Author of Be Ready for Anything and The Prepper’s Book of Lists
Remember the potential re-education of Trump supporters that everyone said was a conspiracy theory? Welp, it turns out (as I said in this article where I “blew someone’s comment on social media out of proportion,”) it’s a fact. So far on a small scale. But having Americans re-educated politically in any way smacks of communism. Particularly problematic is that it’s been done on the taxpayer’s dime.
Defendants in the Jan. 6th Capitol case are being deprogrammed by their own lawyer.
A public defender named H. Heather Shaner, we’re assured by Ryan J. Reilly of the Huffington Post, has no option but to defend the January 6 “attackers” because “who can’t afford their own attorneys, as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and as laid out in the Criminal Justice Act.”
But she’s also taking the opportunity to re-educate her clients, so they aren’t racist anymore.
“Reading books and then watching these shows is like a revelation,” Shaner told HuffPost. “I think that education is a very powerful tool … So I gave them book lists and shows that they should watch.”
…
Shaner said her clients had poor educations and knew very little about the country. Her two female clients took to the task with zeal, Shaner said and got library cards for the first time in their lives.
“Both my women are like, ‘I never learned this in school. Why don’t I know about this?'” Shaner said. (A couple of the male clients weren’t quite as eager students, she said. “The men are very much like ‘Oh, I’ll get to it.'” But she said some of her male clients have been doing some self-education.) (source)
S0, if I understand this correctly, those poor dumb hick women just needed someone to help them see the error of their ways and introduce them to the joy of the public library, but the men refused to be womansplained to?
And how was this case race-related? It was purely political.
Shaner represents six of more than 500 Capitol defendants: Anna Morgan-Lloyd, Annie Howell, Jack Jesse Griffith (aka Juan Bibiano), Israel Tutrow, and Landon Kenneth Copeland.
What’s on the reading/movie list?
Shaner’s re-education program points out many of the worst moments in history (not just American history) to convince these white folks they have been racist. The program suggests the Capitol protest (even though it was based on what many believe to be a fixed election) happened due to their inherent racism.
- Schindler’s List
- Just Mercy
- Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
- Mudbound
- Slavery By Another Name
- Tulsa Burning
Different political views? Get ready to face persecution.
While one of the books mentioned was not set in the United States, most will agree the rest showcase some low points in American history. However, when combined and forced upon a client by an attorney to “reform” them, it seems to be the beginning of another low point in America – the persecution of those guilty of having a different political opinion.
It assumes all Trump supports are actively racist and therefore need to be shown the error of their ways.
While Huffington Post cheers the actions of Shaner, not everyone agrees that the indoctrination of clients the government pays one to defend is an acceptable course of action.
Note: It would be as challenging to contest American Greatness as unbiased as it would be Huffington Post. So let me be clear when I say both of these sources have their own political agendas. But here, we like to take a look at both sides of the issue.
Let’s take a look at the other side of this.
Small newspapers across the country widely picked up an article written by Julie Kelly for the website American Greatness. Kelly wrote a powerful argument about the danger of Shaner’s actions. Here are a couple of excerpts:
Shaner’s legal captives are learning the hard way what the government will do when one resists their commands to comply. Not only have their personal lives been shattered, finances depleted, and reputations destroyed by an abusive Justice Department investigation, Shaner’s clients must be indoctrinated with leftist propaganda about America’s alleged systemic racism.
The purge of the populist mindset is underway, courtesy of the fetid Beltway judicial system and the Joe Biden regime. Judges routinely lecture January 6 defendants about the wrongthink of a “stolen election” while prosecutors openly mock their political beliefs, including homeschooling and gun ownership…
…On the face of it, there’s nothing wrong with watching or reading any of Shaner’s “booklist.” What is very wrong is a taxpayer-paid attorney—one who is supposed to fight the government’s charges related to January 6, not play along with its phony depiction that “white supremacists” attacked the Capitol—using her authority to reprogram the political views of people she is supposed to be defending. The presumption of racist beliefs is automatic. (source)
You support who? You must be racist.
Anyone who supported Trump – no – let me rephrase that – anyone who did not emphatically denounce Trump – was deemed “crazy” and “racist.” By the very nature of their political beliefs, conservatives are looked down upon by tech giants, the mainstream media, and our government. And, this has been the case ever since Trump announced his run for the presidency.
Thinking outside the far leftist box is akin to treason, and people who do so are now being treated like traitors in a country that was founded on freedom of thought.
Politically correct prosecution?
