ever spend time in a jail cell? And if willing share why you feel the way you do.

On this Memorial Day I would like to tell you about my father.

Robert Collier was born in Brooklyn NY and attended a Roman Catholic School. In order to get to that school he had to transverse 3 different neighborhoods of which each spoke a different language. By the time he was 17 he spoke English, German, Italian and Polish along with some Latin and Russian.

Upon Graduating from High School he was inducted into the US Army served in the Pacific Theater and came stateside to to continue his career at an Army base in Texas. He volunteered for the Korean War, was injured and returned to the US. During theCold War he posed as a clerk at an East German hotel, sending information back to the US.

Robert adopted me when I was 2 years old, having met my mother in Frankfurt and after I had lost my birth father.

In 1961 when we were officially not in Vietnam, my father was sent there. He was hit by sniper fire, seriously wounded and seperated from the military. This injury gave him high blood pressure and caused him to have two strokes and then a fatal heart attack a week before Christmas when I was 7 years old.

His story is not unique, there are so many others who were killed or injured in the prime of their life. Leaving behind loved ones. All my life I have wondered what it would have been like to ave a father at those major milestones. I am not alone, there are thousands of children all over the world who were orphaned or half orphaned.

I want to thank those who made the ultimate sacrifice to serve our nation. I also want to remember for all those who have lost their loved one "what might have been"

May we continually work for peace so this does not have to happen!

Happy Memorial Day!!

Sincerely,

Michael

On the eve of this holiday I would like to wish all those on DU a happy Thanksgiving. It is a universal need and joy to be thankful and to express gratitude.

I remember as a little child in Germany, Thanksgiving (or Erntedankfest) as it is called is celebrated the first Sunday in October.
On the eve of the holiday we would go to church to hear preaching and choral presentations, plus do some singing. After the service we would have a lantern parade followed by fireworks. On the Sunday of Thanksgiving, friends and family would gather and celebrate with shared foods and laughter.

So it is with a glad heart that I am able to to celebrate tomorrow. To be thankful for family, for challenging and sustaining work, to be able to live in such a beautiful part of the country (Seattle area) to be able to express ones self politically and last but not least, to be in community with so many friends.

May we all be able to take time time to relish what gifts and graces that are placed in our lives. May you all find joy in the holiday and most of all, may you be in community to enrich others' lives as you receive that same gift from them!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING-
Mike C

our youngest, my daughter just received a huge stage promotion, she does stage managing (the youngest ever )appointed/hired for a major arts group. I am proud of her for the promotion, but more proud that she is so committed to the arts. Thanks for listening, just had to shout it somewhere!!!-Mike

the right and others are going to use this as a reason this riot-insurrection happened.

Bullshit: A confession by myself:

Twenty 8 years ago I had cancer, serious life threatening cancer, it came back twice. This is before Obamacare. My insurance dropped me and I wracked up 174,000 1996 dollars in medical debt.
I filed for bankruptcy 6 times in a 4 year period. This is not allowed by the bankruptcy law. But what it did it forced all medical, utility and other creditors from foreclosing on me or discontinuing treatment. Because of that, I did 13 months in federal prison due to being charged with abuse of the US Bankruptcy code and contempt of court. I am not proud of what I did, but saved my life. I negotiated my debt down to 11,000 as a result of my prison sentence.

I confess this because of the report I heard this morning trying to reason out or excuse the rioters-insurrectionists. It was said that they did this because of economic distress. I call bullshit.

In all that mess, never did I ever consider over throwing the government, never did I try to over turn a legitimate election and never did I ever try to or even feel like or think about injuring or killing some one.

In fact in the midst of that mess, I thanked God that I was able to live in this country and found a way to keep on living.

I feel the rioters were pre-disposed to be anti government, predisposed to authoritarianism, predisposed to an ignorance of the constitution and also a dose of racism, xenophobia and chauvinism. IMHO

Thank you for letting me vent.

I am in a reflective mood today, hours and counting til our four year national nightmare is over. Yes there will still be remnants of the bitter, cynical and misinformed, but much of the tone, national dialogue and attitude is formed by our President.

For me these past four years have been both a national tragedy and deeply personal in many ways. As an immigrant and the child of a refugee, what trump was espousing cut to my earliest identity. But is deeper than that, as a nation, the Lady Liberty (To use a metaphor) has been weeping. We lost sight of those lofty words at her pedestal: "give me your tired, your poor..." Then we watched in shame and embarrassment as other nations collectively shook their heads at our xenophobia.

Our family was personally effected. I was put on the no fly list in 2018 and had the validity of my naturalized US Citizenship questioned and had to seek counsel. I was blest that I had the resources to do that, but I know I could have easily been counting time in an immigration detention center.

Enough about me., I watched with many of you, some in silence, some in vocal protest as to how the administration treated those in the field of science, those who had special needs, the poor, the immigrant and other. I looked in horror as the administration lied 30,000 times and denied the lethal capability of a global health scourge that has killed 400,000 of our nations souls. I could not believe my eyes that a president would enrage his supporters to commit sedition against our nation.

I looked in horror as to the greed and corruption that manifested itself on a daily basis. I stared dumbfounded at the pettiness of a president who should have been the "chief servant" among us.
The earliest political quote I learned was that of John F Kennedy when he exhorted us on that cold frosty Jan 1961 morning; "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country" it is my prayer that we will live up to that challenge and distill it even further. What can we do with and for each other.

To harken to a biblical phrase: "Weeping may endureth for the night, but joy cometh in the morning" Our 1,461 nights of weeping will be over. How appropriate this phrase is for me at this moment. Don't get me wrong, I am not deluded enough to think that all of our problems will be over, or that some may ever be solved. But the solutions won't be blocked by cynicism or self aggrandizement. There is hope in me, there is excitement in my soul and there is a promise of brighter and more healthy future to come.

JMHO

HAPPY INAUGURATION DAY TOMORROW!!! Mike C

Have you had enough of the corruption
have you had enough of the lies
have you had enough of the self aggrandizement
have you had enough of the obstruction of justice
have you had enough of the criminal activity
have you had enough of the cruelty to others
have you had enough of the race baiting
have you had enough of the violation of norms
have you had enough of the trashing of human decency
have you had enough of the shredding of our constitution
have you finally had enough of trump?

Or are you still so God damn stupid or non caring that you put party over country
are you still willing to see our nation descend into anarchy
are you still willing to sell out our values and traditions as a nation
are you still willing to suck it up for trump in order to further your own careers?

It's time to wake up republican's

if yesterday didn't do it then
you're either too dumb to be in an elected position
too much of coward to hold office
or you plain don't give a fuck or
worse, you're on the take.

as an immigrant, before coming to the United States, I was repeatedly told how incredible our orderly, lawful and peaceful transition of power has been. The wonder of the US was/is it's value and awe in that treasured document: the Constitution.

It was this promise and hope as a child passing the Statue of Liberty, I proudly wanted to become a US Citizen.

I am shattered that we can come to this situation today. I do place the blame on trump and the hate media drumming conspiracies and misinformation 24/7

this sadly was my fear 5 years ago when trump announced, that he would want to be a dictator.

For those who have winked at trump's craziness, for those of you who have enabled trump
for those of you who have excused his fascist attempts: this is on you!!!

This to me is the logical conclusion of his presidency. Let us hope who can regain our sanity as a nation!!!
It's gonna take work, it's gonna take stomping out trumpism and it's going to take republicans to have the courage to call this what it is, an attempted coup and it is going to take holding hate media accountable!