American Elephants

Do you know their names and faces? Have you written them when there is an issue that worries you? Do write to them when something does. They need to know that the people who voted for them want to know that they are doing what we wanted! There is nothing that will do a better job of keeping them on the straight and narrow, that knowing that their actions and words are being monitored. If we just send them off to Washington without the clear knowledge that we are keeping track for the next election, we deserve the sloppy votes we are likely to get.

In other words, the good government we supposedly want, is a result of our paying attention and letting them know that attention is being paid. Being an official in our nation’s capitol is a big important job, and whether or not they do a good job matters. Not enough to just vote. They need to know that we have high expectations and they are expendable. If you cannot name your representatives and recognize them in photographs, you are not doing your job. We’re all way too inclined to just vote and then pay no attention until the next election, and not know exactly what they have done in their representation of us!

I’m just as guilty as the rest of you. Too easy just to vote on election day, and then pay no attention until you read about something being passed in Congress that horrifies you. If you do not know the names and appearance of your current representatives, look them up now. Find out what they are actually doing. Doesn’t do any good to have elections if we don’t follow up!

When I am searching for news programs for information about what is going on in the world, I am not searching for some celebrity to tell me. I am interested in someone who reports on the news factually and truthfully. I get too many reports from people I would not trust to walk my dog. Why would I trust them to inform me? I turn to my computer to learn what is happening, After listening to various purveyors of news about events all over the world, I settle on those who offer their reports clearly and informatively. I’m interested in their carefulness and truthfulness, not their opinions. I want to know what is really happening, and I don’t want to be misled.

I cannot control what is going on out there, nor even influence anything. I can only react. Gather up what news seems accurate and careful, and slowly form opinions from the news I have gathered. But there are millions of me, trying to do just that. We can’t really change anything, but we do vote, we do write to our congressional representatives, probably not often enough, and we do throw out those who are creating the news when we find out what they are up to. We want better information, more truthful information, and more careful coverage. What the American people think and worry about matters.

News sources seem to worry about the looks, or the comments of those they allow on their screens. The American people may have favorites, but what they want is the truth.We don’t want to be swept into wars that we think are wrong, ally ourselves with people we do not trust. Listen to what is “fashionable” rather than what is true. It’s very hard to arrive at that trust News companies get confused about what we are asking for, and provide us with looks, or glamour, or some kind of authority, and suddenly we are having to send our young men off to be drafted to fight in some other country for some cause that does not really seem important at all.

Might be blue in some other part of Seattle, but not here. I’m getting really hungry for blue sky and sunshine.. Probably not anytime soon. Tomorrow, the 22nd of April, is Earth Day, Apparently the day Earthlings have chosen to (as my computer tells me) celebrate by appreciating and respecting the natural world. I even received a recommended 10 Earth Day Activities and Ideas such as:1. Support our Pollinators! 2.Clean Up Plastic in Your Neighborhood or Local Park! 3.Swap Out Your Kitchen and Household Products! For the Preferred “If You Care” products advertised. 4. Plant a Tree! (I’m currently oversupplied) The firs keep sending down large branches to remind me. Use Wildflowers and Native Plats 6 Reduce, Reuse, Recycle in the Garden, 7.Stop Using Pesticides and Chemicals in the Garden, 78.Conserve Water! (this is rainy country, we have no shortage of water!)

Never mind. A page of lectures from do-gooders in some other part of the country is not what is needed on this non-sunny day in April. .

Which, of course is only of interest to the locals, who can more easily just look out the window. Sky is a uniform pale blue, cloudy at the horizon, nothing whatsoever of interest. The blue sky is wishy-washy, the clouds sit on the horizon just lightening the sky a bit, but no shape or use. Just another blah day. Not even one shapely, puffy white cloud. Even the blue is not what one might expect from the term “blue sky”, Smoky on the horizon which suggests that it’s still chilly outside Only early April, of course. I’m still getting a “twinkling” light on the horizon to the South, but beginning to assume that to be a problem for my eye-doctor rather than the weatherman.

The neighbor just down the hill from my window has, of course, put her dog out in their front yard to bark for an hour or two. I’ve had dogs all my life, (St. Bernards when I was small), but I cannot imagine just putting your dog out to bark and annoy the neighbors. Our city even has a special area in the big city park set aside, fenced, so you can just turn your dog loos to run and interact with the other dogs there.

I grew up setting a trap for the Easter bunny every year on the eve before Easter Sunday. It was a bushel basket propped up on one side with a stick of kindling to which was fastened a particularly nice carrot. When the Easter bunny ate the carrot, he basket would fall on top of him trapping him. Always worked. One of the first ones was named Peter, of course. He learned to sneak into the dining room (we had a dining room for the hotel) ranked as the best dining room in the state by a young man who was going around the country writing up restaurant reviews for the local newspapers to get through the years of the Great Depression in the 30’s. His name was Duncan Heinz, yes, that one. He later became a cake mix.

Very pale blue sky today, with big general cloudiness, but no cloud shapes. I prefer the big, very white puffy type, but that is not on offer today.Still, promises to be a nice day, at least for a risk walk, but no sunbathing for a long time yet. I suppose it is already summer down south.