Kelly cites Joshua Rothstein, the assistant U.S. attorney handling one of Shaner’s cases, who said, “We don’t prosecute people based on their beliefs.”
But we all know that’s not really true…
- More than 500 people involved in the protest-turned-riot on January 6 were diligently hunted down like dogs. Family members and “friends” proudly snitched on them and they are being systematically prosecuted with a range of charges.
- When people rioted and looted in Chicago last year over the death of George Floyd, we were told it was “reparations,” and celebrities bailed out those arrested. Only a handful of the 3000 who were initially arrested is being prosecuted.
- Then we have the destruction that took place in Minneapolis, in which the city sustained over $500 million in damage. Only 14 people were charged with arson, despite dozens of fires. “91 others are facing state felony charges for looting. Hennepin County prosecutors have charged 35 people, mostly with third-degree burglary. Another 56 are facing charges in Ramsey County. One man, Jaleel Stallings, 28, of St. Paul, is accused of attempted murder for allegedly shooting at police on Lake Street on May 30.” (source)
- And who can forget the chaos in Kenosha, in which the highest-profile prosecution was that of Kyle Rittenhouse? Rittenhouse came to defend private property from rioters and ended up shooting one. (The case is ongoing.) Rittenhouse is being accused of being a violent racist by the prosecution. Meanwhile, Kenosha police only recommended 55 people be charged for the rioting and arson that devastated the city.
- Riots have been going on in Portland, Oregon, for over a year. Approximately half of the federal charges against rioters have been dismissed. The Portland Tribune reported in January that a whopping 91% of arrestees were not facing charges.
- And what about the CHOP zone in Seattle, where protestors took over Capitol Hill for nearly a month, leaving widespread destruction in their wake? Only about 20 people were to be prosecuted after a month of havoc, vandalism, attacks on police, and arson.
Meanwhile, approximately 800 people breached the Capitol, and 500 are facing federal charges. Doesn’t that seem a bit skewed?
More woke, less white…?
Look at the ever-increasing lists of things we’re not supposed to say because someone, somewhere, might take offense. Businesses like Coca-Cola and Disney are re-educating their employees to be more “woke” and “less white.”
Disney is pushing critical race theory on employees through a new plan called “Reimagine Tomorrow.” The program urges workers to recognize their “white privilege” in a battery of training modules on topics such as “systemic racism” and “white fragility,” according to internal documents obtained by City-Journal’s Christopher Rufo.
Staffers are told to reject “equality” for “equity.” They must “reflect” on America’s “racist infrastructure” and “think carefully about whether or not [their] wealth” is derived from racism, according to the documents. (source)
If we’re fighting against each other, we can’t stand up beside each other.
That, of course, is the goal. It’s “othering” at its finest, and it sets us up for civil war or the quiet disappearance of conservative views.
People have been put in a difficult place. Speak up, and you’re likely to lose your job. Disagree, and you’re deemed a heinous racist, homophobic, or some other flavor of bigot. That’s what cancel culture is all about – silencing anyone who dissents with the threat of social and financial destruction. The deprogramming of Trump supporters and the re-education of white people to believe we owe penance to every person of other races is dangerously divisive.
I’m not a huge government supporter, preferring instead to govern myself. However, our government was designed to have checks and balances to keep the pendulum from swinging too far to one side. Currently, that system is being overridden, and re-education is just the start.
What do you think about re-education?
What do you think about re-education in the courtroom, workplace, and school system? Share your thoughts in the comments.
About Daisy
Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites. 1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty on her website, 2) The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived, and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. She is widely republished across alternative media and Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses. You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.
I think these people are traders! What a slap in the face to our to all who have fought and died. But isn’t that the point? To anger and divide. To pit us against each other. It’s the Art of War. There is much more at play than people realize. This is just a tatic. But have no questions.. we are at war with evil.
I was glad that Putin criticized America for having political prisoners. Putin also asked who killed Ashli Babbitt.
My dad who was a WWII veteran, is probably turning over in his grave right now. No doubt asking “I stormed the beaches of Normandy and was in the Battle of the Bulge for this”?
America is in a dangerous place. It won’t take much for this regime to label anyone of us a political enemy or a domestic terrorist.
I’m a Vet as are most of my friends. Every one of them, including myself, have said the exact same thing. (Substitute VietNam for Normandy.). There’s a cold anger simmering.
Well let’s get it on then. Personally I would rip that lawyers lungs out.
I just read the chief of the joint chiefs of staff, has called everyone who supports trump traitors. I want that dude out of my army! Twenty three years in the army and now I’m a traitor that needs re-education. I’d love to meet the liberal creep.I’d like to show him what a patriot thinks and feels.
