Letters From An American* By Heather Cox Richardson September 14, 2021 This morning, the team of Democratic senators working on a voting rights measure that could meet the demands of conservative Democratic West Virginia senator Joe Manchin released their bill. The 592-page document is described as a bill “to expand Americans’ access to the ballot…

A friend who is an attorney in Cocoa, Florida, sent this article as a commentary on yesterday’s blog entitled “Seven Days Away.” I hope you find it interesting as an insight about conservative/Republican doublespeak. This article is from the Century Foundation, a progressive and independent think tank founded in 1919. Conor P. Williams is a…

I was without television or internet for about a week after returning to Potlatch. During this time I got a lot done on the property – cutting, mowing, hauling rocks and grading the roads. It was a time to reflect and think about how most of us live today connected to the 24 hour news…

As noted by the posting of a “sympathetic friend,” my internet here at Potlatch was down for nearly two weeks due to Hurricane Ida. It fried the television in the kitchen, killed Alexa, my internet connection and its Apple wireless airport. When hurricanes hit the gulf coast they take a northeast trajectory through the north…

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds” (The Persian Wars by Greek historian Herodotus) doesn’t apply to blog postings via the Internet, as you might have noticed by my silence these last few days. Thanks to a remnant of hurricane Ida…

Recently a friend sent me an article by a pastor that got me thinking about my life. By John Pavlovitz* entitled “Missing The America That Never Was,” it described the chasm between our beliefs and the reality of America. It resonated with me as I looked back on my experience in Dubuque, Iowa. Garrison Keillor…

This morning I walked my old route through the neighborhood for the first time in over six months. I wanted to see how the island was faring during this recent upsurge in the Covid pandemic, something I did regularly this past year. The island’s premier hotel, the King and Prince Beach & Golf Resort, was…

As I was thinking and writing the blog about personal choice and freedom recently, I was hanging out with Shelby, my young Lab. She is a good sounding board for my ideas and it got me to thinking. Dogs get all sorts of vaccinations and never complain at all. Every year I take both dogs…

For a long time now, I’ve been critical of those I consider to be contrarians and poseurs who are quick to cry foul in the name of personal freedom or freedom of choice in the face of public and private efforts to confront the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Recently Paul Krugman wrote an opinion piece* entitled…

I talk to my dogs. From what I’ve seen, most people talk to their dogs. This is because we spend lots of time with our dogs and they make good confidants. They listen well and don’t say much. They are never judgmental. Above is a photo of Rucker taken right after I told him I…