The last several weeks of news have been relentless, and I suspect things will not slow down anytime soon. In the midst of all of it, I don’t think I took a night off last weekend, and have hit the wall tonight. Going to bed and will regroup tomorrow.
Rest well!! You deserve a peaceful rest as do we all! So enjoy a quiet time and hopefully, there will be no distractions and demands as you take your night off!!! 😴😴😴
We suffer the relentless news with you and appreciate both your insights and your need for time to turn everything off, even for a moment. Don’t worry about us. We worry with you.
You deserve more than a night off but am grateful you don’t take too many nights off. Amazing how much the truth does calm the chaos out there! Thank you, always as I don’t say it enough how much these daily letters have meant to me. Your dedication to us doesn’t go unnoticed! Sleep well, you truly deserve that! Thank you for the Beautiful photo!
HCR….you are indefatigable!! I very much appreciate how you wade through all the sh*t that is going on—and putting it in historical perspective—but you do not wallow in it. Yesterday I had a moment of fantasy that TFFG never made it on anyone’s radar….was just a normal shmuck like the rest of us….was briefly liberating and calming. Then I thought, no, it is good he barged into the path of our democracy and slapped us awake…we had grown too complacent (longstanding struggles for equality and justice notwithstanding) in our “democracy”. It’s like a sneaker wave…seems harmless at first, then you realize as it pulls back that you are, indeed, in deep trouble. To me, our democracy is like walking the shores of my wild far northern CA coast…never turn your back on the sea & pay attention always….while, at the same time, enjoying the beauty as well.
Light and darkness, the trees surrounding 'Seal Bay', a wonderful vision faraway from the noise. Thank you for this sensory relief, HCR and Peter Ralston,
I just want to reiterate how important you and your daily letters have been to me and to my wellbeing.A network of amazing historians,wordsmiths and others have contributed to my and I am sure others, sanity.Take good care.
Last Thursday at about 5 am, the Maine Senate completed a very long day that started Wednesday morning. This is how the 2024 short session as they call it ended. The House closed its session Wednesday night.
Those of us who worked the last week of this session straight through for passage of gun safety bills, saw our work pay off with several bills finally passed onto the governor. One bill called the “governor’s bill” that Janet Mills promoted included improvements to the existing yellow flag law, expanding background checks to more types of gun dealers, and greater funding for crisis centers & mental health. A bump stock ban was passed. Bump stocks convert weapons to automatic weapons which are already outlawed. It’s amazing how much wiggle room our laws and courts allow. That converting a firearm to an illegal weapon is not already illegal? But then lynching in the south during Jim Crow wasn’t outlawed, I am told. A 72 hour waiting period to buy a firearm was passed. Intended to reduce suicides which are reported to be mostly impulsive. Suicides are the greatest number of deaths by gun by far in the U.S. Guns are currently the greatest cause of death for those 20 years old and younger. The “pro-life” movement is not pro-life for already born children. Most “pro-life” advocates are also Second Amendment advocates standing against all gun safety laws, having deregulated guns laws until there is nothing distinguishing between the “good men with a gun” and the “bad men with a gun”. In fact you never know until you are shot and probably killed.
Claiming the Second Amendment as a right to own every and any firearm you want is pure hog wash. The courts know it and only recently came up with this idea with gun lobby help. Anti gun safety advocates brought their militia on Monday to the State House. A lady from another state in a colonial period dress and bonnet held a sign saying “Patriots Day celebrates disarming citizens”. What planet is she from? I lived in Lexington, MA, where we annually went to see the reenactment of the British march through Lexington to Concord to capture the local militia armory. We observed the organized & trained militia that the Second Amendment mentions gather on the green or commons. The British and colonists had their brief battle with the British marching onto Concord. The armory in towns were the weapons storehouses used by the militia to stockpile their firearms and ammunition, just as our National Guard does now. Firearms were more costly than most colonists could afford, so they held most of their defense in common on the “commons” in an armory. There was no expectation that every citizen would or could own a firearm for defense. They defended themselves as a community. The U.S. gun lobby only believes in one community today. Their customers, as many as they can create.
I got started on working for gun safety as schools and children were either shot in mass, or subjected to a life “active shooter drills”, trained to hide, be absolutely quiet, know where exits are, be under lockdowns, and go to school where fire escapes are typically locked to keep potential shooters from entering back doors. It’s sort of like injecting bleach to prevent Covid rather than accepting the prevention of vaccinations. I guess the active shooter drills and locked exits do work, but they traumatize everyone and risk being locked in during a fire.
We live in a society now that spends more time fixing things that we have intentionally broken, thinking the old days were better, believing that we can have our broken ways without the trouble of fixing them.
There is too much to fix to get it all done in the legislative sessions that most states have. And the fixing gets even more time consuming when some states like Alabama, Texas, Arizona and too many to mention break things and become models for other states to break things, which frightens states like Maine to fix things sometimes before they are broken, but because some Mainers admire the most broken states and want to emulate them.
Martin Luther King Jr has a lot of good writing about breaking and fixing. The fixing is always more painful before it gets better, and this fixing work is never done.
Thank you for all you’ve done—and enjoy your recharging evening. Peter Ralston always delivers serenity—please thank him for sharing his art.