About re-education. Anyone remember what Pol Pot did to Cambodia. It can and will happen here if it is not stopped. Please, let’s not sit on our hands. This is as serious as cancer.
The Soviet Union was NOT an enemy of the USA in WW2. It was mainly responsible for the defeat of Nazi Germany and suffered more deaths(by far) than any other nation. Your dad is probably rolling around in his grave because of all the lies that have been spun by the USG that cover ups Americans crimes against humanity, something he certainly didn’t want to die for!
The big difference is: the Capitol rioters attacked the elites, who must respond or risk being seen as weak. And from what I’ve read and what I saw on camera that day, many of those rioters have extensive criminal records including many violent crimes. They behaved badly and committed many crimes, including assaults on several police officers. For my part, if they want to be Trump cultists, that’s on them. The elites however, cannot afford to be seen as weak and ineffectual, and that’s why they’re being so diligent in their prosecution efforts. Sadly, they didn’t have the spine to impeach a guilty man and remove him from office. But they do have the guts to send other people to teach the peasants a lesson, especially when they can divide and demonize gun owners.
As for a mere suggestion to watch Schindler’s List, IMO this hardly rises to the level of deprogramming and re-education that was enjoyed by other populations, such as the Jews in the concentration camps or the Native Americans in Indian schools. Oy.
You’d have to watch The Killing Fields to see how far or how low factions and movements can go. I don’t know of a movie the depicts the reeducation of native Americans though the reservations and boarding schools. Where children were literally kidnapped from the parents and put in boarding schools. Kids beaten for speaking the only languages they know. Kids abused for the the pleasure of unregulated adults. Kids killed for resisting or trying to escape. Kids who starved to death grieving for their family. Kids educated to look down on their families and their ethnic group.
I’d say race but race isn’t true. Race is something we all hold in common…Human Race.
Once we divide ourselves into belief groups, ethnic groups, geographic location groupings then anyone who looks different, thinks different or wants something different becomes THEM. One of the OTHERS. The enemy who must be Suppressed, Conquered, Educated to become a robotic Mini Me. A clone but still a lesser person.
Our constitution was written to erase that possibility here. Enforcement was spotty and laughably excused away. Blacks were only 5/8 human. Indians were even less human. But the fact is progress has been made in living up to that ideal. The fabric of America was becoming a beautiful tapestry embracing all colors of the pallet. Today it is being shredded and divided before the full beauty and potential can be revealed.
Marxist Socialist… not just communism and not just Socialism but a blend that would erase our constitution, destroy all our freedoms that make America special, and do away with thinking or worshiping in way that the elite don’t agree with.
By choice I am a Christan.
By choice I have opinions. I used to write political opinion pieces.
By choice I raise my four children to love this nation and three have served in the military. My daughter married a veteran and works with young children. A son is a veterain and married a veterain. One retired from the military and is empIoyed by DOD.
In other words we support this nation by choice.
But we aren’t blind to the deep rifts opening up. Changes that disrespect the foundations of this nation.
My kids carefully asked me if I own a BOB. Just as I asked my daughter in a hurricane prone place if she had preps, just incase. We all laughed and said yes to such concerns.
Other nations used to see Americas strengths. Today they see our changes and they don’t envy us as before. They see the changes and know where they can lead.
We are still a good nation but the greatness is endangered.
I freelance in the publishing industry and have worked on a few books discussing the re-education of Native Americans, most notably at the Carlyle School but there were a few others. Some are still in operation, such as St Joeseph’s Indian School, but to my best knowledge they don’t try to beat the culture out of those people anymore. I also worked on an entire series for Enslow Publishers titled The Holocaust Through Primary Sources, which was very eye-opening. Human nature at its basest in both cases, and yes it can too happen here.
My point was and remains: the difference between the Capitol attacks and the BLM/Antifa riots is that the elites were attacked, and must respond in order to maintain power. The elites will do anything to maintain that power, and it doesn’t matter if they have a D or an R by their name. It’s about power and control. As for the rest-believe what you choose to believe. I was watching live cams on the Capitol mall when it happened. I’ve read every opinion handed down in all 59 lawsuits. I don’t need the MSM to tell me anything.
We have made tremendous progress from the time when a black man was 3/5 of a person legally. Jim Crow was appalling but we’ve made progress to the point that any human being can hold whatever position in our society they so choose and are willing to work for. I agree that we’re one Human Race, and even though the human heart still has some growing to do we should still celebrate our progress. Some countries still practice slavery today. We’re the only country that fought a war to end it.
