An Encouraging Walk

 I try to walk five to six miles every day. Today my stroll took me from my house on Avenue A down to Fifth Avenue and then to Broad and Third Avenue to Fourth Street to Fourth Avenue, Second Street and back to Fifth Avenue. It felt great to see so many homes declaring their determination to restore our republic! If we can get this kind of support for Joe Biden in ruby red Rome then Georgia may actually be in play. If you would like to have one of these wonderful signs for your yard PM me ... I'll do my best to get you one.

Later note: Thanks for the response! I gave out my last Biden/Harris yard sign this morning, then managed to get 20 more... so I still have some available. Send a private message if you live in Floyd County and want one. I will come put it up. I only ask that you make a donation --- on your own, whatever you can online or by mail --- to the Biden campaign or the Floyd County Democratic Party. (I will not accept any money myself... this is 100% volunteer on my part and I don't want to handle any money for sure!)

Katherine Clonts

I too have loved all of the signage! Does the heart good to see our town putting up a fight!

Ellice Curry-Tucker

Yay!!!! Way to go Rome!!! Let’s flip this county/city, and then this state!!!! 

Susan Polkinghorn

This is awesome. We're working hard in Rockdale County!

Claudia Kennedy

Good on you! Happy to hear this. I would love it, but our HOA disallows signs in yards.

Shaina Gibson Linginfelter

I love the one on the bottom left!

Jan Cunningham

I’m loving the houses. I want the one in middle row, left side.  And/or one on bottom row left side. Maybe I show move to Rome and add to your blue numbers.

Rachel White

I like the “any functioning adult” sign! 

Shonna Bailey

I love the... Any functional adult 2020. I got so tickled.

Susan West Colding

I would like one but at end of road on cul de sac    

    Terrell Shaw

    Maybe a bumper sticker would be better in your case. But I'll put a sign out there if you want it... might move     it later if we run out and need one in a more prominent location.

Liz Hilburn

Love it! 

I’m another one in Rome for Biden! 

My sign is up but it’s on my front porch... Honestly kinda worried about what people on my street might do to my home...I hate that I have fear of putting it out in my yard..

Lisa Nimmons Martin

Thanks for posting these pics. Very uplifting!! 

I'm in Douglas County. Drove thru a street that usually only had repubs signs.

Saw many Biden\Harris signs and no chump\punke signs

Karen Lagow

I am just staying with Facebook. My neighborhood doesn’t put out many national campaign signs, mostly local, and since I have to drive through solid Red country in Alabama, and late at night, I don’t want to ask for a pot shot from someone.

Jerry Maschinot

Thanks a whole lot Terrell Shaw

Merlene Lewis Petty

This is so awesome. You are truly making a difference. Thank you from South Georgia!

    Terrell Shaw

    The real hero in Rome on the sign front is Thomas Bavis! But I'm gonna help him all I can.

Gwen Buice

You are wonderful! I love these pictures and the signs

    Terrell Shaw        

    I appreciate it, I'm certainly trying to help, but Thomas Bavis is the wonder. 

Charles Graves

I first put one near the street and it lasted 4 days, I now have two together near the front porch near my security camera.

    Melanie Collette Babb

    Charles Graves Sam is bringing our signs in at night.

    Charles Graves

    Good idea, Melanie. I also placed my small security system sign next to the Biden signs so thieves will know they are on “candid camera”.

    Charles Graves

    Melanie Collette Babb I attempted to add that I also placed a security sign next to the Biden signs so thieves will know they are on camera. Hope it works. Miss seeing you folks at GLBC .

    Melanie Collette Babb

    Charles Graves we miss you too. I think of you and Sara often.

Melanie Collette Babb

Terrell Shaw, I contacted the Floyd Democrat headquarters about some signs about 2 weeks ago, but I have not received them.

    Terrell Shaw    

    PM your address and I'll put 'em up on Monday.

    Terrell Shaw

    Melanie Collette Babb ‘s signs are up. Yay

    Melanie Collette Babb

    Terrell Shaw thanks for your help. They are proudly on display.

    Terrell Shaw

    I think Thomas Bavis beat me there!I’ve put up 4 more this morning. Y’all keep PM-ing me, I’ll keep putting em up till I run out.

