Presidential sedition and federal insurrection

sedition
[si-dish-uh n]
noun
1. incitement of discontent or rebellion against a government.
2. any action, especially in speech or writing, promoting such discontent or rebellion.

insurrection
[in-suh-rek-shuh n]
noun
1. an act or instance of rising in revolt, rebellion, or resistance against civil authority or an established government.

People who know me know I don’t have a lot of patience with intolerance or injustice. Thankfully, it’s turning out that a number of government employees don’t either.

NASA, the National Park Service, the Environmental Protection Agency and the US Forest Service are just some of the government agencies that recently came under fire in President Donald Trump’s effort to time travel back to 1984. They didn’t take overly well to his fondness for George Orwell’s detailed how-to-screw-your-country description.

Free research and the behind-the-scenes spreading of information by these agencies and citizens acting on their behalf are competing with Trump’s presidential orders and tweets. This is a country based on freedom of speech, and they aim to keep that going even if it means their jobs.

There’s a lot of things Trump said he wanted during his presidential campaign, but I don’t think he was counting on the sedition he churned up in his first weeks of being in office to create insurrection among not only federal workers, but a good portion of U.S. citizens as well. There’s a lot we’ll put up with, but being told to shut up, keep secrets from each other or stop trying to figure things out aren’t anywhere close to what Americans do well.

I don’t like politics. I don’t like people who pride themselves on being bullies. But I proudly like knowing there are people in this country’s government and citizenry who take freedom of speech and doing their job seriously enough to protect the rest of us from those bullies.

Peace in the New Year

Happy New Year all! Here’s hoping 2017 brings everyone some peace, some rest and some laughs.

This is the first New Year in several decades I haven’t worried about the gunfire, sirens, fireworks or had to listen to the music next door get louder and louder as midnight got closer. For the first time in 30 years, the evening was quiet. We watched Doctor Who and Star Trek online, stoked the wood stove and relaxed, pretty much forgetting it was New Year’s Eve altogether. It’s never been big on my holiday list anyway, but one of the hardest to ignore in Los Angeles. When midnight passes, and you don’t notice it until you’re checking Facebook and realize it’s two hours into 2017, it becomes one more reason to be thankful we moved out of the land of the loonies.

May the coming year bring us all peace, safety, fast bandwidth and dry wood. Lots of dry wood.