You said sooo much Goood. I have long marveled at how Easily and Fully we have fallen into the Programming of language. Specifically the use of the word Race. From human Race with ethnic grouping we have been steered to the belief in Different Races, as in Different Species. Based Solely upon things that have Nothing to do with DNA and Reproduction of the species called Human Beings. Color,Language,Geographic Location…..the greatest Psychological war…Hopefully to Never be repeated. Blessings to you and yours!
Care to elaborate on the “many of those rioters have extensive criminal records including many violent crimes…”? I’m not aware of any of these crimes. I DO know that SOME individuals did attack the police, broke windows, but I’m not aware of their being …”many…” who fit that description. “…impeach a guilty man and remove him from office…”? What man? What crime? What evidence of guilt do you have.
I have no intention to relitigate any of this. The evidence is all over the place. If you want to see it, search is your friend too. Or continue to believe what you choose to believe. I for one believe in your freedom to do so, even if I disagree.
-Leonard,
Based off the reading I have done, the majority of those do not have any extensive criminal records or history of violent crime.
The one that does actually come to mind is that BLM guy, who recorded the shooting of Ashli Babbitt. He had more of a criminal record than most of those arrested.
Glenn Greenwald wrote an article debunking many of the false narratives MSM pushed, to include the killing of Brian Sicknick.
Professor Turley did several articles about the impeachment, pointing out numerous holes in the first impeachment case in which he testified.
The professor also wrote about the “snap” second impeachment.
It appears we’re no longer sliding down a slippery soap toward communism but we’re now now dropping off the last cliff into the abyss of political wokness… pure evil, godless marxism.
It hasn’t worked anywhere it’s been tried. It has wiped out the religious, the educated, the conservative, even scientists, teachers, and many doctors. All who dared to think or have a different opinion paid a price with their lives. Re-education of one self, ones children, ones spouse, or death if not life languishing in a prison somewhere. It seemed no price was too high if you dared to think or want more from the nation drowning in communism and it’s perversion of the human state.
We aren’t on the road to that place. It seems we’re there.
Now the question to every individual is: What do we do about it?
Capitulate? Resist? Fight?
Then the question becomes: How?
Do we create an armed uprising?
An underground resistance that publishes truth and fights the battle of the intellectual?
Do we simply hide our beliefs and hope to be left alone?
Or do we just allow our way of life and belief to simply vanish?
I’m not yet in an armed camp fighting that war.
I’m not yet publishing an underground newspaper filled with my opinions and desires.
I’m no not yet in a resistance underground movement.
I’m simply at the stunned position of watching this unfolding and understanding where it leads. I’m both angry and afraid for my nation, my community, my friends, and my family.
Is growing more garden an act of resistance? Is having a small store of food or medical supply an act of resistance? Is owning and believing the Bible an act of resistance?
Where do the battle lines get drawn? How far does it go?
That movie list is interesting. I’ve seen Schindler’s list and Burry My Heart at Wounded Knee. They do tell an historic truth about the suppression, oppression, and destruction of the Other. My question isn’t my guilt for history. Or holding a grudge over history. It is how do I face what is happening today? My gene pool doesn’t dictate my beliefs, actions, or excuses. I’m a strange compilation from the Anerican melting pot. My ancestry encompasses middle eastern Jews, White European, a drop of African DNA, and more recent three tribes of Native American ancestors. A great grandfather was wounded and escaped from the first battle of Wounded Knee. I’m old enough to have met him and felt the hot wetness of his tears as he told of watching his brother die, of finding his wife and children dead or missing, and picking up an infant daughter he took with him and escaping the reservation roundups. He told of a white preacher who taught him carpentry and later gave him a daughters hand in a loving marriage. He lived in fear for most of his life that somewhere he’d be forced onto a reservation. His people were put in such a poor place they became the poorest of all the reservations. It is still mostly a hopeless place. He visited to look for news of the missing children. But he didn’t stay. So I know of history from the inside of the story.
But still America became a place of opportunity, education, and more freedoms than most places. The constitution helped create that greatness. Without it we will become a place of divided groups without the cohesion of personal equality and freedom to think and believe and express what we believe and feel. Our religious right will devolve into – my way or you’re one of those…. the others. Then it’s OK to kill and steal from – the others. The next Wounded Knee or Schlindlers list may be against- the others. Anyone who doesn’t fit into the new way of thinking. Anyone with patriotism, a strong religious belief, a separate identity. Brainwashing our children is happening already.
