Politics

Patriots Day

~ MaryG ~ 11 Comments

Patriots Day is a special Massachusetts holiday commemorating the start of the American Revolution. In case you don’t know the story: On April 18, 1775, British regulars (aka “Red Coats” because they wore bright red uniforms) marched from Boston to seize weapons stored by colonial militias in Concord. Paul Revere and others rode ahead to warn colonists. At dawn on April 19 in Lexington, Red Coats confronted about 70 militiamen (aka “Minute Men” because they could be ready to fight in a minute); a shot was fired—“the shot heard ’round the world”—and fighting began. Eight colonists were killed. The British continued to Concord but met fierce resistance. Amazingly, the Minutemen forced the Red Coats to retreat to Boston under heavy fire using fighting skills they learned from native people. A bunch of ragtag New England farmers chased the world’s most powerful army back to Boston with their tails between their legs. This marked the start of the American Revolutionary War.

Patriots Day is also the day they hold the Boston Marathon and many people have it off work.

This year, Massachusetts is kicking off the 250th birthday celebrations for the entire country. We’ve had all sorts of patriotic celebrations this weekend—all with a decidedly anti-Trump sentiment.

If you have time, it’s worth watching historian Heather Cox Richardson give an address at the Old North Church detailing the events leading up to the “midnight ride of Paul Revere.” One of her final points is that the two men who lit the lanterns in the steeple to start the process of warning the colonists that the British were approaching “by sea” were not doing anything extraordinary. They were just doing what they considered to be “the next right thing” at that time.

Since the heartbreaking election in November, I haven’t felt much like getting back out there and joining the resistance, but Patriots Day is special.

I was there in Concord for the Bicentennial in 1976, and wasn’t going to miss out this year. It felt like “the next right thing.”

The American Revolution started here.
My friends and I with a Concord Minuteman
There was a huge anti-Trump crowd in Concord center for Patriots Day
Speakers and singers on the steps of the Unitarian Universalist church
That’s me!

No Kings.

🇺🇸

Speaking of ChatGPT…

~ MaryG ~ 8 Comments

I asked it if the United States is still considered a democracy. Here’s its answer:

As of mid-April 2025, the United States is still officially classified as a democracy by major global indices, but it is experiencing significant democratic backsliding under President Donald Trump’s second term.

Freedom House continues to rate the U.S. as “Free” with a score of 84/100, though this reflects a decline from previous years and ongoing concerns about executive overreach and erosion of civil liberties.

The V-Dem Institute has warned that the U.S. is on track to lose its democracy status within six months if current trends continue, citing actions such as undermining the judiciary, centralizing power, and attacking the press.

Recent developments include the Trump administration’s defiance of a unanimous Supreme Court ruling, raising concerns about the rule of law and the system of checks and balances.

In summary, while the U.S. retains its democratic status, it is undergoing significant challenges that threaten the health and resilience of its democratic institutions.

Rejection

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments

I left my full-time career in late 2023 with the thought of potentially retiring early (at age 58.5) and devoting more time to working on the 2024 election and other volunteer work. We were all done paying for our kids’ college educations, our investments were looking good, and Trump was safely out of the White House with many pending criminal indictments.

My how things can change in 18 months.

On the very bright side, I became a grandmother. Nothing is better than that.

BUT, everything else is looking very scary and one way to try to protect myself and my family would be to start earning money again. I mean who knows what the hell is coming next with this Mad King in the Oval Office—World War III, a deep recession or depression, another pandemic, civil war—any damn thing can happen with him in charge. Money won’t stop the fall of democracy in the United States, but maybe it could help protect my own family. And maybe that’s all any of us can really do.

Anyhow, I opened up my LinkedIn profile to recruiters and immediately got several interviews. One job looked perfect for me and I made it to the final round of interviews. I absolutely loved the organization. I was sure they were going to offer it to me.

Whelp, I found out yesterday that they decided to “move forward with a different finalist.”

OUCH! How dare they?? I was perfect for the job and I really wanted it!

So much for a great job just dropping into my lap. Am I really up for a protracted, arduous job search? I don’t know. I may be too old for this shit.

Related:

Are you retired?

People don’t look good

~ MaryG ~ 23 Comments

I don’t know if this is just a New England thing or what, but people do not look well to me. It’s been a looooong winter here in New England (currently 42 degrees with light snow in Nashua, NH), but it’s like this every year. We know this. March is a winter month and it’s foolish to expect anything else, even with global warming. You can easily get snow on Easter Sunday. Hell, I’ve seen snow on Mother’s Day.

