Ever Since I Was a Young Boy

I'm not named Thomas or nicknamed Tommy but I found this mesmerizing.

Not sure Uncle Ernie would endorse it but am sure I don't care.
-bill kenny

The Danger of Remembrance

Not sure why these lyrics popped into my head earlier but they've made themselves quite comfortable in there (plenty of room, that's for sure) and I suspect the song they're from will be there for at least a little while longer.

"For there's not much use for innocence 

In a world gone crazy and blind

Those who place any faith in intelligence

Must surely be out of their minds."

Surely, indeed.
-bill kenny

(Not Just) Bartlet for America

Statement (and celebration) of the Obvious. 

Savor the moment but don't be seduced by it. 

Remember Jeb Bartlet's question and promise to keep trying to answer it every day for all the days that remain.
-bill kenny

As Donald Circles the Bowl

I guess I can finally delete my folder of 'Trump Graphics' now. and exhale. So not sorry to never need to use them ever again or even think of him (until sentencing). 

And having been diagnosed at birth with Irish Alzheimer's (we forget everything but the grudges), here's just a very small sampling of some of my favorites to commemorate and celebrate the End of an Error. 

As seen on I-495 in Maryland

Trump Legacy

Channeling OJ and AC 

Yellow River

Ask the man with the best brain

-bill kenny

Same Shi(r)t

There are other things going on in our country and in the world aside from counting ballots in the 2020 Presidential Election but with so much churn in the water right now you could be forgiven for not noticing or realizing it. 

Courtesy of The Oatmeal

New cases of COVID-19 topped 100,000 for the first time, ever, on Wednesday, topping 102,000. As of yesterday at noon, over 233,836 of our fellow Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19. 

There were 751,000 first-time jobless benefits claims filed yesterday and no framework for a stimulus/relief package on the horizon much less ready to be implemented. 

And what is the President of the United States of America doing about any of this and all of the other pressing issues facing us as a nation of which he is the elected leader?  Well, the good news (I guess) is he's not out playing golf. Now he's tormenting mail carriers.

The Liar-in-Chief hasn't been this frightened of mail since he received his first draft notice. 
-bill kenny

Abe's Divided House

Abraham Lincoln was a great patriot before he was elected to the Presidency of the United States. On June 16, 1858, in accepting the Republican party nomination to be their Senatorial candidate in Illinois two years before becoming the standard-bearer in what was to be the most contentious presidential election in our nation's history until the one the day before yesterday, he noted, "A house divided itself cannot stand." 

He was speaking about the split in our nation over slavery, and he was absolutely and tragically correct. One hundred and sixty years later that same Union he was murdered trying to preserve is, as I heard on NPR yesterday citing a study from a year previously, rending itself asunder as we sort ourselves out, not as red and blue, not as white and black, or rich and poor, but rather, as urban versus rural. 

The former tends to have a higher (and more costly) quality of life and feels constrained by the latter while the latter sees itself pitied and abandoned by the former. Tuesday's election did nothing, absolutely nothing, to help all of us bridge the gap that's becoming a chasm as we talk at rather than speak with one another.

As confounded and angry as I am that anyone could support someone for the office of President as manifestly incompetent as the incumbent, I have to accept that his supporters see me as dangerously disruptive and most disquieting of all, we are both correct. So now what?

Our nation's motto is "E Pluribus Unum," 'out of many, one,' but we've mistaken patriotism for tribalism and decide that while you (whoever you are) may look like we do, you know what it is? You're not one of us. I'm not sure there's a way back to the place we were before but I do know we have to try to find it.
-bill kenny         

By the Dawn's Early Light

As you or may not know (or care) once a week, on Wednesdays, these mutterings appear in the pages of The Bulletin, a daily newspaper based in Norwich, Connecticut, which is where I live. Because of their production deadlines, I wrote these words Sunday before Election Day. You’re reading them now, the day after Election Day. Pretty amazing especially if you don’t think about it. And when it comes to not thinking, I’m your guy.

Whether we already have final results or not at the national level and/or how long we'll wait for them (and patience is no longer an American value it seems), what we already do have are the consequences of the decisions we made, or chose to NOT make, when we voted. That's how this nation works and when you look at our history, our heartaches, and our triumphs, it has been, and is, a remarkable process of new beginnings and unending hopeful horizons.

Since my Mom and Dad taught me manners (and the set I have is still in pretty good shape because I seemingly hardly ever use them) let me start on an appreciative note: To all of those who sought office and campaigned tirelessly in the last weeks and months, thank you for your generosity of spirit. 

Congratulations to those of you who were elected and for those who weren't, there's still a role for you in all of our communities so thanks in advance for lending a hand. We have some rough days before us all, not just the Red States or the Blue States, but the United States. There's a reason why we call ourselves that-sometimes, it seems, we forget.

We voters have expectations of those whom we elect and those men and women, in turn, have responsibilities to us. We all also have obligations to one another: to speak clearly in articulating our wants, needs, and desires (and our ability and willingness to pay for them), and to listen to one another and the explanation for why, sometimes, a particular course of action was chosen (or not chosen). We have two ears and one mouth in that particular ratio for a reason: perhaps we could listen more and shout less.

In recent years, there's been far too little civility in our civic discourse with one another as we've opted to impugn character and denigrate integrity instead of debating, developing, evaluating, implementing, and improving one another's ideas. We've turned elections into popularity contests that no one seems to win. 

I can't help but fear if John Hancock and the Founding Fathers could see what we've made of this nation that some of them gave their lives for (even before we were a country), he'd insist on a bottle of Wite-Out while reaching for a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Right now, the first days after a national election, are traditionally the most hopeful time in the political calendar. At all levels of government, the next few mornings will be a little brighter because of the perception and belief in possibilities we created for ourselves yesterday. But we shouldn’t do more than pause before continuing to build the nation regarded as a beacon by so many around the world.

As that nation we may not, in the last decade or so, have been especially good at narrowing the gap between promise and performance. As we continue in this, our third century, as a democracy, we need to be mindful we could be approaching that moment when our "Missed Opportunity" becomes our "Last Chance".

We all have too much at stake to leave government to "somebody else"--we each need of us to become that somebody. Democracy is a contact sport-now that we’re suited up, it's time to get in the game.
-bill kenny