“This is what makes the myth such a great lie!” Gary says. Shoulda-coulda-woulda. It’s always someone’s fault, not ours.

We tried to watch the right/left overview of the our political week on The New Hour on PBS. We’d previously vowed not to watch it anymore, but today I backslid, found it on my computer a day late, and was sorely disappointed. Two journalists talked about the Epstein files and decided that was a big nothing. [Really?] The more astonishing thing, to me, is that both Brooks and the democratic-journalist-of-the-week totally blamed the Democratic party for ending the shut-down. The Democrats should have stuck with it until they got subsidized healthcare, since it’s what people want. Brooks said that and the other person said it too. They were so disappointed.

I was thinking about a man, smiling and thankful for the gift of a few spoonfuls of honey.

It’s not my day to post, but this happened a few hours ago—the homeless vet and the arrogant journalists so sure about what others should have done.

Two things:
1. Setting aside my personal opinion about the issue, it was not the Democratic party that voted to end the stalemate. It was a handful of people who decided to vote for what their people were telling them, inside of blindly following their party. Some might find that willingness to do their best to represent their constituents instead of what their party insisted upon might be a good thing. It’s certainly better than what the other party is doing DESPITE the enormous popularity of subsidized insurance rates. Brooks was quite aggressive about that—the Democrats should have stuck to their guns because that’s what the voting public wants. Everything about the costs of healthcare, the failure to improve the system, the increasing insurance rates was on the Democratic party. Excuse me? Hypocrite much? There was no counter to this reasoning from the other side. There was no other side. Further disappointment.

2. Through these brief exchanges, another obvious concern about the coming holidays didn’t come up at all. My husband and I are fortunate to have all our relatives nearby. This gift-giving year is [unavoidably] constrained so we’re not buying gifts. [It’s happened before, twice because of veterinary emergencies that took every spare dime.] Gary has enough coffee beans, he’s announced with pride, to last to the end of the year—he’s okay so long as there is coffee. The average American spent a thousand dollars for holiday gifts in 2024; they drove or flew to see family, many crossed state lines or the entire country in what may have been a once-per-year treat or obligation. This November, millions were out of work, many were working without pay, airports were shutting down, and even without tariffs raising prices families and businesses were looking ahead to a pretty bleak December. Flights canceled. Parks closed. Insurance premiums near tripling. Small businesses often only climb into the black because of holiday shopping and celebrations.

How does this not concern the journalists? They’re working. They stand at the side and get to tell the rest of us what we’re doing wrong. And seriously, I am not one to blame media. But just this once…

Okay, a couple more things:

3. Despite the agreement between the journalists, I’ll reiterate that the reason the government was shut down, food stamps withheld, and workers went unpaid is entirely on the shoulders of the Monster-in-chief. It’s the reason ICE is collecting bounties while abusing everyone they come into contact with whether they are actual criminals, law-abiding hard-working locals, legal Dreamers, or born citizens.

The solution to the insurance stalemate had nothing to do with Democrats making unreasonable demands. They asked only for support for health care insurance premiums, which is something the American public wants us to spent money on. The easy solution would have been Republicans in Congress refusing to march lock-step with the Monster in the White House, and choosing instead to support what the citizens have made clear that they want: justice and a fair chance at housing, health, and safety for all. A gilded ballroom is all well and good for some, but most of us want affordable housing and medical care, food, safety, a decent education for our children, and most of us think the people living on the corner should have the same. Most Americans are not selfish monsters. We don’t see the need to go to war with Venezuela or to send billions to Argentina. We’d like peace in the Middle East and Ukraine and Sudan not so that we can brag about being peacemakers, but because we know people are dying, and we’re opposed to people needlessly dying.

4. This issue will come up again in January when the Monster’s spending continues to raise our National Dept—wasn’t he going to fix that—isn’t that what he claimed he was doing? The side issues to the struggle to provide healthcare then will still be about lost wages, people struggling to afford housing and groceries and heating bills and medical insurance. Airports will shut again, and these same journalists will insist all over again that our representatives vote on party lines instead of according to the will of the people.

So you tell me, how’s that working out for us?

So the man: This morning at the Farmer’s Market, a woman selling honey gave two squeeze-bottles to a homeless man. The man was tickled: “Honey in my coffee in the morning!”

Gary thanked her. “He’s a really nice man,” the vendor told us. “I mean it, he really is a very nice man. He fought in the war…”

She didn’t need to say more than that.

There are people who only care about themselves. Compassion and empathy are weaknesses to them. There are people who love war and fighting, but these people are strangers to humanity. The reason murder is regarded as a sin in every religion and ethical system that ever existed is because killing people burns a hole in our soul, and most of us never quite recover from that wound. It festers and haunts our dreams. Soldiers return from war scarred. Even in a just war, even when they have no choice, killing another person is unnatural and wrong and cripples our heart. You might say killing should wound us, assuming we have a heart to hurt. You might say that caring for the least of these our brethren, is seen as a duty in every religious and moral code everywhere in the world and throughout all of time.

Don’t believe that about killing? You could look it up. Even if I’m wrong that murder is always wrong in every moral system, don’t you think it should be true?