you have a great opportunity to help. Donate your time by translating for Syrian refugees. Being in a place where you don’t speak the language can be intimidating. Signing up to translate is a great way to help refugees understand their rights and surroundings in a new environment.

Help with legal support

Refugees need help navigating complex laws around immigration status too.A group of law students realized that both could benefit from working together and created an organization that pairs law students and professionals with refugees (15 percent are Syrian) in need of legal assistance. I

f you have experience, or are looking to gain experience in the legal field you can join the International Refugee Assistance Project.

Support doctors and medical needs

Doctors without Borders, also known as MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières), provides support in Aleppo, and has doctors working in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.
Airbnb your apartment or room with refugees

Through Refugees Welcome you can sign up to provide shelter to refugees by renting to them or offering to invite them in and room with them. The organization will even help you pay your rent and cover extra utilities.

If you need further details on how you can help, I am here to help you find a powerful connection.  Please leave a comment for Beth Klein Boulder Attorney, and let’s see what we CAN do.

 

 

 

 

Who are the electors -give them a call.

Here is a list of the Electors and their current position on their vote. I have also included whether they are mandated to vote in a certain way. Consider talking to them and please let me know who you called and the results.

Alabama
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Perry O. Hooper Jr., Pike Road, At-Large
Grady H. Thornton, Birmingham, At-Large
Frank Burt Jr., Bay Minette, CD1
Will B. Sellers, Montgomery, CD2
James Eldon Wilson, Montgomery, CD3
Tim Wadsworth, Arley, CD4
J. Elbert Peters, Huntsville, CD5
Mary Sue McClurkin, Indian Springs, CD6
Robert A. Cusanelli, Carrollton, CD7

Alaska
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Sean Parnell, Palmer
Jacqueline Tupou, Juneau
Carolyn Leman, Anchorage

Arizona
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

J. Foster Morgan, Glendale — The youngest elector, at 19.
Walter Begay Jr., Kayenta
Bruce Ash, Tucson – National Committeeman
Sharon Giese, Mesa
James O’Connor, Scottsdale
Jerry Hayden, Scottsdale
Robert Graham, Phoenix – State Party Chairman
Edward Robson, Phoenix
Carole Joyce, Phoenix
Alberto Gutier, Phoenix
Jane Pierpoint Lynch, Phoenix
Arkansas
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Jonathan Barnett
Jonelle Fulmer
Keith Gibson
Tommy Land
John Nabholz
Sharon R. Wright

California
Electors: 55, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Dustin R. Reed, Concord
Javier Gonzalez, San Jose
Shawn E. Terris, Ventura
John M. Ryan, San Rafael
Mark W. Headley, Berkeley
Gail R. Teton-Landis, Santa Barbara
Faith A. Garamendi, Davis
Ana A. Huerta, Bakersfield
Marie S. Torres, Hacienda Heights
Kathleen R. Scott, Lincoln
Donna M. Ireland, Pleasanton
Robert S. Torres, Pomona
Timothy J. Farley, Martinez
Christine T. Kehoe, San Diego
Dorothy N. Vann, Long Beach
Analea J. Patterson, Sacramento
Vinzenz J. Koller, Carmel – Has indicated that he is undecided, currently suing California over law forcing him to vote for Clinton.
David S. Warmuth, Pasadena
Janine V. Bera, Elk Grove
Andrew R. Krakoff, Orinda
Karen D. Waters, Inglewood
Sandra M. Aduna, Laguna Woods
Katherine A. Lyon, Coronado
Shirley N. Weber, San Diego
Saundra G. Andrews, Oakland
John P. MacMurray, La Habra
Denise B. Wells, Victorville
Jane C. Block, Riverside
Sheldon Malchicoff, Westlake Village
Gregory H. Willenborg, Los Angeles
Edward Buck, West Hollywood
Nury Martinez, San Fernando
Laurence S. Zakson, Los Angeles
Francine P. Busby, Cardiff
Gwen Moore, Los Angeles
Laphonza R. Butler, Los Angeles
Cathy A. Morris, Rancho Cucamonga
Benjamin Cardenas, Montebello
Stephen J. Natoli, Visalia
Jacki M. Cisneros, Los Angeles
Mark A. Olbert, San Carlos
Raymond L. Cordova, Garden Grove
Christine Pelosi, San Francisco – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Steven D. Diebert, Fresno
Carmen O. Perez, Long Beach
James A. Donahue, El Cerrito
Celine G. Purcell, Redwood City
Patrick F. Drinan, Escondido
Andres Ramos, Elk Grove
Susan Eggman, Stockton
Olivia A. Reyes-Becerra, Stanford
Eileen Feinstein Mariano, San Francisco
Priscilla G. Richardson, Cathedral City
Natalie P. Fortman, Valencia
Steve J. Spinner, Atherton

Colorado
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Micheal Baca, Denver
Terry Phillips, Louisville
Mary Beth Corsentino, Pueblo
Jerad Sutton, Greeley; has indicated he will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
Robert Nemanich, Colorado Springs; has indicated he will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
Amy Drayer, Greenwood Village
Ann Knollman, Arvada
Sen. Rollie Heath, Boulder
Hon. Polly Baca, Denver; has indicated she will cast her vote for an alternative Republican candidate.
Connecticut
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Barbara Gordon, West Hartford
Ellen Nurse, Hartford
Edward Piazza, New Haven
Tyisha Walker, New Haven
Christopher Rosario, Bridgeport
Robert Godfrey, Danbury
Steven Jones, Tolland

Delaware
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Lynn Fuller
Lydia York
Linda Cavanaugh

District of Columbia[
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Anita Bonds – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Jack Evans
Franklin Garcia

Florida
Electors: 29, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Tony Ledbetter
Pam Bondi[
Sharon Day
Ade Aderibigbe
Larry Ahern
Brian Ballard
Kristy Banks
Michael Barnett
Lizbeth Benacquisto
Robin Bernstein
John Browning
Dena DeCamp
Nick DiCeglie
Jeremy Evans
John Falconetti
Peter Feaman
Kat Gates-Skipper
Joe Gruters
Debbie Hannifan
Blaise Ingoglia
Mike Moberley
Susan Moore
Joe Negron
Clint Pate
Ray Rodrigues
Carlos Trujillo
Robert Watkins
Susie Wiles
Christian Ziegler

Georgia
Electors: 16, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bruce Allen Azevedo
Brian K Burdette
Lott Harris Dill
John David Elliott
James Randolph Evans
Bobbie D. Frantz
Linda D. Herren
Rachel Blackstone Little
Deborah M. McCord
Michael Neil McNeely
Mary L. Padgett
Neil L. Pruitt
Joshua Kirk Shook
Frank B. Strickland
Baoky Nguyen Vu (resigned, will be replaced by alternate)
John B. White

Hawaii
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Electors
John Bickel
Janice Bond
Marie (Dolly) Strazar
David Mulinix

First Alternates
Kainoa Kaumeheiwa-Rego
Eileen McKee
Michael Golojuch Sr.
Yvonne Lau

Second Alternates
Carolyn Golojuch
Julie Patten
Michele Golojuch
Leo Caries

Idaho
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Layne Bangerter
Caleb Lakey
Jennifer Locke
Melinda Smyser

Illinois
Electors: 20, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Toni Preckwinkle
Carrie Austin
Silvana Tabares
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia
Pam Cullerton
Nancy Sheperdson
Vera Davis
William Marovitz
Barbara Flynn Currie
John R. Daley
Michelle Mussman
Lauren Beth Gash, Highland Park
Kevin Duffy Blackburn, Joliet
Jerry Costello, Belleville
Carol Ammons, Urbana
Mark Guethle, North Aurora
Flint Taylor, McLeansboro
John Nelson, Rockford
Don Johnston, Rock Island.
Shirley McCombs
Indiana
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Stephanie Beckley, Jamestown
Daniel Bortner, Bedford
Laura Campbell, Carmel
Jeff Cardwell, Indianapolis
Donald L. Hayes, Jasper
Randall Kirkpatrick, Ligonier
Ethan E. Manning, Peru
Macy Kelly Mitchell, Indianapolis
Edwin J. Simcox, Fishers
Kevin Steen, Muncie
Chuck Williams, Valparaiso

Iowa
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

James Whitmer
Don Kass
Dylan Keller
Alan Braun
Kurt Brown
Polly Granzow
Danielle Massey

Kansas
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ashley J. McMillan, Concordia, party vice chair.
Helen Van Etten, Topeka, national committeewoman.
Mark Kahrs, Wichita, national committeeman.
Ron Estes, Wichita, Kansas State Treasurer.
Clayton L. Barker, Leawood, party executive director.
Kelly Arnold, Wichita, party chairman.

Kentucky
Electors: 8, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Jim Skaggs
David Disponett
Robert Duncan
Michael Carter
Scott Lasley
Walter Reichert
Mary Singleton
Troy Sheldon

Louisiana
Electors: 8, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Chris Trahan, CD1
Lloyd Harsh, CD2
Charles Buckels, CD3
Louis Avalone, CD4
Kay Katz, CD5
Lennie Rhys, CD6
Garret Monti, At Large
Scott Wilfong, At Large

(1st-alternate) Candy Maness
(2nd-alternate) Jennifer Madsen
(3rd-alternate) Christian Gil
(4th-alternate) Constance Diane Long
(5th-alternate) Verne Breland
(6th-alternate) Glenda Pollard
(At Large-alternate) John Batt
(At Large-alternate) Raymond Griffin

Maine
Electors: 4

Democratic Party
3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

(1st) Diane Denk of Kennebunk
(At Large) David Bright of Dixmont
(At Large) Sam Shapiro of Winslow

Republican Party
1, pledged to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

(2nd) Richard A. Bennett of Oxford
Maryland
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Lesley Israel
Robert Leonard
Lillian Holmes
Salome Peters
Hagner Mister
Claudia Martin
Courtney Watson – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Karen Britto
Susan Ness
Wayne Rogers

Massachusetts
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Nazda Alam
Mary Gail Cokkinias
Marie Turley
Dori Dean
Donna Smith
Cheryl Cumings
Marc Pacheco
Curtis Lemay
Jason Palitsch
Paul Yorkis
Parwez Wahid

Michigan
Electors: 16, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

John Haggard
Jack Holmes
Kelly Mitchell
Judy Rapanos
Henry Hatter
Robert Weitt
Wyckham Seelig
Ross Ensign
Michael Banerian
Brian Fairbrother
Ken Crider
Mary Vaughn
Jim Rhoades — Motorcycle lobbyist.
William Rauwerdink
Hank Fuhs
Joseph Guzman

Minnesota
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Fred Knudson
Roger Gehrke
Marge Hoffa
Raymond Hess
Muhammed Abdurrahman
Betsy O’Berry
Mike Wammer
Mary Murphy
Jules Goldstein
Sherrie Pugh

Mississippi[edit]
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ann Hebert
Joe F. Sanderson Jr.
Bradley R. White
J. Kelley Williams
William G. Yates Jr.
Wirt Yerler
Missouri[edit]
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Tim Dreste (1st)
Jan DeWeese (2nd)
Hector Maldonado (3rd)
Sherry Kuttenkuler (4th)
Casey Crawford (5th)
Tom Brown (6th)
Cherry Warren (7th)
Scott Clark (8th)
Al Rotskoff
Susie Johnson

Montana
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Thelma Baker
Nancy Ballance
Dennis Scranton
Vondene Kopetski (alternate)
Becky Stockton (alternate)
Thomas Tuck (alternate)
Nebraska
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Craig Safranek, Merna
Chuck Conrad, Hastings
John Dinkel, Norfolk
Phil Belin, Omaha
Paul Burger, Kearney
Nevada
Electors: 6

Dayananda Prabhu Rachakonda
Larry Jackson
Joetta Brown
Paul Catha II
Greg Gardella
Teresa Benitez-Thompson
New Hampshire
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

The only all-female slate of electors, all four of whom are the first Democratic women to hold their elected offices.