So now what?
Clergylady, “What do we do now?” The prayers of the Righteous Avails much”.
God bless the U.S.A. and all of It’s Citizens
-ClergyLady,
I think we are seeing those whom have gotten fed up with some of the things you mention, pushing back.
More than a few states are passing laws against the CRT indoctrination.
Parents, to include people of color, are pushing back against school boards that endorse CRT.
Clearly I served in the military. Hence I believe every person has the right to the 1stA, to speak their mind as long as it does not incite violence.
I may not agree with what they say, but they have that right to freedom of speech.
And I have the right to not listen.
Read an interesting comment someone made on another site to the effect of: Trump tapped into something, something even he cannot define. Thing is, it is NOT about Trump. It is an idea. An idea that is going to outlive Trump. And that is why they are pushing so hard to try to link that idea to anything negative. They have to paint anyone and everyone as a white supremacist, nazi, fascist, etc. to try to stop the idea.
So, what is the idea they are so afraid of?
They are afraid people are going to wake up and take AmeriKA back to the way it used to be – the way it is actually meant to be! Not this communist, cancerous pile of feces it is quickly becoming day after day. Folks, do you not see what is happening to your country? To your rights? To your so called “freedoms?”Right now “justice” does NOT exist – the courts have been hijacked.
Freedom of speech is fine, as long as you completely agree with the imbeciles on the left, the communists, the marxists.
Take America back to the way it was?
I think we are well past that.
One half of the country hates the other half. And vice versa.
There is no going back to anything. Why would anyone want to? Why would you want that other half to be included in taking America back? Or, on the other side, supposedly “forward.”
To me, that looks a lot like the hate we see in differing groups in the Mid-East (Sunni vs Shia, Muslims vs Jews, the Kurds, Arab Christians, etc.) for hundreds if not thousands of years.
Who wants that?
Not I. I have been to a war zone. Not interested in seeing that kind of thing here in America.
Want to call it defeatism, by all means, go right ahead. I think it is better to walk away, you do you, I will do me, and not resort to shooting each other.
“I think it is better to walk away, you do you, I will do me, and not resort to shooting each other.”
I totally agree. I haven’t heard anything from anyone that’s worth shooting my neighbors over. Peace is a good thing.
Wow, where to even begin. Folks AmeriKA is in extreme peril. We are becoming more & more like China, Russia and various other lovely Communist toilets as the days go bye. The writing is all over the proverbial wall. We are being put in a situation where we either Fight or just DIE. Think about that. . .
You’ve been re-educated since the day you were born. Why does it matter if they replace one lie with another?
It mattered that we had the right to seek truth and speak what we believed.
Well said ClergyLady.
Saw an interesting article yesterday at “The Bongino Report” written by David Limbaugh, Rush’s brother. In a nut shell he said that if he was given an assignment to destroy America, the plan would look much like Bite’em’s policies.
Open Borders, let felons out of jail, cut police funding, spy on citizens, spend/print money like a drunken sailor, CRT, and so on.
ZH has an article today how the Mass State Police captured 11 guys from a Militia, well armed, heading to a training camp in Maine.
After studying the history of the health care system in America in depth I have come to the conclusion that this dismantling of individual rights has been going on for a long, long time…decades. The current political devisiveness is just a HUGE distraction that keeps us from using our God given critical thinking skills to really get down to the root of the problem. Those in power love that we are wasting so much time fighting each other as it keeps us from paying attention. Even with all the censorship going on if you really want to learn you can, but it takes willingness to do some work. I will not support either of the main political parties at the federal level no matter who runs as I see them both as being hijacked, perhaps to a different degree and in different ways, but arguing the details is a waste of time. Local government is the only chance we have. Trying to get anything done from the top on either side will be fruitless given the corrupted powers that be. I see this as the only way to bring about real change, from the bottom up, as it has always been done in this country. When enough people band together for basic human rights and stop fighting about political differences we will regain our independence slowly, but definitely it is a “war” that will require commitment and collaboration by many over God only knows how long…
Totally agree! This has been going on for a very long time, and both major parties are complicit. Arguing about the lesser evil is useless and doing so on social media is more so. At this point I’m not sure that even writing our legislators is worthwhile although I do so. Third party all the way!
I’ve seen Schindler’s List and also The Holocaust miniseries. Roots, The Color Purple, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, The Help, To Kill A Mockingbird…read them all, saw the movie.
