PUERTO RICO

I couldn't think of a thing to blog about today. I'm still reeling from all the disasters hitting us lately. The damaging hurricanes hitting Texas and Florida. The deadly earthquake in Mexico.

But Puerto Rico's problems stand out.

The president has been busy campaigning in Alabama and arguing with the NFL and chastising his Health and Human Services guy Price for spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on flights for business as well as personal travel. Obviously, the president has little time for Puerto Rico. Maybe because Puerto Rico speaks Spanish? Or maybe because a Trump golf course in Puerto Rico went bankrupt? Or maybe because he thinks Puerto Rico's a foreign country?

While he dithered, Puerto Rico suffered. I won't show a lot of pix on the misery people there are enduring, but I did steal this photo and caption from the AP (couldn't resist the cat):

In this Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2017 photo, Maribel Valentin Espino sits in her hurricane-destroyed home in Montebello, Puerto Rico. Espino and her husband say they have not seen anyone from the Puerto Rican government, much less the Federal Emergency Management Agency, since the storm tore up the island. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Things aren't much better today but I believe a nudge from Hillary Clinton steered the president in the right direction. He finally sent the hospital ship Comfort there and put in a three star general to oversee operations and waived temporarily the Jones Act that kept any but US ships from transporting goods to the little island. (A lot of US shippers stood to lose money; the fact that the devastated Puerto Rico would pay twice as much to get supplies didn't bother the shippers. Or the president either, evidently.)

If you want to donate to relief efforts, here is a page from the NY Times that lists charities and rates them. The first four seem to be the best buy for your buck.

Also, the Salvation Army is an old dependable, with a large percentage of its donations going to the intended recipients. Not only are they helping Puerto Rico, they are also there for the other islands hard hit by Maria.

And there is always the Red Cross. It's not one of my favorite charities, but it's been around a long time. Be sure to choose "Hurricane Maria" to direct your donation.

Let's all be thankful for what we have.

ONE MORE POST ON THE MARCH

After this one, I'll be through!

But I've seen some snitty articles and ugly pictures about the Womens March on Washington from conservative sites. My experience was nothing like what they wrote about and/or portrayed. Yes, there were signs some people might have considered obscene but most were not. Just simple thoughts made by people expressing their views. No violence on the march. Not a lot of hate. Some humor. Some pleas for sensible government. Everyone had their own opinion.

Here are some of them:

Like "I Voted"

And Trump compared to ringworm:

And various ones like "Super Callous Fragile Racist Extra Braggadocious" and "Save Our H(ealth)care - Obamacare Saved Me" and "NO!"

I like this one: "I MARCH BCUZ IM TOO DAMN OLD TO LEARN RUSSIAN"

And this one: "Women are like Cats - Will do as they please"

But the one I liked best, I didn't get a picture of. It featured an old-fashioned switchboard operator with her ear plugs in, saying: "Hello 1955? Please hold for the GOP" Some of the truest words there!

If anyone tries to tell you how disgusting and violent our march was, don't believe them. They're just parroting some of those "alternative facts" the con people in the White House seem so fond of spouting.

WOMEN'S MARCH ON WASHINGTON DC

I apologize in advance for the length of this post. This blog comes out Friday instead of Saturday because I will be out of commission for a few days. I am traveling to Washington DC. No, not for the inauguration. For the women's rally/march.

After November 7th, a grandmother in Hawaii, Teresa Shook, like many of us, despaired over the result. Instead of having our first woman president, forty-six percent of the voters chose a man who jeered at minorities and women, mocked the disabled and people of different faiths, maligned men who had served and died for our country, and planned to dismantle programs essential to clean water and air, universal healthcare, and women's rights.

Shook decided to see if others might want to march in Washington DC to signal disapproval of his hateful campaign and his stated intentions. When she went to bed, she had forty responses. When she woke up the next morning, there were over ten thousand people ready to join her.

I, too, was despondent. My vote and nearly three million others that gave the popular vote to Clinton, did not count. Literally. We might as well have stayed home because our getting out and going to the polls, standing in line and taking time to vote, didn't change a thing. Despite our majority in votes.

When I saw a tiny item about women marching on Washington, then found on FaceBook that women in our state were already chartering buses to take protesters to DC, optimism returned. There were other people who felt like me. Together, we would make our voices heard.

I thought about what it meant for some time--I'm no spring chicken; my eyes are bad; my feet are bad; I hate crowds. I've never been active in anything like this. Never felt the need! Wasn't our country becoming more tolerant, more accepting, more benevolent toward others? Wasn't it moving forward in human issues? But now, suddenly, all progress is in full retreat.

I couldn't shirk my duty to participate. So I started trying to find a ride to the nearest bus departure city. When I linked up with a stranger already signed up to go (I met her and was comfortable she wasn't a nut job!), I signed on, too.

Understand, this entire undertaking is a gut response from the Jane Smiths (and some John Does) of our great country. Everyone has her or his reasons. Women's issues, saving black lives, gun control, reproductive freedom, climate change, affordable health care, gay rights, disgust at one candidate's "locker room talk" and failure to release tax returns...

But most are united in believing the electoral college chose the wrong person for such an overwhelming and critical job as president of the greatest nation on earth.

Oh, at first we were a wild bunch! But eventually, professional activists came in to help bring the unwieldy mob under control. Well...as under control as a grass roots effort with so many opinions and causes represented can be. Permits were obtained, routes hammered out, portapotties rented, speakers booked, and T-shirts designed. We were on our way.

As of today, from the best information I can find, over 223,000 women (with some men and children) are traveling to Washington DC to march the day after the inauguration of arguably the most unpopular president ever taking the oath of office. Georgia alone is sending over four thousand people. Women are recognizing sister marchers in airports by their clear backpacks while planes to DC are about 90% filled with women wearing pink hats.

And there are at least 673 sister marches! For some strange reason, people all over the world are rallying to our cause. In Europe, Australia, Asia, Africa, South America...Even Anarctica (???)!

This is my official Women's March shirt along with the mustard colored scarf that marks a Georgia marcher.

Yes, I know it's a rather ugly yellow but it was chosen, I understand, because it's the color of the monarch butterfly, which is (?) our state insect(?). At any rate, I'm pretty sure we'll be the only state wearing it! The same cannot be said for all the pink "pussyhats" we will be sporting. Women have been knitting and crocheting like crazy to be sure everyone has one. Some object to its name, but I bet you'll see a lot of them in the crowd. (A relative knitted mine because I'm not craftsy.)

As Hillary Clinton said: "Women's rights are human rights."

I'm proud to be marching in support of them.