Terie Norelli- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Bev Hollingworth- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Dudley Dudley- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Carol Shea-Porter – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
New Jersey
Electors: 14, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Alaa R. Abdelaziz of Paterson
Tahsina Ahmed of Haledon — The first Bangladeshi-American female to hold elected office in the nation
Anthony Cureton of Englewood
Lizette Delgado-Polanco of Ewing
Edward Farmer of Piscataway
Christopher D. James of East Orange
Leroy J. Jones Jr. of East Orange
Retha R. Onitiri of Clarksburg
Marlene Prieto of Secaucus
Ronald G. Rios of Carteret
Hetty M. Rosenstein of South Orange
Kelly Steward Maer of Manasquan
Mary Ann Wardlow of Lawnside
Heriberta Loretta Winters of Williamstown

New Mexico
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Roxanne Allen, a Democratic ward chairwoman in Albuquerque.
Noyola Padilla Archibeque, chairwoman of the San Miguel Federation of Democratic Women in Las Vegas.
John Padilla, a Bernie Sanders delegate to this year’s Democratic National Convention and a ward chairman in Albuquerque.
Lorraine Spradling, a grassroots organizer in Los Lunas.
E. Paul Torres of Isleta Pueblo.
New York
Electors: 29, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

William J. Clinton
Andrew M. Cuomo
Kathy C. Hochul
Thomas P. DiNapoli
Eric T. Schneiderman
Carl E. Heastie
Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Bill de Blasio
Letitia A. James
Scott M. Stringer
Melissa Mark-Viverito
Byron W. Brown
Christine C. Quinn
Basil A. Smikle, Jr.
Melissa Sklarz
Mario F. Cilento
Rhonda Weingarten
George K. Gresham
Daniel F. Donohue
Stuart H. Appelbaum
Gary S. LaBarbera
Lovely A. Warren
Stephanie A. Miner
Katherine M. Sheehan
Anastasia M. Somoza
Sandra Ung
Ruben Diaz, Jr.
Hazel L. Ingram — The oldest elector, at 93.
Rachel D. Gold
North Carolina
15, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Linda Harper
Charles Staley
Karen Kozel
Martha Jenkins
Celeste Stanley
Donald Webb
Robert Muller
Jennifer Dunbar
Andrea Arterburn
Glenn Pinckney Sr.
Mark Delk
David Speight
Ann Sullivan
Lee Green
David Smuski
North Dakota
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

John Olson
Duane Mutch
Bev Clayburgh
Ohio
Electors: 18, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marilyn Ashcraft
Curt Braden
Christina Hagan
Lee-Ann Johnson
Ralph King
Alex Triantafilou
Mary Anne Christie
Corey Schottenstein
Jim Dicke II
Cheryl Blakely
Richard Jones
Tom Coyne
Judy Westbrock
Leonard Hubert
Tracey Winbush
James Wert
Brian Schottenstein
Ed Crawford
Oklahoma
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

David Oldham
Teresa Lyn Turner
Mark Thomas
Bobby Cleveland
Lauree Elizabeth Marshall
Charles W. Potts
George W. Wiland, Jr.

Oregon
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Frank James Dixon, Portland
Karen A. Packer, Newberg
Austin Folnagy, Klamath Falls
Leon H. Coleman, Aloha
Harry W. “Sam” Sappington III, Albany
Timothy Norman Powers Rowan, Portland
Laura Gillpatrick, Eugene

Pennsylvania
Electors: 20, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bob Asher
Mary Barket
Robert Bozzuto
Theodore (Ted) Christian
Michael Downing
Margaret Ferraro
Robert Gleason
Christopher Gleason
Joyce Haas
Ash Khare
James McErlane
Elstina Pickett
Patricia Poprik
Andrew Reilly
Carol Sides
Glora “Lee” Snover
Richard Stewart
Lawrence Tabas
Christine Toretti
Carolyn Bunny Welsh
Rhode Island
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Clay Pell – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Grace Diaz
L. Susan Weiner
Frank J. Montanaro
South Carolina
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Glenn McCall
Matt Moore
Terry Hardesty
Jim Ulmer
Brenda Bedenbaugh
Bill Conley
Shery Smith
Moye Graham
Jerry Rovner
South Dakota
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marty Jackley
Dennis Daugaard
Matt Michels
Tennessee
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Beth Scott Clayton Amos, a State Executive Committee member for the Republican party, member of the Board of the Estate Planning Council of Middle TN, At Large
Joey Jacobs of Brentwood as a statewide delegate (Pres & CEO of Acadia Healthcare), At Large
Jason Mumpower (Bristol), CD1
Susan Mills (Maryville), CD2
Liz Holiway (Harriman), CD3
Lynne Davis (Lascassas), CD4
Tom Lawless (Nashville), CD5
Mike Callahan (Monterey), CD6
Pat Allen (Clarksville), CD7
Shannon Haynes (Alamo), CD8
Drew Daniel (Memphis), CD9
Texas
Electors: 38, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marty Rhymes
Thomas Moon
Carol Sewell
John E. Harper
Sherrill Lenz
Nicholas Ciggelakis
Will Hickman
Landon Estay
Rex Lamb
Rosemary Edwards
Matt Stringer
Shellie Surles
Melissa Kalka
Sandra Cararas
David Thackston
Robert Bruce
Margie Forster
Scott Mann
Marian K. Stanko
Tina Gibson
Ken Muenzter
Alexander Kim
Virginia Abel
Curtis Nelson
Kenneth Clark
Candace Noble
Fred Farias
John Dillard
Tom Knight
Marian Knowlton
Rex Teter
Stephen Suprun Jr.; (Chris Suprun) wrote in the New York Times that he will not vote for Donald Trump
Jon Jewett
Susan Fischer
Lauren Byers
William Greene
Mary Lou Erben
Arthur Sisneros — Vacated the position in late November 2016,[50] stating “Since I can’t in good conscience vote for Donald Trump, and yet have sinfully made a pledge that I would, the best option I see at this time is to resign my position as an Elector. This will allow the remaining body of Electors to fill my vacancy when they convene on Dec 19 with someone that can vote for Trump. The people will get their vote. They will get their Skittles for dinner. I will sleep well at night knowing I neither gave in to their demands nor caved to my convictions. I will also mourn the loss of our republic.”

Utah
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Cherilyn Eagar
Kris Kimball
Jeremy Jenkins
Peter Greathouse
Chia-Chi Teng
Richard Snelgrove
Vermont
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Peter Shumlin
Martha Allen
Tim Jerman
Virginia
Electors: 13, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Bethany J. Rowland, Chesapeake
Debra Stevens Fitzgearld, Harrisonburg
James Harold Allen Boyd, Culpeper
Jasper L. Hendricks, III, Pamplin
Jeanette C. Sarver, Dublin
K. James O’Connor, Jr., Manassas
Kathy Stewart Shupe, Sterling
Keith A. Scarborough, Woodbridge
Lashrecse D. Aird, Petersburg
Susan Johnson Rowland, Chesapeake
Terry C. Frye, Bristol
Virginia L. Peters, Alexandria
Vivian J. Paige, Norfolk

Washington
Electors: 12, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Elizabeth Caldwell
Dan Carpita
Peter Chiafalo – Undecided voter.
Levi Guerra – Has stated she plans to vote for a Republican “consensus candidate.”
Eric Herde
Joshua Ivey
Esther John
Julie Johnson
Varisha Khan
Chris Porter
Robert Satiacum, Jr. – A member of the Puyallup Tribe. Undecided voter.
Phillip Tyler

West Virginia
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ron Foster
Patrick Morrisey
Ann Urling
Mac Warner
Bill Cole
Wisconsin
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Kim Travis, Williams Bay, CD1
Kim Babler, Madison, CD2
Brian Westrate, Fall Creek, CD3
Brad Courtney, Whitefish Bay, CD4
Kathy Kiernan, Richfield, CD5
Dan Feyen, Fond du Lac, CD6
Jim Miller, Hayward, CD7
Bill Berglund, Sturgeon Bay, CD8
Steve King, Janesville, At Large
Mary Buestrin, River Hills, At Large

Wyoming
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bonnie Foster
Teresa Richards
Karl Allred

Who are the Electors – Call Them?

Here is a list of the Electors and their current position on their vote.  I have also included whether they are mandated to vote in a certain way.  Consider talking to them.

Alabama
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Perry O. Hooper Jr., Pike Road, At-Large
Grady H. Thornton, Birmingham, At-Large
Frank Burt Jr., Bay Minette, CD1
Will B. Sellers, Montgomery, CD2
James Eldon Wilson, Montgomery, CD3
Tim Wadsworth, Arley, CD4
J. Elbert Peters, Huntsville, CD5
Mary Sue McClurkin, Indian Springs, CD6
Robert A. Cusanelli, Carrollton, CD7

Alaska
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Sean Parnell, Palmer
Jacqueline Tupou, Juneau
Carolyn Leman, Anchorage

Arizona
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

J. Foster Morgan, Glendale — The youngest elector, at 19.
Walter Begay Jr., Kayenta
Bruce Ash, Tucson – National Committeeman
Sharon Giese, Mesa
James O’Connor, Scottsdale
Jerry Hayden, Scottsdale
Robert Graham, Phoenix – State Party Chairman
Edward Robson, Phoenix
Carole Joyce, Phoenix
Alberto Gutier, Phoenix
Jane Pierpoint Lynch, Phoenix
Arkansas
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Jonathan Barnett
Jonelle Fulmer
Keith Gibson
Tommy Land
John Nabholz
Sharon R. Wright

California
Electors: 55, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Dustin R. Reed, Concord
Javier Gonzalez, San Jose
Shawn E. Terris, Ventura
John M. Ryan, San Rafael
Mark W. Headley, Berkeley
Gail R. Teton-Landis, Santa Barbara
Faith A. Garamendi, Davis
Ana A. Huerta, Bakersfield
Marie S. Torres, Hacienda Heights
Kathleen R. Scott, Lincoln
Donna M. Ireland, Pleasanton
Robert S. Torres, Pomona
Timothy J. Farley, Martinez
Christine T. Kehoe, San Diego
Dorothy N. Vann, Long Beach
Analea J. Patterson, Sacramento
Vinzenz J. Koller, Carmel – Has indicated that he is undecided, currently suing California over law forcing him to vote for Clinton.
David S. Warmuth, Pasadena
Janine V. Bera, Elk Grove
Andrew R. Krakoff, Orinda
Karen D. Waters, Inglewood
Sandra M. Aduna, Laguna Woods
Katherine A. Lyon, Coronado
Shirley N. Weber, San Diego
Saundra G. Andrews, Oakland
John P. MacMurray, La Habra
Denise B. Wells, Victorville
Jane C. Block, Riverside
Sheldon Malchicoff, Westlake Village
Gregory H. Willenborg, Los Angeles
Edward Buck, West Hollywood
Nury Martinez, San Fernando
Laurence S. Zakson, Los Angeles
Francine P. Busby, Cardiff
Gwen Moore, Los Angeles
Laphonza R. Butler, Los Angeles
Cathy A. Morris, Rancho Cucamonga
Benjamin Cardenas, Montebello
Stephen J. Natoli, Visalia
Jacki M. Cisneros, Los Angeles
Mark A. Olbert, San Carlos
Raymond L. Cordova, Garden Grove
Christine Pelosi, San Francisco – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Steven D. Diebert, Fresno
Carmen O. Perez, Long Beach
James A. Donahue, El Cerrito
Celine G. Purcell, Redwood City
Patrick F. Drinan, Escondido
Andres Ramos, Elk Grove
Susan Eggman, Stockton
Olivia A. Reyes-Becerra, Stanford
Eileen Feinstein Mariano, San Francisco
Priscilla G. Richardson, Cathedral City
Natalie P. Fortman, Valencia
Steve J. Spinner, Atherton