But this is different. A lot of people look miserable to me. An older woman with a walker was my cashier at Marshall’s yesterday. At age 65+, she has a job that requires her to stand up—for hours. Can she not retire? Is she one of the millions of Americans whose retirement plan is “work til I die.”

I have no idea of the political affiliation of strangers, so maybe this has nothing to do with the erosion of democracy or ascendent authoritarianism, but it does remind me a bit of my trip to the Soviet Union in 1987. Nobody smiled there. Everyone looked…grey (for lack of a better word). If they did smile, you could see that their teeth were horrible. They did not have American smiles.

I have done a fair bit of traveling and I can tell you that we tend be the warmest smilers in the world. And as a rule, we have fantastic teeth. (Maybe it was the fluoride and all the other public health initiatives we benefited from as kids.) But I’m seeing far fewer smiles lately. And more people are missing teeth.

An older woman sitting in a museum in Suzdal (Russia/USSR) in 1987 – “smiling” without showing her teeth
A couple struggling their way through a Nashua mall today in search of a free wheelchair for her to use

White Lotus Avoidance Day

~ MaryG ~ 1 Comment

My husband and I are major consumers of “prestige TV.” We get all the channels and watch all the shows. (Severance, Succession, Hacks, The Last of Us, The Bear, Handmaids Tale, etc.) We watch together and we talk about the shows. TV is our thing.

Sometimes a show is too violent for me, so I relinquish it to my husband to watch while I’m at choir or doing something else. (For example, I bailed on The Sopranos fairly early on and I never watched Breaking Bad.) I always have a few shows I’m watching on my own, because I stay up later than him. Currently, I’m watching Marie Antoinette on PBS Passport on my own. Downton Abbey is another example of a show that my husband didn’t watch with me, though he fully embraced The Gilded Age, so it’s not that he won’t watch period pieces. (We’re big fans of Wolf Hall.)

We plan our TV watching out in advance. Sometimes, a very important show—like last night’s White Lotus season 3 finale—needs to be watched live (rather than on demand) in order to avoid spoilers, which will undoubtedly be everywhere today!

We fully intended to watch the White Lotus season finale live last night, but then my husband got tired and wanted to save it. Obviously I wouldn’t watch it without him, so now I will spend the entire day trying not to read anything about it, which basically will require staying offline altogether.

So, as the stock market crashes (I’m assuming another Black Monday is underway) and people are distracting themselves by discussing whatever happened on White Lotus last night, I will try to finish reading my library book today.

Ironically, the book is Intermezzo by Sally Rooney (author of Normal People) and I could totally see it getting made into a Hulu series (like Normal People did) that I would end up watching on my own because my husband doesn’t like shows that are too “relationshipy.”

Comments closed due to abject fear of White Lotus spoilers.

Related: Consider the Source

Image from Pexels

Ireland planning 🇮🇪

~ MaryG ~ 19 Comments

As I prepare to turn sixty in 77 days, I am working on my Bucket List (things I want to do and places I want to see before I “kick the bucket”). I’ve always been one to keep a “to do” list (I like getting stuff done), but this one is fun. I started it shortly after my dear friend Carla unexpectedly got sick and passed away in 2022 at age 57.

I try to really think about places and experiences that call to me, not just rack up instagrammable, exotic locations. I have reasons for wanting to see these places. For the bigger trips, I try to keep the budget to $10,000 (or less) for the two of us for a full week. I know that’s a lot of money for a lot of folks, but believe me, I know people that spend a whole hell of a lot more than that on their luxury vacations. I would say we are “budget conscious” travelers, but I will splurge on special experiences like dinner in the Eiffel Tower or a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon.

Here’s where my Bucket List stands now:

Grand Canyon ✅ (June 2023)

Paris ✅ (December 2023)

Finger Lakes & Hot Air Ballooning ✅ (May 2024)

Tanglewood ✅ (August 2024)

Yellowstone National Park ✅ (September 2024)

Northern Lights ✅ This wasn’t a planned trip, I just got lucky! (October 2024)

Key West ✅ (February 2025)

NEXT UP: Ireland ☘️

Is there any other foreign country that looms quite so large in the American psyche? I don’t think so!

Like millions of other Americans, I am a descendant of poor Irish immigrants. My great grandmother Mary Barry was from Dublin.

My mother’s father’s mother, Mary Barry, with six of her children, including my maternal grandfather Henry (far right). She was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1880 and died in Queens, NY in 1952. She immigrated to America, through Ellis Island, in 1903. She was 23 years old and arrived with three US dollars to her name.