Rest well!! You deserve a peaceful rest as do we all! So enjoy a quiet time and hopefully, there will be no distractions and demands as you take your night off!!! 😴😴😴
Nina Truslow McKee
We suffer the relentless news with you and appreciate both your insights and your need for time to turn everything off, even for a moment. Don’t worry about us. We worry with you.
Sleep well & sweet dreams. You're very special to us.
You’ve more than earned it! Have a restful night and thank you for the exquisite photo!
You deserve more than a night off but am grateful you don’t take too many nights off. Amazing how much the truth does calm the chaos out there! Thank you, always as I don’t say it enough how much these daily letters have meant to me. Your dedication to us doesn’t go unnoticed! Sleep well, you truly deserve that! Thank you for the Beautiful photo!
HCR….you are indefatigable!! I very much appreciate how you wade through all the sh*t that is going on—and putting it in historical perspective—but you do not wallow in it. Yesterday I had a moment of fantasy that TFFG never made it on anyone’s radar….was just a normal shmuck like the rest of us….was briefly liberating and calming. Then I thought, no, it is good he barged into the path of our democracy and slapped us awake…we had grown too complacent (longstanding struggles for equality and justice notwithstanding) in our “democracy”. It’s like a sneaker wave…seems harmless at first, then you realize as it pulls back that you are, indeed, in deep trouble. To me, our democracy is like walking the shores of my wild far northern CA coast…never turn your back on the sea & pay attention always….while, at the same time, enjoying the beauty as well.
Heather, there are many of us in Canada who follow you and share your concerns. And love your posts.
Light and darkness, the trees surrounding 'Seal Bay', a wonderful vision faraway from the noise. Thank you for this sensory relief, HCR and Peter Ralston,
I just want to reiterate how important you and your daily letters have been to me and to my wellbeing.A network of amazing historians,wordsmiths and others have contributed to my and I am sure others, sanity.Take good care.
Lovely photo! A night off is a great idea.
Wishing you deep and dreamless sleep! In the arms of the Angels, darlin’ - In the arms of the Angels!!
You’re the BEST!! But yes, we can only drink from the fire hose for so long. 🥺 Have a restful weekend.
You rock and now you sleep!
Thanks so much!!!
Beautiful. Enjoy your night of rest.
Last Thursday at about 5 am, the Maine Senate completed a very long day that started Wednesday morning. This is how the 2024 short session as they call it ended. The House closed its session Wednesday night.
Those of us who worked the last week of this session straight through for passage of gun safety bills, saw our work pay off with several bills finally passed onto the governor. One bill called the “governor’s bill” that Janet Mills promoted included improvements to the existing yellow flag law, expanding background checks to more types of gun dealers, and greater funding for crisis centers & mental health. A bump stock ban was passed. Bump stocks convert weapons to automatic weapons which are already outlawed. It’s amazing how much wiggle room our laws and courts allow. That converting a firearm to an illegal weapon is not already illegal? But then lynching in the south during Jim Crow wasn’t outlawed, I am told. A 72 hour waiting period to buy a firearm was passed. Intended to reduce suicides which are reported to be mostly impulsive. Suicides are the greatest number of deaths by gun by far in the U.S. Guns are currently the greatest cause of death for those 20 years old and younger. The “pro-life” movement is not pro-life for already born children. Most “pro-life” advocates are also Second Amendment advocates standing against all gun safety laws, having deregulated guns laws until there is nothing distinguishing between the “good men with a gun” and the “bad men with a gun”. In fact you never know until you are shot and probably killed.
Claiming the Second Amendment as a right to own every and any firearm you want is pure hog wash. The courts know it and only recently came up with this idea with gun lobby help. Anti gun safety advocates brought their militia on Monday to the State House. A lady from another state in a colonial period dress and bonnet held a sign saying “Patriots Day celebrates disarming citizens”. What planet is she from? I lived in Lexington, MA, where we annually went to see the reenactment of the British march through Lexington to Concord to capture the local militia armory. We observed the organized & trained militia that the Second Amendment mentions gather on the green or commons. The British and colonists had their brief battle with the British marching onto Concord. The armory in towns were the weapons storehouses used by the militia to stockpile their firearms and ammunition, just as our National Guard does now. Firearms were more costly than most colonists could afford, so they held most of their defense in common on the “commons” in an armory. There was no expectation that every citizen would or could own a firearm for defense. They defended themselves as a community. The U.S. gun lobby only believes in one community today. Their customers, as many as they can create.
I got started on working for gun safety as schools and children were either shot in mass, or subjected to a life “active shooter drills”, trained to hide, be absolutely quiet, know where exits are, be under lockdowns, and go to school where fire escapes are typically locked to keep potential shooters from entering back doors. It’s sort of like injecting bleach to prevent Covid rather than accepting the prevention of vaccinations. I guess the active shooter drills and locked exits do work, but they traumatize everyone and risk being locked in during a fire.
We live in a society now that spends more time fixing things that we have intentionally broken, thinking the old days were better, believing that we can have our broken ways without the trouble of fixing them.
There is too much to fix to get it all done in the legislative sessions that most states have. And the fixing gets even more time consuming when some states like Alabama, Texas, Arizona and too many to mention break things and become models for other states to break things, which frightens states like Maine to fix things sometimes before they are broken, but because some Mainers admire the most broken states and want to emulate them.
Martin Luther King Jr has a lot of good writing about breaking and fixing. The fixing is always more painful before it gets better, and this fixing work is never done.