Colorado
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Micheal Baca, Denver
Terry Phillips, Louisville
Mary Beth Corsentino, Pueblo
Jerad Sutton, Greeley; has indicated he will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
Robert Nemanich, Colorado Springs; has indicated he will not vote for Hillary Clinton.
Amy Drayer, Greenwood Village
Ann Knollman, Arvada
Sen. Rollie Heath, Boulder
Hon. Polly Baca, Denver; has indicated she will cast her vote for an alternative Republican candidate.
Connecticut
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Barbara Gordon, West Hartford
Ellen Nurse, Hartford
Edward Piazza, New Haven
Tyisha Walker, New Haven
Christopher Rosario, Bridgeport
Robert Godfrey, Danbury
Steven Jones, Tolland

Delaware
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Lynn Fuller
Lydia York
Linda Cavanaugh

District of Columbia[
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Anita Bonds – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Jack Evans
Franklin Garcia

Florida
Electors: 29, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Tony Ledbetter
Pam Bondi[
Sharon Day
Ade Aderibigbe
Larry Ahern
Brian Ballard
Kristy Banks
Michael Barnett
Lizbeth Benacquisto
Robin Bernstein
John Browning
Dena DeCamp
Nick DiCeglie
Jeremy Evans
John Falconetti
Peter Feaman
Kat Gates-Skipper
Joe Gruters
Debbie Hannifan
Blaise Ingoglia
Mike Moberley
Susan Moore
Joe Negron
Clint Pate
Ray Rodrigues
Carlos Trujillo
Robert Watkins
Susie Wiles
Christian Ziegler

Georgia
Electors: 16, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bruce Allen Azevedo
Brian K Burdette
Lott Harris Dill
John David Elliott
James Randolph Evans
Bobbie D. Frantz
Linda D. Herren
Rachel Blackstone Little
Deborah M. McCord
Michael Neil McNeely
Mary L. Padgett
Neil L. Pruitt
Joshua Kirk Shook
Frank B. Strickland
Baoky Nguyen Vu (resigned, will be replaced by alternate)
John B. White

Hawaii
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Electors
John Bickel
Janice Bond
Marie (Dolly) Strazar
David Mulinix

First Alternates
Kainoa Kaumeheiwa-Rego
Eileen McKee
Michael Golojuch Sr.
Yvonne Lau

Second Alternates
Carolyn Golojuch
Julie Patten
Michele Golojuch
Leo Caries

Idaho
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Layne Bangerter
Caleb Lakey
Jennifer Locke
Melinda Smyser

Illinois
Electors: 20, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Toni Preckwinkle
Carrie Austin
Silvana Tabares
Jesus “Chuy” Garcia
Pam Cullerton
Nancy Sheperdson
Vera Davis
William Marovitz
Barbara Flynn Currie
John R. Daley
Michelle Mussman
Lauren Beth Gash, Highland Park
Kevin Duffy Blackburn, Joliet
Jerry Costello, Belleville
Carol Ammons, Urbana
Mark Guethle, North Aurora
Flint Taylor, McLeansboro
John Nelson, Rockford
Don Johnston, Rock Island.
Shirley McCombs
Indiana
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Stephanie Beckley, Jamestown
Daniel Bortner, Bedford
Laura Campbell, Carmel
Jeff Cardwell, Indianapolis
Donald L. Hayes, Jasper
Randall Kirkpatrick, Ligonier
Ethan E. Manning, Peru
Macy Kelly Mitchell, Indianapolis
Edwin J. Simcox, Fishers
Kevin Steen, Muncie
Chuck Williams, Valparaiso

Iowa
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

James Whitmer
Don Kass
Dylan Keller
Alan Braun
Kurt Brown
Polly Granzow
Danielle Massey

Kansas
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ashley J. McMillan, Concordia, party vice chair.
Helen Van Etten, Topeka, national committeewoman.
Mark Kahrs, Wichita, national committeeman.
Ron Estes, Wichita, Kansas State Treasurer.
Clayton L. Barker, Leawood, party executive director.
Kelly Arnold, Wichita, party chairman.

Kentucky
Electors: 8, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Jim Skaggs
David Disponett
Robert Duncan
Michael Carter
Scott Lasley
Walter Reichert
Mary Singleton
Troy Sheldon

Louisiana
Electors: 8, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Chris Trahan, CD1
Lloyd Harsh, CD2
Charles Buckels, CD3
Louis Avalone, CD4
Kay Katz, CD5
Lennie Rhys, CD6
Garret Monti, At Large
Scott Wilfong, At Large

(1st-alternate) Candy Maness
(2nd-alternate) Jennifer Madsen
(3rd-alternate) Christian Gil
(4th-alternate) Constance Diane Long
(5th-alternate) Verne Breland
(6th-alternate) Glenda Pollard
(At Large-alternate) John Batt
(At Large-alternate) Raymond Griffin

Maine
Electors: 4

Democratic Party
3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

(1st) Diane Denk of Kennebunk
(At Large) David Bright of Dixmont
(At Large) Sam Shapiro of Winslow

Republican Party
1, pledged to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

(2nd) Richard A. Bennett of Oxford
Maryland
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Lesley Israel
Robert Leonard
Lillian Holmes
Salome Peters
Hagner Mister
Claudia Martin
Courtney Watson – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Karen Britto
Susan Ness
Wayne Rogers

Massachusetts
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Nazda Alam
Mary Gail Cokkinias
Marie Turley
Dori Dean
Donna Smith
Cheryl Cumings
Marc Pacheco
Curtis Lemay
Jason Palitsch
Paul Yorkis
Parwez Wahid

Michigan
Electors: 16, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

John Haggard
Jack Holmes
Kelly Mitchell
Judy Rapanos
Henry Hatter
Robert Weitt
Wyckham Seelig
Ross Ensign
Michael Banerian
Brian Fairbrother
Ken Crider
Mary Vaughn
Jim Rhoades — Motorcycle lobbyist.
William Rauwerdink
Hank Fuhs
Joseph Guzman

Minnesota
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Fred Knudson
Roger Gehrke
Marge Hoffa
Raymond Hess
Muhammed Abdurrahman
Betsy O’Berry
Mike Wammer
Mary Murphy
Jules Goldstein
Sherrie Pugh

Mississippi[edit]
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ann Hebert
Joe F. Sanderson Jr.
Bradley R. White
J. Kelley Williams
William G. Yates Jr.
Wirt Yerler
Missouri[edit]
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Tim Dreste (1st)
Jan DeWeese (2nd)
Hector Maldonado (3rd)
Sherry Kuttenkuler (4th)
Casey Crawford (5th)
Tom Brown (6th)
Cherry Warren (7th)
Scott Clark (8th)
Al Rotskoff
Susie Johnson

Montana
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Thelma Baker
Nancy Ballance
Dennis Scranton
Vondene Kopetski (alternate)
Becky Stockton (alternate)
Thomas Tuck (alternate)
Nebraska
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Craig Safranek, Merna
Chuck Conrad, Hastings
John Dinkel, Norfolk
Phil Belin, Omaha
Paul Burger, Kearney
Nevada
Electors: 6

Dayananda Prabhu Rachakonda
Larry Jackson
Joetta Brown
Paul Catha II
Greg Gardella
Teresa Benitez-Thompson
New Hampshire
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

The only all-female slate of electors, all four of whom are the first Democratic women to hold their elected offices.

Terie Norelli- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Bev Hollingworth- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Dudley Dudley- Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Carol Shea-Porter – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
New Jersey
Electors: 14, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Alaa R. Abdelaziz of Paterson
Tahsina Ahmed of Haledon — The first Bangladeshi-American female to hold elected office in the nation
Anthony Cureton of Englewood
Lizette Delgado-Polanco of Ewing
Edward Farmer of Piscataway
Christopher D. James of East Orange
Leroy J. Jones Jr. of East Orange
Retha R. Onitiri of Clarksburg
Marlene Prieto of Secaucus
Ronald G. Rios of Carteret
Hetty M. Rosenstein of South Orange
Kelly Steward Maer of Manasquan
Mary Ann Wardlow of Lawnside
Heriberta Loretta Winters of Williamstown

New Mexico
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Roxanne Allen, a Democratic ward chairwoman in Albuquerque.
Noyola Padilla Archibeque, chairwoman of the San Miguel Federation of Democratic Women in Las Vegas.
John Padilla, a Bernie Sanders delegate to this year’s Democratic National Convention and a ward chairman in Albuquerque.
Lorraine Spradling, a grassroots organizer in Los Lunas.
E. Paul Torres of Isleta Pueblo.
New York
Electors: 29, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

William J. Clinton
Andrew M. Cuomo
Kathy C. Hochul
Thomas P. DiNapoli
Eric T. Schneiderman
Carl E. Heastie
Andrea Stewart-Cousins
Bill de Blasio
Letitia A. James
Scott M. Stringer
Melissa Mark-Viverito
Byron W. Brown
Christine C. Quinn
Basil A. Smikle, Jr.
Melissa Sklarz
Mario F. Cilento
Rhonda Weingarten
George K. Gresham
Daniel F. Donohue
Stuart H. Appelbaum
Gary S. LaBarbera
Lovely A. Warren
Stephanie A. Miner
Katherine M. Sheehan
Anastasia M. Somoza
Sandra Ung
Ruben Diaz, Jr.
Hazel L. Ingram — The oldest elector, at 93.
Rachel D. Gold
North Carolina
15, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Linda Harper
Charles Staley
Karen Kozel
Martha Jenkins
Celeste Stanley
Donald Webb
Robert Muller
Jennifer Dunbar
Andrea Arterburn
Glenn Pinckney Sr.
Mark Delk
David Speight
Ann Sullivan
Lee Green
David Smuski
North Dakota
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

John Olson
Duane Mutch
Bev Clayburgh
Ohio
Electors: 18, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marilyn Ashcraft
Curt Braden
Christina Hagan
Lee-Ann Johnson
Ralph King
Alex Triantafilou
Mary Anne Christie
Corey Schottenstein
Jim Dicke II
Cheryl Blakely
Richard Jones
Tom Coyne
Judy Westbrock
Leonard Hubert
Tracey Winbush
James Wert
Brian Schottenstein
Ed Crawford
Oklahoma
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

David Oldham
Teresa Lyn Turner
Mark Thomas
Bobby Cleveland
Lauree Elizabeth Marshall
Charles W. Potts
George W. Wiland, Jr.

