Independence Day

The Stars and Stripes are looking a little limp these days….

Our dysfunctional government seems to have lost its, way in the thickets of modern life and progress, failing to recognize that in a changing a world we have to adapt. It is not 1776 anymore.

I would like to believe that we are not a nation of people who turn away busloads of refugee children who have braved the illegal crossing of the Sonoran desert to escape drug lords and gang leaders who would enslave them. Yet it is happening right here in California.

I would like to believe that we are not a people who feel it is our god given right to carry a gun in church, or anywhere, for that matter. Yet laws were recently passed in Georgia allowing just that, despite weekly reports of massacres of innocent people by deranged, dissatisfied people with no access to mental health care.

I would like to believe that we are not a nation that allows old white men to pass laws outlawing abortion and birth control, yet refuses to pay for maternity leave or child care for working mothers. Yet Congress and the Supreme Court continue to erode the rights of women and children.

I do believe that we are a nation built on the backs of immigrants. We are all immigrants. We must reform our immigration laws.

I do believe that the great majority of people in this country are in favor in gun control.
Congress must start listening to the people who elected them and enact gun control legislation.

I do believe that the right of women to make their own choices regarding their bodies must be respected and supported

I do believe in freedom of religion, separation of church and state, and government "of the people, by the people and for the people".

I hope the winds of change will pick up and the American flag will once again wave.