First Day of Spring? Bhutan Visitors, New Computer, March Against Gun Violence, Stephem Hawking, Easter Greetings

On March 21, the first day of spring, we had a surprise snow fall, bigger than any previously in the official winter season. Although the federal government was closed that day, the snow soon melted and there was the curious juxtaposition of my flowering tree with snow in the background.

The snow prevented my new visitors from Bhutan attending their first day of GAO classes. It has continued to be unseasonably cold for this time of year, but the cherry blossoms are still out. These two Bhutanese ladies are very polite and call me “Aunty” or “Aunty Barbara.” The population of their whole country is about 700,000, the same as DC, yet they both are here for a GAO government auditing course. The king of Bhutan must want to make sure the nation’s finances are kept correctly. 

I told them about an Amnesty case from Bhutan that our local group worked on back in 1982. To my surprise, they said that they and everyone else in their country still wears traditional dress whenever leaving home. Here is the excerpt from my Confessions book about our Bhutan Amnesty case, not necessarily considered by them to be a legitimate issue because the man was of Nepalese descent (thus, they are learning about different viewpoints on an issue).

One particularly memorable early prisoner was an ethnic Nepalese, born in Bhutan and living there his entire life. He was jailed because of his refusal to wear traditional Bhutanese dress and his insistence on speaking Nepalese, a forbidden language. We reached out to Bhutan’s king through a half-time personal appeal made by members of his favorite U.S. basketball team during a televised game. Whether the king actually saw the game and heard the appeal, we never knew. Still, our prisoner was released soon thereafter and quickly crossed over into Nepal, where he felt free to express himself as he saw fit.

Meanwhile, retired my old computer because it kept shutting down unexpectedly and I feared it might never revive again. All my data was transferred to the new one, but it’s taking me a while to figure everything out on the new computer that is a little too fancy for my taste or capacities.

I really wanted to join the march against gun violence, not only as a matter of principle, but because my son Jonathan, at age 11, was accidentally shot in the foot by another boy who dropped a parents’ bedside gun and it accidently fired. It could have killed him, but fortunately only hit the foot, an injury that still bothers him. However, too many tasks intervened preventing me from actually going on the march, including the arrival of my two visitors from Bhutan and having to get my rather complicated tax returns ready before the April 16 deadline. I was with the marchers in spirit and also recommend the following article.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/opinions/gun-control-that-works/?utm_term=.42a070a174ec

Republicans, including Marco Rubio and Fox News, have been falling all over themselves trying to remain true-blue to the NRA and to discredit the massive gun control marches held all over the nation and the world, touting the sacred supremacy of the Second Amendment and calling the marchers as “disorganized” and “confused.” Some have even gone so far as to liken them to Nazis! The name-calling is really over the top and not tied to any reality, but lets gun supporters blow off steam and shows the NRA that some candidates are still loyal and deserving of their campaign donations. In fact, the marchers actually got well-organized worldwide in amazingly short order and were not the least bit confused. The gun lobby and its allies’ response is actually what has been disorganized and confused. What is so sacrosanct about the Second Amendment, which was deliberately manipulated by the gun lobby in our own lifetime? To be true to the Founders, is the so-called right of individual citizens to bear personal arms of any caliber actually superior to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?” If the minority now in political power continues to be tone deaf to what the majority really wants, then let’s vote them out of office, no matter how big their advertising and campaign budgets or clever their gerrymandering. Switzerland has sports’ gun use, but among a small, homogeneous population, and does not allow citizens to carry weapons out in public. See also: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/more-guns-do-not-stop-more-crimes-evidence-shows/

Trump is already campaigning for re-election, heaven forbid! Do we all have to endure the next 3 years, plus even more of the same? Are the majority of Americans really so “low IQ,” to use one of Donald’s favorite epithets? Can we possibly get rid of the guy before the current term is up? Some of us now suffering daily are not that young anymore and may not live to see the day when Trump is gone, gone, gone. Rust-belt folks have had their day in the sun; now let the majority of Americans have our turn. Let’s hope we can undo some of the damage he and his cohorts have done. He has proven that he cannot learn or reform. It’s not worth commenting on every new outrage. And his base is slavishly loyal, no matter what he says or does. He’s right when he says he could murder someone on Fifth Ave. in NYC and his followers would still stick by him. That’s one time that he actually told the truth, but he lies so much, it’s hard to believe him when he does happen to tell the truth.

With a straight face, Trump has proclaimed April 2018 "National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month,” issuing a prepared statement that "Sexual assault crimes remain tragically common in our society, and offenders too often evade accountability."

I’m not a big fan of Rep. Maxine Waters, a knee-jerk supporter of the Castros who has been unwilling to even listen to Afro-Cubans’ credible complaints against them and the regime, as mentioned in my Confessions book. But I suspect her IQ is a few notches higher than Trump’s own.

After I returned from Honduras, taking a brand new wheelchair, walker, and medical supplies to the new rehab center in El Triunfo, my first Peace Corps site, I was faced with the task of getting rid of four—yes four—older wheelchairs with missing footrests. Finding the right footrests for each among the many offered on line proved to be too daunting a task. I assume these darn wheelchairs were donated to begin with because they lacked footrests. Any suggestions? 

Here’s an item of concern to me both as a Spanish interpreter for many asylum applicants and also as volunteer Amnesty International USA Caribbean coordinator.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/social-issues/advocates-sessions-decision-to-toss-rule-on-asylum-hearings-endangers-thousands/2018/03/07/24b63b24-2214-11e8-94da-ebf9d112159c_story.html?utm_term=.875854e98419

As I become older and somewhat less physically agile over time, it is interesting to participate with therapists for children with developmental delays—some with autism, some with Down Syndrome, some with other challenges—and to see them achieve new milestones even as I and other older folks are on a reverse trajectory, trying to just maintain current function or slow down our inevitable decline.

I attended a meeting years ago, when working as a writer for an occupational therapy magazine, where Stephen Hawking spoke and answered questions via his speech synthesizer. Most questions were submitted before his appearance, as it would have taken him quite a while to type out answers on his computer-synthesizer. Considering that he had ALS, it’s pretty amazing that he survived to age 76, a really forward-thinking creative man. 

Happy Easter everybody!