No

No ICE murders
No illegal arrests

No Venezuelan war for oil

No East Wing demolition

No redacted Epstein files

No threatening Greenland

No attacking Zelensky

No radical left scum

No Trump hotel in Gaza

No Putin capitulation

No DOGE 

No Elon fucking Musk

No rigged election lies

No illegal tariffs 

No complicit Congress 

No nonstop fucking grift

No tech trillionaires

No January 6th forgiveness

No alligator alley

No transgender hate
No $400 million Qatari plane
No midterm gerrymandering

No Trump Kennedy Center
No Charlie Kirk statue 
No weaponizing the Justice Dept.
No doubled healthcare premiums
No FIFA peace prize

No dictator worship
No violence against protesters 

No inflation denial

No clean coal

No gold leaf Oval Office
No Department of War
No tax breaks for billionaires
No constant fucking lying 
No green cards for sale
No demonizing the media

No duplicitous Supreme Court
No noxious Karoline Leavitt

No spineless Marco Rubio
No ruthless Pam Bondi
No soulless Pete Hegseth
No witless Kash Patel

No unscrupulous JD Vance 
No factless Robert Kennedy
No racist Stephen Miller

No fascist fucking Barbie

No lawless felon president
No orange spray tan
No war with Iran

No climate change denial

No NATO sabotage

No crypto pimping

No rampant self dealing

No illegal Executive Orders

No trodding on the Constitution

No sanctioned vaccine skepticism
No nationalized elections
No Truth Social 

No intimidating the Fed

No manipulating markets

No FCC takeover

No golden visas

No Ivy League shakedowns
No million dollar pardons
No Fox News sycophants

No revisionist history

No seizing ballots
No withholding SNAP

No arresting journalists

No Gulf of America 
No tear gas

No pepper balls

No profiling of brown people
No random stops

No warrantless searches

No masked racist thugs

And no, I will not show you my papers.  

Angry

I’m angry. Deeply, profoundly, angry.

I’m just a guy. A sixty-year-old, white, middle-class, American guy. I’m married, I work for a living, and I pay my share of withholding, Social Security, and Medicare taxes every two weeks. I spend more time than I should looking at my 401K, calculating and re-calculating how much longer I have to work before I can comfortably retire. I have privilege, no doubt, but I’m not special. I’m just a guy.

I have a couple of work deadlines this week, I need a haircut, and tomorrow, I’m driving a friend to a medical procedure. On Saturday, my husband and I are going to a friend’s baby shower, and on Sunday, I’ll probably pay a few bills and do a load of laundry while I’m watching the NFL playoffs. There are a few other chores around the house I need to do this weekend, and I definitely won’t end up doing them. 

I’m just a guy and those are the petty details of my life. I imagine they aren’t so different from yours. Maybe you have kids to manage or an out-of-town trip to plan, maybe the details of your errands, pleasures, and commitments diverge a bit from mine, but at the core, we’re probably more alike than we are different.  We do our best each week, and we hope it's enough. 

Here's the thing—on top of all that, we shouldn’t have to wake up each day and wonder what fuckery our nation was up to overnight. We shouldn't find ourselves hesitant to turn on the nightly news after work, because we worry that it will drive up our blood pressure. We shouldn't have to keep our government in sharp, constant focus, every single day. It’s exhausting, unnecessary, and hurtful, and it leaves me angry. Deeply, profoundly, angry.

I am angry at Donald Trump for his blatant depravity and at the GOP for its craven soullessness. I am angry at the Democratic Party for its ineptitude, for the collective inability of its leadership to recognize that this moment in history is not like others, for its failure to see that this moment calls for something deeper, wider, and bolder than politics as usual.

I am angry with those who have told me since 2015 that I was overreacting, and I am angry with myself for not reacting like our government could actually become as horrible, shameful, and dangerous as it has.

I am angry at America for not knowing better, not doing better, and not being better. 

I’m angry. Deeply, profoundly, angry. But that is not enough.

I’m just a guy. A white, middle class, American guy, who throughout his sixty years, has seen and heard and learned about life, human nature, and America. And now, when I’d rather be pleasantly preparing for retired life, I must instead spend countless days putting this knowledge to use, figuring out how I can best help, and contributing, in whatever ways I'm able, to the effort to defeat hatred and tyranny, and to restore democracy and decency.  

One last thing that's become clear to me—no one is coming to our rescue. So, be angry. Be deeply, profoundly angry. Be dismayed at the horror, outraged at the unfairness, and be afraid, if you must…and then do what you can do. I can make this better, and so can you.

Weekend Zen, March 29-30

You are the light,

You are the refuge,

There is no place to

take shelter but yourself.

~ Inscription Over the

Buddha's Ashes

Daily Zen - Friday, March 28

I have always known that

at last I would take this road,

but yesterday I did not know

that it would be today.

~ Ariwara No Narihira 

Daily Zen - Thursday, March 27

Walking is Zen.

Sitting too.

~ Zen Saying 

Daily Zen - Wednesday, March 26

New beginnings are 

often disguised as

painful endings.

~ Lao Tzu

Daily Zen - Tuesday, March 25

Whether we are happy or whether

we suffer depends largely on our

perceptions. It is important to

look deeply into our perceptions

and recognize their source.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Daily Zen - Monday, March 24

What saves a man

is to take a step.

Then another step.

It is always the same step,

but you have to take it.

~ Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 

Weekend Zen, March 22-23

We try so hard to hang on to the teachings

and "get it," but...it doesn't seem to happen

by trying to get it or capture it. It happens

by letting go; it happens by relaxing your

mind, and it happens by...the longing to 

want to communicate with yourself and

others. Each one of us finds our own way.

~ Pema Chödrön

Daily Zen - Friday, March 21

Don't just do something.

Sit there!

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Daily Zen - Thursday, March 20

For minds obsessed by

compulsive thinking and

grasping, you simplify your

meditation practice to just

two words –– "let go."

~ Ajahn Sumedho

Daily Zen - Wednesday, March 19

Friendship improves happiness and

abates misery, by the doubling of 

our joy and dividing of our grief.

~ Cicero

Daily Zen - Tuesday, March 18

The moment you know how

your suffering came to be,

you are already on the path

of release from it.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Daily Zen - Monday, March 17

Follow your bliss and the universe

will open doors for you 

where there were only walls.

~ Joseph Campbell

Weekend Zen, March 15-16

When we see into the emptiness 

or illusory nature of things, 

of life and death, of sickness and health, 

of youth and old age, then we're master

 of all things. We are free to be healthy, 

we're free to be sick, we're free to grow old.

~ Geoffrey Shugen Arnold

Daily Zen - Friday, March 14

Simplicity, patience, compassion.

These three are your greatest treasures.

Simple in actions and thoughts,

you return to the source of being.

Patient with both friends and enemies,

you accord with the way things are.

Compassionate toward yourself,

you reconcile all beings in the world.

~ Tao Te Ching

Daily Zen - Thursday, March 13

With all our heart let us be diligent,

engaging in the practice.

Let us live deeply, free from afflictions,

aware of impermanence

so that life does not 

drift away without meaning.

~ Thich Nhat Hanh

Daily Zen - Wednesday, March 12

No act of kindness,

no matter how small,

is ever wasted.

~ Aesop

Daily Zen - Tuesday, March 11

New growth happens

in directions we never

could have imagined.

~ Albert Camus

Daily Zen - Monday, March 10

Do not go where the path may lead,

go instead where there is no path

and leave a trail.

~ Ralph Waldo Emerson