Oregon
Electors: 7, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Frank James Dixon, Portland
Karen A. Packer, Newberg
Austin Folnagy, Klamath Falls
Leon H. Coleman, Aloha
Harry W. “Sam” Sappington III, Albany
Timothy Norman Powers Rowan, Portland
Laura Gillpatrick, Eugene

Pennsylvania
Electors: 20, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bob Asher
Mary Barket
Robert Bozzuto
Theodore (Ted) Christian
Michael Downing
Margaret Ferraro
Robert Gleason
Christopher Gleason
Joyce Haas
Ash Khare
James McErlane
Elstina Pickett
Patricia Poprik
Andrew Reilly
Carol Sides
Glora “Lee” Snover
Richard Stewart
Lawrence Tabas
Christine Toretti
Carolyn Bunny Welsh
Rhode Island
Electors: 4, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Clay Pell – Signed letter demanding an intelligence briefing on the alleged Russian hacking.
Grace Diaz
L. Susan Weiner
Frank J. Montanaro
South Carolina
Electors: 9, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Glenn McCall
Matt Moore
Terry Hardesty
Jim Ulmer
Brenda Bedenbaugh
Bill Conley
Shery Smith
Moye Graham
Jerry Rovner
South Dakota
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marty Jackley
Dennis Daugaard
Matt Michels
Tennessee
Electors: 11, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Beth Scott Clayton Amos, a State Executive Committee member for the Republican party, member of the Board of the Estate Planning Council of Middle TN, At Large
Joey Jacobs of Brentwood as a statewide delegate (Pres & CEO of Acadia Healthcare), At Large
Jason Mumpower (Bristol), CD1
Susan Mills (Maryville), CD2
Liz Holiway (Harriman), CD3
Lynne Davis (Lascassas), CD4
Tom Lawless (Nashville), CD5
Mike Callahan (Monterey), CD6
Pat Allen (Clarksville), CD7
Shannon Haynes (Alamo), CD8
Drew Daniel (Memphis), CD9
Texas
Electors: 38, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Marty Rhymes
Thomas Moon
Carol Sewell
John E. Harper
Sherrill Lenz
Nicholas Ciggelakis
Will Hickman
Landon Estay
Rex Lamb
Rosemary Edwards
Matt Stringer
Shellie Surles
Melissa Kalka
Sandra Cararas
David Thackston
Robert Bruce
Margie Forster
Scott Mann
Marian K. Stanko
Tina Gibson
Ken Muenzter
Alexander Kim
Virginia Abel
Curtis Nelson
Kenneth Clark
Candace Noble
Fred Farias
John Dillard
Tom Knight
Marian Knowlton
Rex Teter
Stephen Suprun Jr.; (Chris Suprun) wrote in the New York Times that he will not vote for Donald Trump
Jon Jewett
Susan Fischer
Lauren Byers
William Greene
Mary Lou Erben
Arthur Sisneros — Vacated the position in late November 2016,[50] stating “Since I can’t in good conscience vote for Donald Trump, and yet have sinfully made a pledge that I would, the best option I see at this time is to resign my position as an Elector. This will allow the remaining body of Electors to fill my vacancy when they convene on Dec 19 with someone that can vote for Trump. The people will get their vote. They will get their Skittles for dinner. I will sleep well at night knowing I neither gave in to their demands nor caved to my convictions. I will also mourn the loss of our republic.”

Utah
Electors: 6, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Cherilyn Eagar
Kris Kimball
Jeremy Jenkins
Peter Greathouse
Chia-Chi Teng
Richard Snelgrove
Vermont
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Peter Shumlin
Martha Allen
Tim Jerman
Virginia
Electors: 13, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Bethany J. Rowland, Chesapeake
Debra Stevens Fitzgearld, Harrisonburg
James Harold Allen Boyd, Culpeper
Jasper L. Hendricks, III, Pamplin
Jeanette C. Sarver, Dublin
K. James O’Connor, Jr., Manassas
Kathy Stewart Shupe, Sterling
Keith A. Scarborough, Woodbridge
Lashrecse D. Aird, Petersburg
Susan Johnson Rowland, Chesapeake
Terry C. Frye, Bristol
Virginia L. Peters, Alexandria
Vivian J. Paige, Norfolk

Washington
Electors: 12, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Hillary Clinton for President and Tim Kaine for Vice President

Elizabeth Caldwell
Dan Carpita
Peter Chiafalo – Undecided voter.
Levi Guerra – Has stated she plans to vote for a Republican “consensus candidate.”
Eric Herde
Joshua Ivey
Esther John
Julie Johnson
Varisha Khan
Chris Porter
Robert Satiacum, Jr. – A member of the Puyallup Tribe. Undecided voter.
Phillip Tyler

West Virginia
Electors: 5, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Ron Foster
Patrick Morrisey
Ann Urling
Mac Warner
Bill Cole
Wisconsin
Electors: 10, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Kim Travis, Williams Bay, CD1
Kim Babler, Madison, CD2
Brian Westrate, Fall Creek, CD3
Brad Courtney, Whitefish Bay, CD4
Kathy Kiernan, Richfield, CD5
Dan Feyen, Fond du Lac, CD6
Jim Miller, Hayward, CD7
Bill Berglund, Sturgeon Bay, CD8
Steve King, Janesville, At Large
Mary Buestrin, River Hills, At Large

Wyoming
Electors: 3, pledged but not mandated Federally to vote for Donald Trump for President and Mike Pence for Vice President

Bonnie Foster
Teresa Richards
Karl Allred[

Aleppo has fallen

boy-standing-in-refugee-camp-in-gevgelija-serbia-dsc_8453After years of fighting and an incalculable bloody human toll, insurgents agreed to a ceasefire.  Rebels said fighting would end on Tuesday evening and insurgents and the civilians who have been trapped in Aleppo will leave the city for opposition-held areas of the countryside to the west.

What brought us to this war?

Syrians complained about high unemployment, widespread corruption, a lack of political freedom, and state repression under President Bashar al-Assad, who succeeded his father, Hafez, in 2000.

In March 2011, pro-democracy demonstrations in the Arab Spring movement erupted in the city of Deraa. The government used deadly force to crush the protests, but instead of quashing them, the protests grew nationwide.  Assad’s resignation was demanded.

The government crackdown and the unrest grew.  Opposition supporters began to take up arms,to expel government forces from their towns. Assad vowed to crush “foreign-backed terrorism” and restore state control.The violence rapidly escalated and the country descended into civil war.

The intervention of regional and world powers, including Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States escalated the  fighting, and turned Syria into a proxy war zone.

Jihadist groups have also seized on the chaos.  Daisch is battling government forces, rebels and Kurds.

Air strikes by Russia and a US-led multinational coalition intensify the danger.  Russia launched an air campaign in September 2015 with the aim of “stabilising” the government. Moscow stressed that it would target only “terrorists”, but activists said its strikes mainly hit Western-backed rebel groups.  Six months later, having turned the tide of the war in Assad’s favour, Putin ordered the “main part” of Russia’s forces to withdraw, saying their mission had “on the whole” been accomplished.

Shia powerhouse of Iran is spending billions of dollars a year to bolster the Alawite-dominated government, providing military advisers and subsidised weapons, as well as lines of credit and oil transfers. It is also widely reported to have deployed hundreds of combat troops in Syria. Assad is Iran’s closest Arab ally and Syria is the main transit point for Iranian weapons shipments to the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support government forces.Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia, which is seeking to counter Iran, has been a major provider of military and financial assistance to the rebels, including those with Islamist ideologies.

Turkey, a supporter of the rebels, has meanwhile sought to limit US support for Kurdish forces battling IS militants in northern Syria, accusing them of being affiliated to the banned Turkish Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Assad says the US is responsible for widespread atrocities and must step down, has provided only limited military assistance to “moderate” rebels, fearful that advanced weapons might end up in the hands of jihadists. Since September 2014, the US has conducted air strikes on Daisch in Syria, but it has avoided attacking government forces.

The UN says 250,000 people have been killed in the past five years. However, the organisation stopped updating its figures in August 2015. One monitoring group estimates 470,000 deaths,.

More than 4.8 million people have fled Syria, most of them women and children.

Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee movements  in history.  About 10% of Syrian refugees have sought safety in Europe.  Political divisions and nationalism have risen as countries argue over sharing the human burden. A further 6.5 million people are displaced inside Syria.

As people cross the Mediterranean, hundreds drown every week.  Coyotes and traffickers charge enormous sums to transport terrified men, women and children in unseaworthy boats.

The US has essentially denied entry to these terrified people.  And now we have a new policy called “extreme” vetting.

With the fall of Aleppo, people are being shot as they are running.  They didn’t get out in time to cross a sea, walk a continent, or beg for bread.  There is no better circumstance to breed terrorism than in the place of fear and hopelessness.  I hope we can realize this and start a new way – a human way. Not the “Me First” way.

I have watched the desparate social media pleas for help, and I am helpless.

 

Day 17 Istanbul

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Istanbul is a magnificent city that has seen the rise and fall of civilizations for 3000 years.  It was called Lygos when inhabited by Thracian tribes between the 13th and 11th centuries BC. It was colonised by the Greeks in the 7th century BC.  When the city  fell to the Roman Republic in AD 196 it was named Byzantium.  In 330 AD it was renamed Constantinople and made the new capital of the Roman Empire.  It is the birthplace  of the Greek Orthodox Church. In 1453 Constantinople then became the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

Its inhabitants have worshipped the plural gods of antiquity, The God of Christ, and The God of Mohammed.  Roman bricks still line boulevards, and spice is still sold in baskets the markets.  Laws and leaders have been shaped here. Byzantine emperor Justinian (527-565) extended the Byzantine Empire to its largest boundaries spreading from Palestine to the tip of Spain. He built the Hagia Sophia church and the organized law system called the Codex which was completed in 534.  Emperor Constantine reinvented the city as a thriving center of Christianity. On 29 May 1453, Sultan Mehmed II “the Conqueror”, entered Constantinople after a 53–day siege during which his cannon had torn a huge hole in the Walls of Theodosius II. Istanbul became the third capital of the Ottoman Empire.

After the First World War, the Armistice of Mudros decreed that Istanbul would be occupied by Allied Forces. Occupation of Constantinople by Allied forces ended on 23 September 1923.  Six days later the Republic of Turkey was founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Since 2002, the right-wing Justice and Development Party (AKP) has won pluralities in every general and local election. The current leader is Turkish President and former AKP Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.  In the Machiavellian style of the emperors and sultans before him, he is eliminating his opposition.  Kurds, DAISCH, and other groups are speaking through violence.  Last year they targeted Istanbul Atatürk, the eighteenth-busiest in the world.

I last went to Istanbul to depose a key Iraqi witness in a case.   Albert, the witness, bravely boarded an airplane for the first time in his life to fly away from his family and to give testimony about the abuses of an U.S. contractor.  He boarded he plane in Irbil, Iraq, and landed at Ataturk in the dark.  He had to fly at night so his plane would be less likely to be shot down.  And he did this all with faith in a stranger a million miles away to help right wrongs.

We brought Albert to the hotel where he would be deposed.  Albert thought that the minibar stash was a gift, and he took lots of bottles home to Irbil as the fridge was replenished mysteriously by maids every day.  He wandered Istanbul for a day and brought presents for his wife and daughters.  His eyes were alive with the thought of what it would be like to live in peace and safety for his family.  After the case was long over Albert and his family were able to make it to the U.S. where they now live in Detroit.

