Patterns

It's not very original, but this puzzle John just finished does fit the challenge. And it was right there on his table for me to admire before he returns it to its box. He said it was difficult and I wouldn't argue with him. It's a good sign that he's back to working on his puzzles again and seems to have held up pretty well all day. It was a beautiful, warm day today and he spent a little time in the garden. I spent a little time sitting in the sun feeling like like I should have a lap robe over my knees like the little old lady I am!

It is a testament to my Covid brain that the notes I made a couple of days ago on my phone because I didn't feel I had the bandwidth to write about the subject (The attack on DiversityEquityInclusion as if it were criminal behavior) did not get recorded. The subject is but a light breeze in the deliberately chaotic hurricane of executive orders issuing forth from the Oval Office, but a perfect example of the ignorant, bigoted, minds and cruel thoughts behind them. 

Musk crowed on X, with a picture of himself dressed as a gladiator, about how they were 'getting rid of the woke virus'. There are so many arguments about why this is wrong that I don't think I have to point them out. But there was a little article on the back pages of the paper about how actress Julianne Moore's children's book, Freckleface Strawberry was banned by the administration from schools run by the Department of Defense. It is about a 7 year old girl who  who dislikes her freckles, but learns to live with them when she realizes that she is 'different, just like everyone else'.

Moore's statement said, in part, 'It is a book I wrote for my children and for other kids to remind them that we all struggle, but we are united by our humanity and our community.' Moore's father was a Vietnam veteran and Moore herself was educated in a DOD run school in Germany. 'It is galling for me  she wrote in a statement, 'to realize that kids like me, growing up with a parent in the service and attending a DOD school will not have access to a book written by someone whose life experience is so similar to their own. I am truly saddened  and never thought I would see this in a country where freedom of speech and expression is a constitutional right. 

I am truly saddened that our country is being run by people who feel threatened by stories about 7 year olds, and seem hell bent on wiping out any vestige of human decency and compassion in the government. I've sent emails, but where are the people who have a voice in Congress and should be speaking out?