This trip to Ireland will mark my first group tour experience. We’ve never been on a weeklong tour before. I usually book the hotels and do all the planning myself, but since it’s my birthday, I wanted to give myself a break and have someone else do the planning.

I looked at many types of tours (including on bikes and boats), but ultimately decided to try a Rick Steves tour. Good old Rick—PBS super nerd! I love his guidebooks and his travel philosophy in general. Plus, he is a well known weed-smoking liberal, so the chances of having any Trumpers in our group are slim.

So now, I need to start reading more about Ireland. I’ve already watched many of the recent TV shows and movies set there, including the excellent miniseries about The Troubles—Say Nothing.

Our tour is in the Republic of Ireland only, but I’m contemplating taking a trip up to Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK) at the end of the trip. We will be staying a few extra days in Dublin, where our son will join us, so I need to make some plans for that time.

Please send your Dublin recommendations and any advice you might have about planning a day trip to Belfast.

Also, books! What should I read to help truly understand the heart of this country and its people, from whom so many of us Americans descend?

I’m open to the classics, as well as modern fiction, historical fiction and nonfiction.

TYIA

☘️ 🇮🇪

Related posts:

Greetings from Ireland

More Ireland

I’m a Dubliner

Last Stop in Ireland

Food and Signs in Ireland

Thursday Doors—Dublin Unitarian Church

Apathy vs Anger

~ MaryG ~ 13 Comments

Do you ever wonder what regular old middle class Germans chatted about in say…1935? Did they mostly carry on as if everything was basically OK? Did they politely avoid talking about “politics” in social situations?

It’s definitely getting harder to continue having light, casual conversations with people who are completely unperturbed by what’s happening in our country right now. (You know, those folks who can somehow just ignore an American President who flouts our laws, attacks journalists, outlaws all diversity initiatives, and wants to annex Canada.)

On the other hand, I’m not (yet) up for joining “The Fight” to save our country, which so many of my liberal friends have already embraced wholeheartedly. It all failed so miserably in 2024, I feel like they’re missing something.

I really do wonder about Germany.

Happy-looking members of the “League of German Girls” in 1935 (source: Wikipedia). I wonder what they were hearing at home from their parents.

Mass protests (sigh)

~ MaryG ~ 10 Comments

OK, I think I get it now.

I had been hoping our elected Democrats were going to do the heavy lifting for us fighting back against authoritarianism and protecting democracy (at least until the midterms). But it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.

Having watched interviews with a few Senate democrats recently, I have come to the conclusion that their plan is us. It seems like they’re waiting for public outrage and mass protests to emerge so huge that they will be impossible to ignore and that this will somehow bend the trajectory of this country away from fascism.

If you didn’t get your invitation yet, here’s what’s happening April 5:

OH MY GOD, we’re literally protesting everything. My first thought is I’m tired and that sounds like a LOT. Jamming Boston Common (or DC or NYC or wherever) with thousands of other people holding all sorts of signs, with no bathrooms and no place to park, does not sound fun. Second, I’ve done mass protests before and they don’t seem to work. Third, is this type of thing still safe in America? What if Dear Leader pulls some crazyass shit—like declares “martial law”—and sends in the military? I have never been tear-gassed and I don’t want to be!

Sigh…

What to do? It’s a real dilemma for me.

Witness the Chaos

~ MaryG ~ 25 Comments

I’m starting to hear more stories of individual lives affected by the chaos in DC: my son’s friend (a 2024 college graduate) is losing his job at the local Air Force Base because he is a “probationary employee” (employed less than a year); my cousin’s brilliant daughter is a diplomat on maternity leave from a State Department post abroad and has no idea what will happen with her job upon her return—a job for which she is uniquely well qualified and very highly trained; a friend of a friend’s disabled daughter is losing all of her special services and programs in Connecticut; and the mother of a trans 18-year old in my church is trying to source the medications he needs from pharmacies outside the US because Trump’s anti “child mutilation” order arbitrarily states that 19 is the age at which the order does not apply.

And, like millions of other Americans, we’ve seen our healthcare costs go up and retirement investments and overall net worth go down since January 20.

I feel as if we are basically powerless to do anything about what’s happening in Washington right now, but at least we can “bear witness”— and that’s what I’m witnessing right now.

What are you witnessing in your community? Do you know anyone who has lost their job as a direct result of Dear Leader & his chainsaw-wielding Robot Man?

Honestly, sometimes I think Republicans are just mean. Can you imagine treating a person sitting right in front of you as if they don’t even exist?