[Is this the world we want? Image source: Google search.]

We cannot change what we are not aware of, and once we are aware, we cannot help but change.

~~Sheryl Sandberg

A year has passed and here I am once again laying in bed with my heavily bandaged right foot propped on a dark red cushy pillow. I stare out my bedroom window at the empty patio. Leafless and nearly monochromatic despite my insistence on a mild tan sandy color paint of the masonry against back wall. A few weeks ago, I took a photo just after a light snowfall.

[After a snowfall. Early February, 2025. Photo is mine.]

This time around, I’m again in a low funk of post-op blues. Why did I just get my foot operated on again? The first surgery was supposed to help me. It didn’t. Now it’s time for a reboot (no pun intended). But what’s on my mind now is something I have never before had to contend with. Not the state of my foot, but the state of the country I am living in.

I won’t bore you, my loving readers, with a history of political philosophy. I’m not someone with an agenda, except the agenda of wanting to see evidence of something everyone should be seeking: Social Justice.

Those who study history can see parallels of past events, coming around again to bite us. I grew up in a time of growing social progress; civil rights, women’s rights, legalization of weed, gay marriage and LGBTQ+ rights. They were issues that came along, were accepted and we moved on to new freedoms and rights. Those who were left behind were beginning to find a place of acceptance in our society. There was a hope for a bright future.

But…but, it all seems to be washing away in a deluge of presidential executive orders that roll back the positive social gains.

With the pardon of the January 6 rioters, the very idea of patriotism has been mangled and turned on it’s head. Just this morning I read a news account of one of the pardoned rioters following a former capital police officer into a hotel lobby and calling him a coward!

There is no honor left. There is no respect for the rule of law anymore.

“The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.” I’ve heard that phrase for many years, but the reality of it today is beyond understanding. The accumulation of wealth has become obscene. The amount of money Mr. Zuckerberg spends on the security for his pets could fund a small hospital for six months. If you don’t believe me on any of this, just look it up. But do it soon because misinformation and false news is creeping rapidly into our lives on so many levels. And you never know what’s true and what isn’t.

So, on February 28, there is a movement (it’s on social media and other outlets) calling for Americans to halt purchases, on-line and in person, as a protest to highlight the power of our monetized lives. I will not be buying anything on Amazon especially. It’s been a great service during the pandemic but it’s time to support the local vendors. If I need a book, and I always do, I will order it from The Corner Bookstore on Madison Avenue. It’s a little more inconvenient, but it’s worth the extra effort.

And I will continue to refer to the body of water west of Florida as the Gulf of Mexico. I can’t think of anything more absurd than the name change ordered by Trump.

I’m asking my readers to join in sending a message to the mega-corporations that we are more than consumers. We are not willing to be seen as $$$’s.

~~

I awoke a few mornings ago seeing a soft sunlight play onto the tops of the few books that line my window sill. It made me think of something from the past, an innocence of childhood. I thought of my family, now all gone. It was a bittersweet moment of reverie.

Remember, February 28…hold back your plastic card and pay cash if and when you can.

[You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows. Image: Pinterest.]

But, wait! Is our future already written in the wind? Is our destiny foretold? That depends on you, dear reader. Are we, as citizens of this country of our birth, expected to live each day in a state of anxiety? Fearful of what may be around the corner? Unsure that the freedoms we’ve known since birth will follow us to the end of our days?

We all have to make a stand…of some kind.