The Bosphorus River runs through the city, and it is a deep blue.  Walking along Roman roads, the smell of roasting lamb, diesel, and spice takes the mind back to a place and time it knows, but has never been.

Orhan Pamuk wrote Snow. This story follows Ka, an expatriate Turkish poet, as he wanders around the snowy city and gets caught up in the muddle of aimless Islamists, MPs, headscarf advocates, secularists, and a number of factions who die and kill in the name of highly contradictory ideals. Pamuk said:

I strongly feel that the art of the novel is based on the human capacity, though it’s a limited capacity, to be able to identify with “the other.” Only human beings can do this. It requires imagination, a sort of morality, a self-imposed goal of understanding this person who is different from us, which is a rarity.

Among the markets old and new, the seven lane highways, and the political violence, a spirit of  Rumi and his Sufi order  who whirl to remember God.  Reading Rumi shows us that ideas are universal.

Why should I seek? I am the same as
He. His essence speaks through me.
I have been looking for myself

از جمادی مُردم و نامی شدم
وز نما مُردم به حیوان سرزدم
مُردم از حیوانی و آدم شدم
پس چه ترسم؟ کی ز مردن کم شدم؟
حملهٔ دیگر بمیرم از بشر
تا برآرم از ملائک بال و پر
وز ملک هم بایدم جستن ز جو
کل شیء هالک الا وجهه
بار دیگر از ملک پران شوم
آنچه اندر وهم ناید آن شوم
پس عدم گردم عدم چو ارغنون
گویدم کانا الیه راجعون‎
I died as a mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was Man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die as Man, to soar
With angels bless’d; but even from angelhood
I must pass on: all except God doth perish.
When I have sacrificed my angel-soul,
I shall become what no mind e’er conceived.
Oh, let me not exist! for Non-existence
Proclaims in organ tones,
To Him we shall return

Thirty-eight people were killed and 136 were wounded on Saturday in two explosions.  One of them was a car bomb outside a stadium that targeted police officers on duty for a soccer game. The second explosion was in a nearby park, and may have been a suicide bomb.

This is the most recent violence, and a continuation of the unrest.   On July 15, 2016 elements of the Turkish armed forces attempted a coup d’état,.  On July 21st, the Turkish government declared a State of Emergency in the country, giving the president and other top leaders extraordinary powers. Now Turkish authorities are carrying out a large-scale purge of people whom they suspect of having felt sympathy for the coup attempt and for allegiance to Fetullah Gülen, the Islamic preacher and business and education entrepreneur.

Gülen teaches a Sunni-Hanafi version of Islam.  Gülen believes in science, interfaith dialogue among the People of the Book, and multi-party democracy. He has initiated dialogue with the Vatican and some Jewish organizations.

Gülen is actively involved in the societal debate concerning the future of the Turkish state, and Islam in the modern world. He has been described as an imam “who promotes a tolerant Islam which emphasises altruism, hard work and education” and as “one of the world’s most important Muslim figures.

At this time Turkey has demanded extradition of Gülen, but the U.S. so far has refused to honor the request.  What will Trump do – align with the purge?  Promote tolerant Islam?  Bridge between religions?

Tolerance and peace are the highest and hardest works of humanity.  The only place to begin is to “identify with ‘the other.’ Only human beings can do this. It requires imagination, a sort of morality, a self-imposed goal of understanding this person who is different from us.”  Today is a good day to start.

 

Day 16 – The Long Walk to Justice: The Sioux

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History is written by the victors – for a while.  Custer was glorified for his grisly campaign and mourned when he died in the hills in northern Wyoming.  But a new consciousness arose when Helen Hunt Jackson wrote A Century of Dishonor and Dee Brown’s 1970  Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee was published. These books gave a voice to the history of American expansionism and the Native Americans’ displacement through forced relocation and effort to destroy the culture, religion, and way of life.

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In the 1968 the American Indian Movement (AIM) was born.Its purpose was to address American Indian sovereignty, treaty issues, spirituality, and leadership, while simultaneously addressing incidents of police harassment and racism.  1969-1971 AIM occupied Alcatraz, and the next year it organized a march on Washington, D.C. “The Trail of Broken Treaties.

 During the 1970’s a 3,200-mile walk known was the “Longest Walk”rallied thousands representing many Indian Nations throughout the United States and Canada. In 1978 the walk entered DC and the elders led the walkers to the Washington Monument where the Pipe that was carried across the nation was smoked.  President Carter  refused to meet with representatives of The Longest Walk.
AIM led the Longest Walk 2, which arrived in Washington in July 2008. This 8,200 mile walk started from the San Francisco Bay area. The Longest Walk 2 had representatives from more than 100 American Indian nations, and other indigenous participants, such as the Maori. The walk highlighted the need for protection of American Indian sacred sites, tribal sovereignty, environmental protection and action to stop global warming.
Leonard Peltier was a member of AIM who was convicted of shooting two FBI agents.  His conviction has been the included in Amnesty International’s “Unfair Trials” list.

 

Wahacanka Peltier, was the youngest child of imprisoned Leonard Peltier.  He has never been able to visit his father outside of a prison.  His  English name was Paul Shields-Peltier. He was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.  He lived the very hard life that is life on the Pine Ridge, but in recent years he joined a company that was building environmentally sustainable housing for the people of the reservation and it was something he loved to do because it knew he was helping his people.

 

He died in Washington, D.C. this week.  He was there on a vigil to seek clemency for his father.

 

I learned this news yesterday from my husband who works with an NGO, Trees Water People (TWP), at Pine Ridge.  There is a partnership between the visionary Henry Red Cloud, a man I am honored to know, and TWP.  Henry  Red Cloud founded Lakota Solar and has been a leader and real job creator. Lakota Solar Enterprises   He is the direct 5th generation descendant of Chief Red Cloud, one of the last Lakota war chiefs.

Yesterday with this terrible news, my husband was elected to serve as President of Trees Water People. Trees Water People This NGO works with Lakota Solar and is the reason my husband goes to Pine Ridge.
My husband has been working to raise money to build a house for Wahacanka and his family.    And now, a go fund me campaign exists to help this family.  Paul’s Go Fund Me
I am asking for the support of friends for our friends.

It is with a deeply sad heart that I write this. Today my dear younger brother Wa Ha walked on. He was with us here in Washington DC as we pray and work for clemency for our father Leonard Peltier. He was my little brother and I cannot believe his is gone from us. His name was Wahacanka.

His english name was Paul Shields-Peltier and he was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota reservation. He had been sick for many months and was having dialysis for four hours a day three days a week and although his wife and family suggested him not to make this trip he would not be turned back. In true Oglala way he said he wanted to go on this journey to help bring his father home.
He adored his wife Emily Two Lance-Peltier and his five children (four daughters and one son) and his mother Audrey Shields, his sisters and brothers and other family members and the Oglala Oyate. He was a quiet man who was known for his soft good humor and kind spirit. He never missed an event or a ceremony for our father. He was never one to stand up and speak but always there to help and support.
He lived the very hard life that is life on the Pine Ridge but in recent years he joined a company that was building environmentally sustainable housing for the people of the reservation and it was something he loved to do because it knew he was helping his people.
He suffered a very damaging stroke while working and has been trying to recover since.

Our dad had wished to donate one of his kidneys to Wa Ha but because of his imprisonment and his own failing health that was not possible. I will never forget my fathers words when he found out. He said, “Oh No. My Son has died. My baby has died.” I wish we could console him now as we try to console each other.

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation encompasses the poorest counties in the United States. It is the site of tragedy; it was the location of the last of the Ghost Dances. The U.S. authorities attempt to repress this movement eventually led to the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890.

I learned the rumor that DAPL will continue despite the fact that the Army Corps have denied the permit.  DAPL decided that it would rather pay the fines, or so that it the rumor.   If this is so, the tragic stripping of the rights and properties of the tribes will continue, and may again lead to violence and loss.  The Standing Rock Sioux and millions of people want the 500 years of taking to stop.  Standing Rock Sioux

Since Trump has a stake in DAPL, he stands in a unique place to stop history from repeating itself – killings in the snow – loss of life – loss of identity.  Will he?  Or will he want profits that mean nothing to a billionaire at the expense of land that means everything to people that have endured too much loss for too many centuries.  Soon we will know if his history will categorize him as a Custer, a blonde narcissist who would do anything for notoriety.

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Beth Klein Boulder Attorney Letter15

Feb. 20, 1962, John Glenn became an iconic explorer.  Breaking the trail into space and advancing technology on earth.  He died today.

Millions of people invented materials, electronics, fuels, and a myriad of binary codes to make Glenn’s three trips around the earth possible.  Five hours on Feb. 20, 1962 was a culmination of all of the technological aspirations of humankind.  The Friendship 7 Mission succeeded, and America showed its strength in invention and vision.  He followed and surpassed Yuri A. Gagarin and Gherman S. Titov, Alan B. Shepard and Virgil I. Grissom.

Behind good men, there are always good women. NASA’s “Computers in Skirts”  were mathematics and physics geniuses who calculated the trajectories for space missions and designed software to make the mission go. Katherine Johnson, a 2016 Medal of Freedom recipient, along with her colleagues Dorothy Vaughn and Mary Jackson, served as the brains behind John Glenn  orbit and his safe return.  Margaret H. Hamilton led the team that created the on-board flight software for NASA’s Apollo command modules and lunar modules.

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The contributions of icon John Glenn were watched around the world in 1962 are incalculable.  The quiet support of Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson and Margaret Hamilton are also ticker tape worthy.  Bill Gates and Steve Jobs stand on their shoulders.   Mark Zuckerberg and the billions of FB’ers owe them all thanks.

The humanity, mastery and heroism of John Glenn are clear when we read his words:

“Zero G and I feel fine.”

“As I hurtled through space, one thought kept crossing my mind — every part of this rocket was supplied by the lowest bidder.”

“To sit back and let fate play its hand out and never influence it is not the way man was meant to operate.”

“I don’t know what you could say about a day in which you have seen four beautiful sunsets.

“If there is one thing I’ve learned in my years on this planet, it’s that the happiest and most fulfilled people I’ve known are those who devoted themselves to something bigger and more profound than merely their own self-interest.”

The words a leader uses, seals his reputation for the ages.  Words make worlds, and as communication technology develops,  words spread faster, and accuracy and clarity matter.

FDR’s radio fireside chats are eternal.  His words bring people together.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”

TV amplified John Kennedy’s  words as he encouraged America to aim for the stars.

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.

Forgive your enemies, but never forget their names.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

Mankind must put an end to war before war puts an end to mankind.

Obama, a master public speaker, moved enormous crowds.  He used the Whitehouse Webcam, Facebook, and Social Media to communicate.

“Yes we can.”

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

And now 140 characters is the cutting edge in Presidential communication.  It has not been inspirational.  How can Americans come together in a universe of divided news, smart phones, feeds, and fake news?  We hear only what conforms to our world view.

Who inspires us now and says the words that are worthy of the ages?  Where are Atticus Finch and Churchill?  Or do we live in the cynical  age of the celebrity and the Heisenberg multi-dimensional villain?