That’s one of the reasons I voted for Trump and still support him and his efforts to make our country economically strong and independent. To stop handing out money to countries that hate us and want us dead. To stop the hemorrhage of good paying manufacturing jobs to cheap and slave labor overseas.
If we have an economically strong country with good jobs, EVERYONE benefits. People of color as well as whites. Good paying jobs lift up entire communities and ensure good schools, good emergency services, good infrastructure. It’s not a race issue, it’s an economic issue.
By using race to obfuscate the real motivations behind the Elites’ push against the populist movement and Trump in particular, they are successfully crashing our economy and systematically destroying small businesses and entrepreneurship. The rent moratoriums have destroyed those who depended upon that income and have further destabilized the economy. What happens when hundreds of thousands of mortgages simultaneously default?
By keeping the majority of US citizens in perpetual economic servitude, the Elites can control us by simply threatening to cut off the government relief monies that so many are now and will be dependent upon…rent forgiveness, food stamps, unemployment benefits, SSD. If you threaten to remove a person’s source of income, take away the necessary medications from their parents, take away the food from their children’s mouths and cast them all into the streets, you can get most people to go along with anything you want them to.
MKO- WE GET A RERUN OF OF 2008 ON STEROIDS!
I hate what has deen done and is being done to destroy our economy. Much is smoke and mirrors tricks to cover up or distract us from what is being done. We need jobs not stipends. We need a working economy not a welfare nanny state. But the democrats know one thing and do it well. If you impovrish the people and make them dependant, then give them the basic necessities of life, they Will become dependant. Once people are dependant on the state they will vote to keep the party in power that supports them. They quickly forget about jobs when working won’t support the new lifestyle free lifestyle.
When you pay for health insurance, pay your rent or mortgage, buy your food, keep insurance on a vehicle, buy a vehicle or pay for your public transportation, buy a TV, where I live you buy satellite TV services, buy a computer and pay for wifi to be able to use it and so on, you quickly learn a minimum wage job won’t do it all.
10 yearsago a study was done in the nearest city. They found it took 2.5 minimum wage jobs to rent a 2 bedroom apartment and use public transportation and buy yourown food for a family with two working adults. No babysitter. No frills. No phone. No computer. No vehicles unless you owned a bicycle. And no buying furniture. Many in that position get caught up in the rent to own trap.
When I was widowed at 55 without insurance, without a job, without a running vehicle and 15 miles from the city limits of a small town. I was stuck. I lived on stored food and a neighbors waterhose they kindly hooked up for me to use. I walked 4 miles every evening gathering sticks to heat water and cook on, summer and winter. When it snowed I was dependant on sticks I’d saved back. No heat with below zero weather at times. I piled on the covers and wore more layers. Trippled up the socks in my husband’s old boots. I washed clothes in a bucket with the new toilet plunger that sat in the pantry.
I prayedike crazy but I felt I needed to stay and finish up the juniors and seniors in the church school I’d been operating for over 20 years. I did it!
About that time friends in another state brought me a little car. A lady in her 80s wasn’t driving anymore and they thought of me. They were traveling through here anyway to visit friends two hundred mIles south of here.
That little old Toyota changed everything. I sold enough stuff from my front gate to put used tires on it. I walked 17 miles each way to buy a used battery at a wrecking yard. Then when it was running I registered the title then when I bought minimum insurance I licensed it. In three weeks I had a job. When that job ended with my employer going out if business I found a new one. It was in the city an hour away. I quickly figured out drive an hour or more each way was too much for me. I rented a corner of a livingroom floor to sIeep on Monday through Friday while I hunted for a place to rent. I found an add for an out of town owner with 2, 4 plexes who needed a manager for reduced rent. In a week I was in a 2 bedroom apartment in a neighborhood known as the war zone. I stayed there. I cleaned and rented apartment for extra cash, I painted walls, patched holes in walls, put in new door knob sets, replaced broken windows. And I grew a tiny garden in the flowerbeds. The two drug dealers living on each side of me wouldn’t let me walk a block and around the corner to a 7/11 by myself. If they saw me walk out one of them showed up beside me in just a minute. They would stand outside waiting and walk home with me. I was sort of the honorary neighborhood grandma. If they BBQed they brought me a plate mounded up with food that kept me in meat for a week.
I moved when I remarried. I was working 12 hour overnight shifts in a group home for violent mentally handicapped adult men. It was supposed to be one staff per client. I worked alone. We weren’t paid overtime for our 60 hour weeks. When they got busted my back pay check on a Christmas Eve was $4,000. I used half of that to buy a 16ft flat bed trailer to pull with my husband’s truck. I used that to get free cinderblock, bricks, and stepping stones found on craigs list. I built paths, steps, and flower beds around our country home. When I discovered he wasn’t paying the mortgage it was too late to save it. He was developing alzheimers so I understood but I hated loosing that nice home.