Michael J. Burton

Don’t come to the country unless you want to be depressed

    Terrell Shaw

    Michael J. Burton actually I’ve been pleased to see a few Biden signs in Floyd Springs. If we can raise our numbers in NW Ga from about 20% in 2016 to something closer to a third, we’ll win statewide. Not easy but doable. So take heart!

    Michael J. Burton

    Terrell Shaw the eternal optimist. I got 28% so doable. Try to meet with you soon and look at signs etc.

Cindy Smith

Can you get me signs for Biden and Ossaff or tell me where to get them???

    Terrell Shaw    

    Cindy Smith I’ll put em up later today. ... remind me of the address via pm.

    Cindy Smith

    Terrell Shaw thank you for my signs!!!! 

Dagmar D. Schmitz Carlton

I would love a sign for Biden/Harris.

    Terrell Shaw

    Dagmar, your sign is up. Yay! Thx.

   Allien McNair

   Go by our house and check out our flag

    Terrell Shaw

    Allien McNair post a picture!

Three Photographs

The following is an e-mail I received from a friend, Denis Smith, of Ohio. I asked permission to share it here. A million years ago or so, in Bancroft, West Virginia, Denis was my principal at the very beginning of my thirty-three year career in teaching. I was thrilled to reconnect with Denis via Facebook a few years ago. He is an accomplished educator, a clear writer with a sense of humor and a heart, and a kindred spirit. This post illustrates that last point. I have always loved the second picture of the three below, the tearful Graham Jackson playing his accordion as FDR's funeral train leaves Warm Springs, Georgia. 

The shameful third picture illustrates so clearly the immaturity and cruelty of Donald Trump that I have used it for that purpose several times during the last few years. That disgusting incident is perhaps the most obvious of the many such occasions that should have ended Trump's campaign. 

I had not seen this first picture, but I will not soon forget it. It may take its sad but meaningful place in a gallery that includes the Jackson picture and the photo of toddler John Kennedy Jr. saluting his father's cortege.

----------------------

 The recent passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg brings many memories to mind about her service to the nation. But it was disappointing, yet not surprising, to learn of some of the vicious right-wing comments that have been made as a way to demonize the late jurist and thus lessen her accomplishments as a champion of justice for all, including, of course women, who make up the majority of the population in this country. In the many tributes offered, those who were not familiar with her background learned that for one period of her life, she was an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. And in spite of the shameless attacks on her, fair-minded persons realize that she expanded civil liberties for all in this nation.

When a notable figure dies, there is perhaps a unique photograph that serves as an icon to preserve their memory. Here is my favorite of the moment. 

In 1945, there was another iconic image that stayed in the minds of people who were mourning the passing of another great figure, just as the one above will serve as a vehicle to preserve the memory of Justice Ginsburg.

There is this wonderful story about the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt that was retold by Ken Burn and Geoffrey C. Ward in the epic series, The Roosevelts, aired on PBS in 2014:

"In a story about Franklin Roosevelt that has attained the status of a folktale, a man in Washington breaks down on the street when FDR’s casket passes him by. One of his fellow mourners asks if he knew the late president. “No,” the stricken man says, “but he knew me.” 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/09/15/why-none-of-the-roosevelts-could-be-president-today/

Change the masculine pronoun to the feminine form and that's the way I feel about the Notorious RBG. Now she belongs to the ages yet will be in our memory forever.

Tears streamed down the cheeks of accordion-playing Chief Petty Officer (USN) Graham Jackson as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s flag-draped funeral train left Warm Springs, Ga., April 13, 1945.  

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act-four/wp/2014/09/15/why-none-of-the-roosevelts-could-be-president-today/

PS - The above link tells the story about some of the personal issues faced by the two Roosevelts. Most of us remember how Donald Trump mocked the appearance of Serge Kovaleski, a New York Times reporter afflicted with a muscle disorder similar to cerebral palsy. I wonder how Trump would have depicted our only physically handicapped president if he lived in the time of FDR? Perhaps these three photos should be remembered between now and Election Day.

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/trump-s-worst-offense-mocking-disabled-reporter-poll-finds-n627736

Gleaning Facebook: National Daughters Day

 I’m told today is National Daughters Day— here is a swing adorned with my two brilliant daughters and my precocious granddaughters. I haven’t the eloquence to express the love that swells my chest when I see this picture.