But then, I am reminded “never, never, never give up.”  Glenn failed many times, but he never quit.  In 1964, Glenn entered the Ohio Democratic primary running against incumbent Senator Stephen Young, however, an accident forced Glenn to leave the race.  In 1970 he ran for Senate again and lost.  On the third try in 1974, he won his Senate race.   It took a decade of failing and trying.  He tried to become President of the United States, and he failed.  But he became the oldest human to venture into space. He never quit.

There is a lesson for all of us in Glenn’s well-lived life.  It takes time, tries, and failures to make vision into reality.  And it takes the support of others.    It takes words that inspire and bring people together in common goals.

We never will succeed in any mission alone.  We must have  a common vision and the courage to set aside differences so that we can work to a greater end – – for many other than ourselves.  And we need the words that inspire and are worth remembering.

 

 

 

Daily Letters to Trump: Day 13

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Trump and Florence Foster Jenkins

Florence Foster Jenkins was a New York socialite and opera singer who was known and mocked for her flamboyant performance and absence of singing ability. She was ranked as “the world’s worst opera singer”. “It was said that she had liberated herself “completely from the shackles of musical notation.” Her perfomances were “never exactly an aesthetic experience, or only to the degree that an early Christian among the lions provided aesthetic experience; it was chiefly immolatory, and Madame Jenkins was always eaten, in the end.”

Ira Siff, dubbed her “the anti-Callas”: said: “Jenkins was exquisitely bad, so bad that it added up to quite a good evening of theater … She would stray from the original music, and do insightful and instinctual things with her voice, but in a terribly distorted way. There was no end to the horribleness. Cole Porter rarely missed a recital, but it is said he had to bang his cane on the floor to keep from laughing. Whether Lady Jenkins was aware of her lack of talent is up for debate, but she became a beloved cult figure because of her authenticity and absoute delight for music.

President Elect has a love for performance and notariety as Lady Jenkins. This week on an appreciation tour we saw him re-enacting his greatest hits for loving audiences who chanted “lock her up.” He sang his disjointed and gloating aria for no other purpose than receiving applause. His lyrics in the style of a Southern Tupac:

We didn’t break it.
We shattered that sucker.
Shattered it, man.
That poor wall is busted up.
So, I’ll never forget it though
because it felt so good.
You know, more so
because they kept saying
there’s no path
and all this nonsense.

It’s one thing to be a syphilis riddled socialite parodying a diva in public. It’s quite another for the President Elect of the United States to become a diva parodying the office of the President on the world stage. And this is especially true because there is no mandate of a popular vote. The bitterness of the Clinton camp lingers and is becoming organized. And the President Elect’s childish refusal of State and Intelligence briefings reveals an unprecedented lack of concern for the future of the US.

This week my phone consistently rang with calls on how to do FOIA requests, how to file lawsuits, how to constitutionally stop the electors from voting for Trump, and how to protect the groups that were attacked in this campaign and even now. There are over 2.5 million people who opppose Trump and see the election as a disgrace.

The incompetence of accepting phone calls and Tweeting about how world leaders are paying homage, led to a rebuke by China. The 10 minute telephone call with Taiwan’s leadership breached the “one China” policy, and China lodged a diplomatic protest. In order to save face, China blamed the event on its scapegoat Taiwan which it considers a rogue province. China has not ruled out bringing Taiwan back into the fold by force. And when criticised about the call, the Tweet excuse was “they called me.” A deflection often employed by young children who don’t want to accept responsibiity for mistakes.

The President Elect lives in an all-enveloping delusion protected and nurtured by an inner circle of kept family and political gadabouts. It occurs as though the President Elect will be staging impulsive stunt shows in which he plays Lady Foster. Now that corporations know that they can extort tax breaks by threatening to move jobs to Mexico, how much corporate welfare policy has been created? Now that you are talking to Pakistan like a high school candidate for prom king, will you destabelize relations with India?

It’s time to stop pushing buttons like a three year old in an elevator – just to see what will happen.

Daily Letters to Trump: Day 12

20161201__02tcasafw1Boulder County installed posters assuring employees and visitors to those buildings, that they’re in a “Safe Zone.”

There are English and Spanish versions of the posters, which state that “This space respects all aspects of people including race, ethnicity, gender expression, sexual orientation, socio-economic background, political affiliation, age, religion, body shape, size and ability.”

Boulder County is a welcoming and safe place. That’s how we’re going to stay.

Daily Letters to Trump: Day 11

cuba-picThe Spirit of the Cuban People

I spend most of the month of May 2016 in Cuba with a delegation from Trees, Water People. Our delegation included solar power experts, a bilingual pediatrician, the Founder of Mother Love (a plant expert), an ornithologist, music promoters, lawyers, a Red-Diaper Baby who runs a toy store in Colorado, and Peace Corps employees. We traveled across the entire country (except Guantanamo) and met scores of Cubans in the cities, country, beaches, and forests. We arrived just after President Obama left and the Rolling Stones had given a free concert in Havana. There were new things in the air – the internet, the transition of power, and fear of losing their identity to American consumerism.

The Cuban people are resilient and creative. They are highly educated. Painters, musicians, dancers, mechanics, writers abound. The founder of one of the premier sustainable organic urban farms said it best, “We make things work from nothing; if I could go to Home Depot for a day, I could entirely change my country.” Live music. Creative and hard working hands hold up the culture.

The Cubans are a blended culture – Spanish, Tribal, Black, Communist, Entrepreneur. Jeweled eyes matched with stunning skin tones. The people are stylish and unique. They move with rhythm and are infected with song and beat.

Practitioners of Santeria practice their religion and create beautiful home alters to heal, prevent misfortune or curse in the decaying neighborhoods of Havana. Santeria is also known as Regla de Ocha or Lucumi. In Spanish Santeria translates into devotion to the saints or “santos.” It is religious syncretism of West African religions and Catholicism. There is no unified writing; the traditions are passed orally from generation to generation by priests and priestesses. The idea is to underwent the ache or the spiritual energy present in the universe. Practitioners hope to acquire more ache through ethical good lives. Through this, they evolve as human being. In many ways is a very colorful and ancient expression of mindfulness.

When initiated into Santeria, for the first week the individual symbolically dies and is reborn. The old life ends and a new one begins. Initiates wear white for purification. Music is a means to communicate with the eternal.

Hollywood sensationalizes possession in Santeria as it does with Catholic exorcism. Neither is the norm.
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The Greek Orthodox church is active, and the government has made some effort to show that it respects religion. In 2002, St. Nicholas Church was built in Old Havana. Castro attended the dedication of the Church.
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In the gardens surrounding St. Nicholas Church there is a beautiful and active mosaic baptismal pool. It was filled with hibiscus and fragrant leaves. The street noise does not penetrate here.

The Ladies in White are a political group. The Ladies ritualistically walk to St. Rita’s Church in Havana to pray for their imprisoned loved ones that were tried and condemned during the Black Spring in 2003. At that time the Cuban government arrested and sentenced 75 journalists, librarians, and human rights defenders to decades in prison. The activist Laura Pollan formed the group two weeks after the arrests and modeled the action after the Argentinian Madres de Plaza De Mayo who lost children in the Junta in the 1970’s. Each lady wears a button with a photo of her jailed relative. They Cuban government has labeled the Ladies in White as a subversive association of American-backed terrorists.

The friends that I made are all highly talented and educated. Julio, my favorite of all, accompanied me to Ernest Hemingway’s house. He has a PhD, and is well-read and writes poetically about his love for Cuba and his friends. He studied abroad in the Cuban exchange program in eastern Europe and communist affiliate countries. Julio knew all of the stories of Finca Vigia, the black dogs, the mahogany boat, and the old man and the sea. Julio could have worked for the government for 60 CUC a month but he has chosen to be a guide and guard because it it more lucrative and better for his family. Literature is universal, and so is entrepreneurship and a desire to better the lives of your children. He chose to stay and help his country.

In Cienfuegos, we stayed in a house that was frozen in time in 1960. Nothing had been changed – the astroturf in the back courtyard, white iron patio furniture, and garden gnomes. Melmac plastic atomic style dishes. A dead white caddie sinking on rotten tires. The former owner was a funeral director of the town. He and every member of his family fled to the United States. They left behind a distant very tired relative who cares for the house but wishes she could be with her family. The Cuban refugees in America long for the things they lost – the land, houses, mines, fincas – they could not regain in the doomed Bay of Pigs (Giron) operation in April 1961.

Among the mid-century furnishings was a santos of the Black Madonna that had been carried in religious processions. The Madonna is covered with shells, coral and fish. Her mantel is blue, and she is the patron saint of fishermen. The Madonna is sitting next to lightly gilded 1950’s white wigged porcelain figures from Spain, France and Dresden that are worthless in Cuba. The owner hopes to sell these statutes to a traveler so she can buy a ticket to live with her family and freely roam in new worlds.

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The buildings on the boulevards are painted in old pastel plaster. The Parque Jose Marti is the square where the church and government buildings in Cienfuegos are located. At night in this square hundreds of Cubans gather with smart phone around hot spots. Separated families Facetime for hours into the night. The Cubans see our culture through webpages – YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, and Miami local news channels. The Cuban people are conversational and connected. They spend time on their front porches, sharing meals, playing games, watching children. They see that Americans are engaged more with electronics than their families and friends, and they do not want to become detached from each other.

In Vinales we stayed in a Casa Particular with a grandmother named Ida. Her husband is a farmer, and he lives in the red soil in the country. She tends her rose pink BnB on a dirt road filled with children walking to school with their parents in the morning and playing endless games in the sun after school. She watches the parade of horse carts and hodge podge Chevys and is glad that the hard times of starvation after the fall of the USSR are over. Now she is learning to be a business woman with the other ladies on her road who rent out rooms. The old and young make communal dinners for their tourist guests – some cook the meat, some cut the fruit, and other set and wash up. They keep tight books and share the profits

We caused confusion when we tipped Ida, and she thought we did not understand money or the charges. I found myself surrounded by grandmothers who were telling me that I gave them too much money, and me telling them about tips in my kindergarten Spanish. The women put their heads together and decided to share the tip with the whole neighborhood. Some luck to help them improve their gardens, rooms and websites. The men stayed wisely out of the controversy, but somehow the money was spent on building materials to expand the houses. Young black men in tattered clothes unloaded the rock, rebar and cement.

The people with whom I connected are excited about having businesses and new people to talk to, but they want to do it in the Cuban way. They love music and dancing everywhere and anytime. They love each other, and do not want to loose their friendships and laughter around tables full of rum, rice and beans. They want materials to create and build their unique ideas.

The loss of Fidel is more important to people who believed in the revolution and less to their children who cherish smart phones and cards that connect them to everywhere and everything. In this moment and nine days of national mourning for a lawyer who changed a nation for better and worse and who ran the Mafia out of his country with pigs, my friends say that there is a unifying confusion and the desire for a future that will blend the best of the two generations and worlds. I hope that the Cuban defend their unique identity and beauty. I also wish that they have the opportunity to integrate the best of America and take from our culture as they have for centuries from Pirates, slaves, Spain, and Marx. We are entering the next era of Cuban syncretism, and Americans may gain more than simply a new market. The old is dying and something new is being birthed.

Daily Letter to Trump: Day 10

iolzoz55rdaqttsu5xb9The Marriage of the U2 Dragon Ladies and the White Hat Hackers.