I moved us back to my old home. A son helped catch up past due property taxes. We camped in a 45 year old double wide while I tried to repair it. It was way too much for me to do. But we stayed in the draft cold place closed up in a bedroom with an electric heater. The bathroom that adjoined the bedroom worked and I could use the kitchen. I just bundled up in winter to go cook.
I saved up every penny I could pinch out of our social security Incomes. I found a repo trailer on a lot that hadn’t been repaired or cleaned. I paid cash for it. I’m still making little repairs and improvements and paint one area at a time. It’s been three years. But we’re warm and structurally it was built as good as any stick home. The regulations have been greatly improved. It’s insulated for zone 2. I’ve added a gravity fed pellet stove. Its a small home but ok for two people. Just one bedroom and one bathroom. Right now it’s piled up with boxes again… I’ve just built a small pantry to divide the livingroom from the kitchen and added an entryway storage bench I’d built for an office 30 yearsago., and a little free standing closet. Now to get things cleaned up and all put away. If I can figure how to tear out the bedroom carpet with all the furniture in there I’ll put down a wood floor.
I’ve also trippled my garden this year while adding fruit trees and vines.
If I can figure out how… I’ll be building a ramp for my husband’s wheelchair. I’m also reading up on what and how to… so I can rebuild and improve a solar array that isn’t working.
At 74 I’m slow but I keep working and little by little the projects get done.
If I sat back and took welfare, we could be living in a terrible little rental in town somewhere. Depending on free food and medical care. It sure would be easier but not a fraction of how satisfying it is to do so much constant work. And much less healthy for me.
The one problem I haven’t yet solved is keeping my husband truly cool when its 100° and there is no power for a fan. I have windows open for cross ventilation, stormdoors so even the doors are open in summer. I open the side away from the sun. As the suns position changes I close up the west and open up the east side more. I have tried wet sheets over open windows and other things that help but his condition is getting fragile and the heat is very hard on him.
Two weeks ago he had an infection and I bathed him with cool water but his fever suddenly spiked. When the ambulance came his temp was 104.6° and the bedroom was 101°F.
I work out side in the morning and evening. In the heat of the day I have been sorting out tools that were in sheds and in the home where I’d been working. Now I carry out a hand full at a time and I’m working on getting everything put away in an orderly fashion so I can find what I want when I need it. A lot of new drawers from an out of business cabinet shop are being put to use as shelves. This week I’m putting up some in the bathroom. In a shop they are filling up with containers of nails, screws, drawer pulls, et. The next big project is cutting some drawers to fit my kitchen cabinets and make pullout shelves for all the lower cabinets. That will take some framing inside but will make the space more accessable. The drawers and glides were free for the hauling.
Folks getting into the governments free cycle will never know the joy or satisfaction I’ve found in doing for myself. They complain of boredom or the must have tv and wifi ect to keep entertained. Then complain about poverty. Blame someone else for the situation they are in. Its a racist situation.. it was that other guy that destroyed the ecconomy et.
Yes I’ve ended up in poverty in my later years but I feel rich in many ways. I’m stronger physically and mentally for it. My best friends lost their business and home about the time I moved back here. I offered them an old trailer if they could repair it. They and their grown kids did it. They moved in four years ago. It gives me a neighbor to help when i need someone. I help them as I can. When I had covid he did all our grocery shopping for several months. Saved our lives literally. When they caught covid months later both were hospitalized. She came home in three days. He died in three weeks. He’s burried in our family plot. She and the three grand children they had taken in are still here. I help them as I can but they in turn drive me to appointments in the city. We work together like a family. I hadn’t been able to go to church in a year and a half but while my husband has been in the hospital and rehab she’s taken me to church with them. We split Mc Donald’s for lunch and took the kids to the park for a couple of hours then drove the 25 miles back home.
I hate what I see happening to our nation. Most folks just want to be happy, eat enough not to stay hungry, and be at peace with the folks around them. The riots aren’t most folks. The Civil disobedience isn’t most folks. The unrest is sort of communicable like a disease but most folks still resist that. What is too easiIy caught is a “government will meet my needs attitude”.
What a great story of resilience.
Most of these people that end up rioting spend all their time in internet echo chambers where every grievance, real or imagined, is amplified and distorted. They have too much unproductive free time…both right and left.