The Founders

 

“Think back to 1787. Who were ‘we the people‘? … They certainly weren’t women … they surely weren’t people held in human bondage. The genius of our Constitution is that over now more than 200 sometimes turbulent years that ‘we’ has expanded and expanded.” - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

And the "founders" have also expanded. 

Our union was labeled imperfect in the first sentence of its constitution, and thereby we, each succeeding generation, were deputized by the original founders to further its perfecting. 

Barack Obama noted our never-ending  founding in remarks after the groundbreaking Supreme Court ruling that allowed for expanding our fundamental rights to include same-sex marriage: "Our nation was founded on a bedrock principle that we are all created equal. The project of each generation is to bridge the meaning of those founding words with the realities of changing times — a never-ending quest to ensure those words ring true for every single American."

So, in America, "Founding Fathers" are not only those bewigged aristocratic white men of colonial Virginia and Massachusetts and New York who fought the Revolution and forged the great compromises of 1787. They are also the cruel and rough Jackson, the log-cabin sage Lincoln, the formerly enslaved Tubman and Douglass, the fierce mother Stanton and the fierce never-married Anthony, the labor leaders of the progressive era, the stubborn TR and his crippled but happy warrior distant cousin FDR, Brandeis, Warren, Ike, LBJ, King, Friedan, Carter, Reagan, Scalia, and many many others.

Slight, quiet, collegiate, but fiercely principled and brilliant Ruth Bader Ginsburg is one of the greatest founders of our generation. God bless her memory and may her words be considered by our lawmakers and justices and future founders for generations to come.

The Blessings of Liberty

Happy Constitution Day!

If you, like me, have pledged allegiance to our flag and "the Republic for which it stands" hundreds of times;

if you, like me, have swelled with emotion as you stand with hand on heart while the band plays the National Anthem;

if you, like me, have waved miniature flags while fireworks lit the sky to celebrate the Declaration of our rights to "life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness";

if you, like me, warmly honor our veterans for their service on Veterans day and mourn the fallen on Memorial Day,

if you, like me, believe yourself a patriot and love our republic then...

... you, like me, must rouse yourself to exercise the most basic duty of citizenship. In a Republic the People are in charge and guide their public servants, most basically, through the franchise. ALL Americans should register and vote. 

And, if you really want to pass this republic along to another generation take it further: Speak out. Donate. Organize. Volunteer. Vote early. Get others to the polls. Wear a button. Put up a yard sign. Make some phone calls. Take your sacred blood-earned small-r republican liberties seriously.

America is imperfect, as the Constitution makes clear in its first sentence. But America has given me and you so much. So many have sacrificed for the posterity that includes me and you.

I have children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, and former students I love: my posterity.

How can I forsake my part in We the People? How can I do less than my best to secure the blessings of liberty for the America that I will, and soon, leave behind.

Republics often fail. Republics are certainly not the norm in human history. But for all their frailties, republics are the greatest form of government. 

Recently I was accused, in public on Facebook, by someone I love, of being hateful and bitter. 

Wow.

It saddens me to think one so dear to me would post such anger toward me. I decided that once discussion between loved ones gets to the point of such angry words further discussion is not helpful. So I did not get a full explanation of those charges. I assume this loved one objected to my words concerning Donald John Trump's actions and words. 

Here's what I hate. I hate authoritarianism. I hate racism. I hate hate. 

But I hate no person. No one.

I pity Donad Trump on a personal level, for example. I am genuinely saddened that he has had such a loveless, empty life. But my conscience demands that I give all that I can to protect my posterity from the evil that results from his racism, narcissism, ignorance, selfishness, authoritarian tendencies,

At 73, the stands I take regarding politics, (or in this case, morals and ethics in politics), are taken with great love for my daughters and grandchildren and former students and for our American heritage of seeking always to perfect our union by preserving, expanding, and securing the blessings of liberty.  

Bitter? I am bitterly opposed to those evils I mentioned above. But I am by nature a cheerful person. And this is one of the happiest times of my life. And I face the future with optimism and great faith that, if we can be true to republican principles and accept our civic duties, the future is bright. I believe that we really can bend the arc of history further toward equality, good will, and the blessings of liberty. But we must each do our part. A republic requires citizens who take the obligations of citizenship seriously.