In August 1952 – in complete secrecy – at the the Lockheed Skunk Works – the original Dragon Lady first flew. Early flights over the Soviet Union in the late 1950s provided the president and other U.S. decision makers with key intelligence on Soviet military capability. In October 1962, the U-2 photographed the buildup of Soviet offensive nuclear missiles in Cuba, touching off the Cuban Missile Crisis. This machine has taken part in virtually every major American military operation for over the last half century and has provided signals, communications, electronic and image intelligence reliably since shortly after the dawn of the jet age.

The Dragon Lady is the most difficult plane to fly. The minimum airframe weight results in little margin for error. To maintain 70,000 feet altitude, the planes must be operated near their never exceed speed. The margin between the never exceed speed and stall speed is only 12 mph. Breaching either can cause airflow separation of the wings or tail. The U-2 uses an in line bicycle landing gear configuration instead of the tricycle configurations in most planes. To fly a dragon lady, the pilot must wear a space suit.

The 60 year old U-2 Dragon Lady program has been a male dominated one, with just eight women being qualified to fly a U-2. Merryl Tengesdal is the first female African American U-2 pilot. Merrill rose from a tough neighborhood with encouragement from her teachers and family, and has now seen the curvature of the Earth – at 70,000 feet providing data to decision makers.

Now the Dragon Lady is an important asset to destroy DAISH. I will use the acronym DAISH because it infers that ISIS is not a
true caliphate or state, rather an illegitimate death cult as bad as the the Khmer Rouge who killed 2 million people in Cambodia.

The Dragon Lady has been instrumental in finding safe houses and battle position. The Dragon Ladies coordinate data with drones and fighter pilots. One of the key hackers and recruiters for DAISH, Junaid Hussain, was air stalked and killed by a Hellfire Missile while leaving an internet cafe. According to the Times, Hussain was a 21 year old English speaking computer specialist from England, and his tight circle of hackers and recruiter are the “Legion.”

Working together from the physical outer space barrier and in cyber space, the Dragons and white hat counter-intelligence workers have killed members of The Legion and arrested nearly 100 people motivated by social media The FBI has sifted through thousands of the Legions followers postings on the net and stopped attacks.

One might think that cyber anti-terrorism is very difficult, but it all originates from 0’s and 1’s – a binary system of language. In the past weeks, I started learning Python, one of the more universal languages of the internet. The simplicity of computers and the open structure of the net is astonishing. All systems are vulnerable it seems so far in my learning.

How facial recognition systems work is very simple. Facial features are simply measured and mapped. If you engage in Facebook, under your profile, you can find the code of your face. This simple math map of your face allows the system to identify you and allows you to tag your friends. The math map of your face is universal and can be used in any application. The innocent face mapping on Facebook is the same system used to identify terrorists. It is not mysterious or magical.

Every letter, number, color and sound has a unique binary code in bits and then bundled in powers of 2 in Bytes, megabytes, gigabytes, terabytes, and so on. When the unique code hits the processor it is then translated into a letter, a number, a color or a sounds. And all of this is done at the speed of light.

As our technology moves forward, combat becomes more distant and invisible. It is never ending. Such that we might not even think about it or perhaps it seems like nothing is being done. Invisibility of combat in the background does not mitigate the true impact of war on humanity, but it does seem as if there is no progress against DAISH. But we are, and there are heroes flying Dragons and white hats programming in secret computer arrays fighting for our freedom every day, and they are working together – which is the only way – we will succeed.

Daily Letter to Trump: Day 9

ap_8411160115-01f655b83dec0156917b3323b0cd19aa1f8abd8d-s800-c85Should we pardon Turkeys?

One of the silliest functions of the Presidency is to pardon the Turkey. An 1865 dispatch from White House reporter Noah Brooks is the oldest-known account of a presidential turkey clemency concerning Abraham Lincoln sparing a a Christmas turkey that his son Tad loved. John F. Kennedy appears to have been the first to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey.. George HW Bush made this a formal ceremony. Malia and Sasha are probably not going to miss attending this event
But pardons are important powers to ensure that profound mistakes and flaws in the criminal justice system are rectified and that political prosecutions do not tear the country apart. Lincoln pardoned many North Dakota Sioux; Ford pardoned Nixon and probably ended his political career for the sake of the Nation.

Which brings me to the notion of forgiveness and healing which is really the point of today’s letter. A few days ago, my friend Kavita Ramdas wrote that she was “sitting shiva mourning, grieving, reflecting and honoring the work and efforts of so many who worked for justice and inclusion and “Herstory”. Facing the cold harsh reality of my own disconnect from the many who did vote for a man whose conduct, language and values seem so distant from what I associate with basic decency and the most idealistic aspirations of democracy. Trying to keep my heart and mind open to learning more, but also quite clear that I will not let hate and bigotry become “normalized”‘

Kavita is no lightweight. Her mom was one of the founders of Amnesty International, and Kavita is an exceptional leader who works for the Ford Foundation.

But the reality is that the election was more complex that the good vs. the bigot. Trump narrowly won in four states and took the office. Hillary received 2 million more votes, Both sides should be humbled with this mixed result.

We have to let go of judgment and actually look why the vote was won. Comey, Russia/Wiki, rural v. urban, the weight given to interior states, manufacturing obsolescence, ignoring Michigan, 30 years of Hillary vilification, and unpopular candidates battling on negatives all factor. People did not show up to vote.

I certainly stand against hateful language and bigotry of this election. But there was a message about jobs that resonated, and that is where our work together can and needs to begin.

David Brooks editorialized today:

“It’s not my cup of tea, but I can see why some good people might be willing to tolerate Trump and Bannon’s personalities in order to pursue (something new).. . . . Many of my fellow Trump critics are expressing outrage, depression, bewilderment or disgust. They’re marching or writing essays: Should we normalize Trump or fight the normalizers?”

….

“It all seems so useless during this transition moment. It’s all a series of narcissistic displays and discussions about our own emotional states. It seems like the first thing to do is really learn what this election is teaching us. Second, this seems like a moment for some low-passion wonkery. It’s stupid to react to every Trump tweet outrage with your own predictable howls. It’s silly to treat politics and governance purely on cultural grounds, as a high school popularity contest, where my sort of people denigrates your sort of people.”

Last year, I began a kindness tour. I hope this on the court adventure will last for the rest of my life. I first traveled to South Carolina to visit my friend Jane Page Thompson. Jane Page and I met at Yale, and as she says we cancel out each other’s votes. I had seen memes of her home state, South Carolina. I was offended when her friend yelled “you lie” during the State of the Union. I was profoundly sad to see the killings in Columbia and the hate at rallies during the primaries. I was moved when Governor Nikki Haley had the guts to put the confederate flag in the past. She removed it from public display. But, I wanted to see why my friend Jane, and I could have such different political views. While both of us are committed to our country and hold the same wants for its future.

Jane Page is a mover and shaker and arranged for me to meet every person of power she knew. She set up speaking events at her Rotary, local University, and a Southern Baptist Church. I spoke about being kind and talked about refugees and our work against human trafficking. Jane Page made sure I got to hear very different view points, and she was a gracious host. She and her friends taught me immeasurable lessons, and I made friends that are very important to me now.

What I saw at the beginning of this lifelong kindness tour was that what is represented on TV and in blurbs on social media does a great disservice to our fellow countrymen. It’s time to get outside of our glowing screen bubbles and start listening. Congressional Districts must be blended so that we can work on compromises instead of having ideologues who believe that compromise is a dirty word. If only red and blue family members could gather for one meal and not need manuals and “best practices” for surviving sitting at the same table.

The pardoning of the turkey by the President is a silly act. But perhaps if we all step back and stop taking ourselves so seriously, we may all benefit. Tell some bad jokes, take Turkey selfies, and find a way to start living together again. At this Thanksgiving time, take a moment and forgive a turkey (aka a person of the opposite political view) in your life. Talk about things that matter, (exactly how much butter is in the mashed potatoes?) and create good memories. Play a board game, throw the football, hike to a beautiful place or simply fall asleep on the couch – with your family.

Happy giving thanks! And Happy Thanksgiving, Jane Page. Thanks for being my friend

Daily Letter to Trump: Day 8

1479825611Why do people flee from Central America?

Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13 has made El Salvador the murder capital of the world. Thousands of good men, women and children pay traffickers and make dangerous journeys to escape from the violence. They hope for a peaceful future, education, and prosperity.

With 103 homicides per 100,000 residents last year, compared with five in the United States, this is as deadly as a war zone. MS-13 does not rise to the level of sophistication of he Zetas of Mexico, Russian Brothers’ Circle, the Italian Camorraor or the Yakuza of Japan or any other international syndicate. It is a mafia of the poor, but highly effective. MS-13 makes most of its money through small drug dealing, prostitution, and extortion of businesses.

The 40,000 members of MS-13, each gang member earn $15 a week and about $65 a month. That is half the minimum wage of an agricultural day laborer. Money does not drive the gang, and when assets were confiscated – used cars and currency totaled a little over $30,000.00. Raids on the gang often yield $5.00. The gangs’ credo of fraternity and equality does not allow for any personal gain at the expense of the brotherhood. “He who makes himself rich at the expense of the street is going to die.”

Many young recruits risk their lives to protect territory without earning a penny from his organization. Tens of thousands of poor boys who are not seeking personal profit, only respect, a notion of safety and a sense of belonging. The rank and file are rewarded with eggs and candy.

Among Salvadoran businesses, transportation companies, are especially vulnerable to extortion. Over the last five years, it has been more dangerous to drive a bus than to fight gang crime: The gangs have killed 692 transportation workers — and 93 police officers.

Mara Salvatrucha was born in Los Angeles. Its rise is a direct result of United States immigration policy.

El Diablito — Borromeo Henríquez Solórzano, 38 is its leader. In the late 1970s or early 1980s, his father and family fled the Salvadoran civil war along with thousands who resettled in Los Angeles neighborhoods dominated by Mexican gangs. At the end of the 1990s, as part of an anti-gang offensive and a crackdown on “criminal aliens,” the United States shipped planeloads of gang members made in the United States back to El Salvador and other Central American countries. El Diablito returned to his El Salvador in one of those waves of deportation. El Diablito received a 30-year sentence for homicide, but he was able to institutionalize extortion nationwide and expand gang operations from behind bars. During negotiations with the government from 2012 – 2014, with a single order, homicides decreased by 60%.

Iron fist crack downs on the gang in Central America have yielded thin results. There are no rehabilitation centers, no programs to reintegrate them into society and no gang-prevention initiatives aimed at high-risk youths. The cycle of violence continues, and youth continue to join – often times through force.

The root of the problem is poverty and lack of resources to create jobs and safety for Salvadorans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, and other Central and South American immigrants. Deportation programs will not address these issues, and the migration will continue. People want to live. I do not sympathize with the violence, but I do sympathize with all of the innocents who are recruited so young and those who are caught in the cross fire.

I became familiar with MS13 because of child trafficking, another cruel consequence of poverty. In 2011, Alonso “Casper” Bruno Cornejo Ormeno, was sentenced to 292 months in prison for child prostitution. Ormeno recruited juvenile females into a prostitution ring by locating runaway children. In June 2012, Rances Ulices Amaya, was sentenced to 50 years in prison for child prostitution. He was convicted in February 2012 for trafficking girls as young as 14 into a prostitution ring. They were lured from middle schools, high schools, and public shelters. Once acquired by Amaya, they were required to have sex with a minimum of 10 individuals per day. In September 2012, Yimmy Anthony Pineda Penado, became the 11th MS-13 gang member to be convicted of child prostitution since 2011.