@Clergylady you are an amazing person. What a wonderful life and spirit you have! I wish I knew you in real life.
I don’t need a deep analysis of what is wrong with this picture. It is prima facie inappropriate and twisted-looking from what should be normal behavior for a public defender. It’s as if she’s prepping them to cooperate with her “reformed ignorant racist typical Trump supporter” defense. With a “defender” like that, I’d rather just represent myself.
I was in high school in the 1960’s mindlessly reciting the Pledjalegince every day. One day, our class was a bit disrupted by a black boy refusing to say the Pledge “because we don’t have liberty and justice for all.” We all knew he was right, unarguable. And for the first time, I paid attention to what I was saying and what the words meant. And I thought about it.
I decided that I would recite the pledge, and that it had important ideals in it. It was not that we were already there, but I was promising that I would do what was in my power to do to MAKE this a nation with liberty and justice for all.
Recently a Patriot said “You don’t fight for freedom, you peace for freedom.” And there is a truth there, and peaceing for freedom is an active thing. The Jan 6 false flag was resoundingly successful and the enemy is trying desperately to do it again and get Patriots violent. Therefore we must not be, and have been magnificent so far. But active we must be. We boycott Coca-Cola in all their brands because they are bigoted. We join Sheriff Mack’s CSPOA–Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association. We politely demand integrity and tolerance in our neighbors. We get to know our local government people.
We publish articles like this one on the hypocrisy of the Left. They are betraying that pledge.
One thing we need to do much more of is find out where the non-lunatic Left is RIGHT about things. “Catch them doing something right.” We have the same ideals, and we must work together if we are to hope for “liberty and justice for all.”
Beautiful story, Esther. I’m neither Right nor Left and I see we have many similarities. If only we could focus on those.
Esther Kook, nonsense!
America, love her or leave her.
Totally agree. Esther Kook nonsense. Why we are losing and they end up just whining.
Then you are no better than the cancel culture, snowflake. You missed the entire intent of Esther’s comment. Just because she is choosing to do right and support her country without violence does not mean she is wrong, hates america or should leave. At least she is actively doing something. Positive action is still forward momentum if even if it is not the course other’s would choose to take for themselves.
There is a time a place for civil war but the way most people talk lately their actions would be nothing more than disjointed, powerless little uprisings that could be put down with a fire hose. Violence in and of itself will not do anyone any good. Organization, cohesion and leadership will be needed for any kind of impact or success.
Wrong reading list. Start with Common Sense and The Rights of Man, by Thomas Payne, and follow up with the Fables of Aesop, like this one:
A Wolf seeing a Lamb drinking at a brook, took it into his head that he would find some plausible excuse for eating him. So he drew near, and, standing higher up the stream, began to accuse him of disturbing the water and preventing him from drinking.
The Lamb replied that he was only touching the water with the tips of his lips; and that, besides, seeing that he was standing down stream, he could not possibly be disturbing the water higher up. So the Wolf, having done no good by that accusation, said: “Well, but last year you insulted my Father.” The Lamb replying that at that time he was not born, the Wolf wound up by saying: “However ready you may be with your answers, I shall none the less make a meal of you.”
The Bill of Rights and its preable should be daily required reading for all Jan 6 defendants, prosecutors and judges:
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Why do we have a Bill of Rights? The preamble tells us:
“THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution.”
It’s pretty clear that the Jan 6 prosecutions are politically motivated vendettas against people who had every right to “petition for redress of greivances”. The courts should dismiss all charges against those engaged in lawful protests, censure the prosecutors involved, and refer their cases to the proper authorities for disbarment procedings.
This kind of training has been happening in corporate America for over a decade. Workers have been schooled on what not to say and that we could not just say “nothing”, because that was harrasment also. This has gone on so long that people are jaded. People won’t even speak unless it is some cardboard face reply. Sad and pathetic. One day all of this kind of stuff will cause an explosive backlash. The very people who want repect and acceptance are denied it by all the rules and the people with hurt feelings who stir up so much trouble.
more like empowerment of perpetual victimhood status. Instead of freeing themselves from the victim status, they cling to it & nurse wounds, weaponizing it to manipulate & subjugate others
They better be careful with this divisive tactic because it is one thing that could blow up in their face in ways they didnt envision.
I will NOT hate myself nor hate being white and life owes nothing to NO ONE! Ever! There are a lot of long standing hard working white Americans like I that will get real militant about this in a hurry.
You want respect and accolade … earn it!