People fleeing for their lives has become a refugee crises. In the 2016 fiscal year, which ended in September, nearly 409,000 migrants were caught trying to cross the southwestern border of the United States illegally, a 23 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, according to statistics released by the Obama administration. More than 46,000 people were caught last month on the southwestern border, up from about 39,500 in September. The recent wave of people has been particularly notable for the unusual number of Central American migrants traveling in family groups. 77,700 migrants caught on the southwestern American border were traveling in families, nearly twice as many as were detained in families the previous year. About 91 percent of all those migrants were from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, a region known as the Northern Triangle.

Studies suggest that families are fleeing because they have no alternative. Gangs in pockets of the Northern Triangle have become so powerful and violent there are only three considerations: Comply, flee or die.

Destabilization of the governments in the Northern Triangle and a destruction of all civil society may be a consequence of the “Wall” and mass deportations to communities that are not prepared to receive millions of people. Without adequate water systems, food, housing or basic services, this is a real possibility. American do not seem to recognize that systems of justice and safety do not exist in poor countries. Without the assistance in partnership of our government, there is no way to end the cycles of violence. What is needed is far more than law enforcement; government building, leadership training, and pathways to a real future as a Central American are essential.

It’s time for comprehensive immigration policy, but not one solely based upon a closed door, “extreme” vetting, and one way tickets. It has never worked. Economic investment, education, and paths out of poverty of violence must be considered. If you are the change maker; make real change in the reason why people flee to our border.

Daily Letter to Trump: Day 7

quote-the-end-never-really-justifies-the-meanness-e-duane-hulse-344764“Often we create prisons for ourselves [and others] by thinking and talking in certain ways. Just shifting the way we use words can be enough to let us out.” (Macaro and Bagini, 2014)

During the past week, I was with many talented and powerful women. Two stand out: a former Tenth Circuit Clerk who now fights constitutional battles for the poor with elegant and moving prose; a young woman litigator who boxes, works at an animal shelter, volunteers time for safe passage for women needing services from Planned Parenthood, and indexes historical writings for NARF. I wonder how they rise – so often.- and with such grace and acumen. This week, my friend Sarah Moshman gave her first Ted Talk on women heroes. I met Sarah several years ago when she was on a journey to discover for herself “what would you do if you were not afraid?” This resulted in The Empowerment Project Documentary, in which Sarah told the stories of ordinary women who have done extraordinary things.

Conversations with these women and others who inspire me are much longer than 140 Characters and they are always face to face. They are not tweets; the conversations are rich and thoughtful. What I noticed about these encounters is that negative words and meanness is not there. They are discussions about visions, futures, action, and kindness. They fundamentally consider how people create good lives for themselves and others. These talks use words about generosity and inclusiveness. And overtime I have the blessing of being in communication in this bubble, I am inspired and forget being tired.

I am not on twitter or social media that is political anymore. I looked at twitter, and I saw that there was so much hostility and “I’m right and you’re wrong” packed into only 140 words over and over and over. Nothing was being built, except exceptionalism in insults. (A talent that the British have truly mastered with their command of English.) I saw that getting followers was the goal so that a feed could be commoditized or used to get attention or power? The outrageous were outdoing the outrageous. To what result? Will parents tweet their children as their only form of communication. Maybe we will soon be able to simply send an electronic brain shock to another person and hope to be shocked back. Who can stand the most shocks? The notion that electronic media is degrading society is nothing new. But the “skimming” non related, negative flood of communication is.

Chose five words of acknowledgment, encouragement, creativity, forgiveness, connectivity that you will use every day this week and see what happens. Only if you want to explore this idea in depth, read further, If you don’t (I understand), consider using 140 a day to encourage another, to create, to resolve, to connect.

Thank you Kat, Lucy and Sarah for sharing your visions with me this week. Now let’s go make it happen!
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As the media theorist Marshall McLuhan pointed out in his book in 1964, the Extensions of Man, media are not just passive channels of information. They supply the stuff of thought, but they also shape the process of thought. McLuhan is known for coining the expressions the “medium is the message” and the “global village”, and for predicting the World Wide Web almost thirty years before it was invented. McLuhan’s The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (written in 1961, first published in Canada by University of Toronto Press in 1962) is mosaic mash up in print of media, that pre-mimics internet surfing. Throughout the book, McLuhan demonstrates how media affects cognitive organization, which in turn has profound ramifications for social organization:

…[I]f a new technology extends one or more of our senses outside us into the social world, then new ratios among all of our senses will occur in that particular culture. It is comparable to what happens when a new note is added to a melody. And when the sense ratios alter in any culture then what had appeared lucid before may suddenly become opaque, and what had been vague or opaque will become translucent.

Shocking to think that we toss expressions invented in 1960’s around today as novel notions. But is this all really “new,” and should we be afraid. What was the thinking among the lawyers when youth started watching television or swiveling their hips to Elvis? “Television has attracted young viewers since broadcasting began in the 1940s. Concerns about the effects of television on young children emerged almost immediately, and have been fueled by a steady stream of academic research showing a negative association between television viewing and student achievement. These findings have made the introduction and diffusion of television a popular explanation for trends such as the decline in average verbal SAT scores during the 1970s (Wirtz et al, 1977; Winn, 2002), and the secular decline in verbal ability across cohorts (Glenn, 1994).” See Does Television Rot Your Brain? New Evidence from the Coleman Study Matthew Gentzkow, Jesse M. Shapiro, University of Chicago (2006). Does this sound familiar?

This isn’t just the musing of curmudgeons as science writer Jonathan Gitlin noted that “there are a number of scientific studies that back up many of these points, such as the one that showed that receiving e-mail messages affected volunteers’ performance during IQ tests more than a toke on a joint, although I’m yet to hear of anyone smoking a spliff at work and trying to claim that it’s not an issue because ‘Bob over there is checking his e-mail.'”

Bruce Friedman, who blogs regularly about the use of computers in medicine, also has described how the Internet has altered his mental habits. “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print,” he wrote earlier this year. A pathologist who has long been on the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School, Friedman said, has taken on a “staccato” quality, reflecting the way he quickly scans short passages of text from many sources online. “I can’t read War and Peace anymore,” he admitted. “I’ve lost the ability to do that. Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it.” Tufts University and the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. “We are how we read.” Wolf worries that the style of reading that puts “efficiency” and “immediacy” above all else, may be weakening our capacity for the kind of deep comprehension. When we read online, she says, we tend to become “mere decoders of information.”

Daily Letter to Trump: Day 6

3321968965-94728fc085-jpg-2

Mary Agnes Chase (1869-1963)

Smithsonian’s Custodian in Charge of the Herbarium at the U.S. National Museum. She was not only an eminent expert on grasses but also a suffragette. In fact, her political activities resulted in arrests, prison time and a hunger strike that ended when she was force-fed. Later, when faced with formidable professional opposition to her request to go on expedition to Panama, she raised her own funds and traveled alone. Throughout her career she was energetic and undaunted by political and professional chauvinism in pursuit of her passion for botany and at the age of 93 published a three volume index of U.S. grasses, over 80,000 species

United Women of Science say: “Science is foundational in a progressive society, fuels innovation, and touches the lives of every person on this planet. The anti-knowledge and anti-science sentiments expressed repeatedly during the U.S. presidential election threaten the very foundations of our society. Our work as scientists and our values as human beings are under attack. We fear that the scientific progress and momentum in tackling our biggest challenges, including staving off the worst impacts of climate change, will be severely hindered under this next U.S. administration. Our planet cannot afford to lose any time.

In this new era of anti-science and misinformation, we as women scientists re-affirm our commitment to build a more inclusive society and scientific enterprise. We will take action in our own communities and we will work towards an inclusive society, where science and knowledge can be embraced and everyone has the opportunity to reach their potential.”

Unless we have a planet that functions, none of us will have a future. 2016 is the hottest year on record. Trees are dying. Species are becoming extinct. The North Pole is over 36 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than average, a new report found. In fact, the entire Arctic region, the report said, is about 13 degrees warmer than usual. At the same time, the extent of sea ice in the Arctic is at a record low beating the all-time low seen in 2012. The analysis comes from Sean Birkel, a research assistant professor at the University of Maine’s Climate Change Institute.

The Paris agreement was a stunning moment in human cooperation — forging alliances with China and other big polluters that helped bring decades of contentious discussions to a successful conclusion in Paris last year. The Paris agreement aims to limit the global temperature rise this century to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times, and as close to 1.5 degrees Celsius as possible. Those are the thresholds at which scientists believe many of the most damaging effects of climate change can be averted.

By the time the talks concluded, 111 countries accounting for three-quarters of the world’s emissions had ratified the deal, which took effect days before the meeting began. Several of them — including Germany, Canada and Mexico — joined the U.S. in presenting strategies for how their countries can dramatically reduce emissions by 2050. Vowing to do their part, representatives from more than 45 of the world’s poorest countries pledged to meet all of their energy production needs through renewable sources as rapidly as possible.

With the your threat to withdraw the United States from the accord some diplomats turned from talking of rising seas and climbing temperatures toward how to punish the United States if you follow through, with a carbon-pollution tax on imports of American-made goods. “A carbon tariff against the United States is an option for us,” Rodolfo Lacy Tamayo, Mexico’s under secretary for environmental policy and planning, said in an interview here. He added, “We will apply any kind of policy necessary to defend the quality of life for our people, to protect our environment and to protect our industries.”

The United States cannot afford to engage in a world-wide carbon tarif war where we are one against all other nations. This may be the first time in history that our country is faced with unified international sanctions because of “red meat” rhetoric that flies in the face of science. These policies will not support the “economic nationalism” that you claim to represent. These policies will not re-invigorate an American middle class. The standing of our country in the world will not be improved. Backing out of this accord will likely result in China having primary influence and leadership positions in the World.

You are no longer standing before a rowdy crowd of supporters that want obsolete manufacturing jobs back or think of governing as a WWF sport. You are now facing nations that have the ability to leave the United States behind.

Trump Letter 5

mad_origStateswomanship

What is effective to be elected in a world-wide tide of nationalism is not effective in solving global problems.

A stateswoman has a clear vision of what her country and her people can become. She knows where she wants to take them and what it will take to get there. She must be able to recognize problems on the horizon and be able to come up with solutions that are good not only for the short-term, but for the long-term as well. The stateswoman keeps in mind not only the here and now, but the world future generations will inherit.

Stateswomanship was expressed – better than any American leader this year — by 6 year old.

In a politically caustic environment, it is not surprising that some have reacted with fear and suspicion to the idea of welcoming refugees to our shores. But not Alex. Alex is six years old and lives just outside of New York City with his mom, dad, and little sister Catherine. When Alex saw what had happened to Omran, he sat down at his kitchen table and wrote President Obama a letter. “Can you please go get him and bring him to [my home],” he asked. “We’ll be waiting for you guys with flags, flowers, and balloons. We will give him a family and he will be our brother.”

In the Leaders Summit on Refugees this week, President Obama shared that letter with the world leaders that had gathered together to discuss what they could do to solve the global refugee crisis.

 

The humanity that a young child can display, who hasn’t learned to be cynical, or suspicious, or fearful of other people because of where they’re from, or how they look, or how they pray, and who just understands the notion of treating somebody that is like him with compassion, with kindness — we can all learn from Alex.