We Are Alive (Bruce Springsteen)

When 8 p.m. this past Thursday night rolled around, I was front-and-center to my TV, MSNBC dialed in, with the Dream Team of Rachel, Nicolle, and Joy (plus Chris and Lawrence).  Chair Bennie Thompson kicked it off, and the subsequent proceedings held us all in rapt attention until the very end (including the 10-minute recess during which the above panel gave their mid-hearing commentary).  From the narrative, the deposition interviews, and the two witnesses... it was a compelling connect-the-dots of foundational evidence, designed to show that President Trump designed and perpetrated this beyond-riot insurrection:  "Riots usually have no intent; they devolve from protests and have no purpose except to vent steam by destroying things.  An insurrection is an attempt to overthrow the legitimate government."

This all hearkens back to the phrase used after Watergate about Nixon:  "What did the President know, and when did he know it?".  Stay tuned!

Feel Good... um... Sunday?... 😉

~ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert:  Kermit and the gang open the curtain on the January 6th Committee's first primetime hearing.

~
  

~ Here's every word of the first Jan. 6 committee hearing on its investigation:  ...read the full transcript from the June 9 hearing of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6th Capitol attack. The transcript was produced by CQ.

~ Letters From an American by Heather Cox Richardson, June 10, 2022:  Preliminary reports say that about 20 million people watched last night’s compelling hearing of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. That number, which does not include streaming or later views, is fewer than tune in for a normal State of the Union address, but more than for the World Series. In contrast, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s 11-hour testimony in a 2015 Benghazi hearing drew only about 4 million viewers. 

~ Only one major cable news channel did not carry the Jan. 6 hearing live: Fox News:  Fox is the nation's most highly rated cable news station and is a favorite of conservatives, Republicans and devotees of former President Donald Trump. But its live coverage of Thursday's Jan. 6 hearing was relegated to Fox Business Network, which is much more lightly viewed, and its digital sites.

~ What’s next for the Jan. 6 panel: More hearings, more Trump:  The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol has laid out a roadmap for the hearings this month as it examines President Donald Trump’s responsibility for the melee and the damage that resulted for law enforcement officers, members of Congress and others in attendance that day.  The next round of hearings won’t take place in prime time like the debut on Thursday, but lawmakers will go into greater detail about specific aspects of the insurrection.

SONG:  We Are Alive by Bruce Springsteen (link ncludes commentary by Michael Moore)

BOOK:  Unthinkable: Trauma, Truth, and the Trials of American Democracy by Jamie Raskin

POEM:  The Start by Matt Mason (the state poet of Nebraska)

It probably started

in a whisper, a murmur,

a low tone hardly caught by the papers,

a sticker, a poster,

a brick wall with slogans in fresh black paint

because

it probably started with a shove,

some bluster, a gunshot,

crushed fingers, it probably started

with a speech that caught the right ears

on an otherwise happy day,

yellow flowers in a wooden stand on the sidewalk,

red apples, radio

trying hard to smooth out the mood,

kid hurrying past, thinking,

God, is that man on the corner

shouting

about me,

pulls his hat low,

it probably started

with another man

drunk on swagger,

it probably started

with a small crowd

coaxing exciting lies,

it probably started

with a neighborhood’s head bowed

as the drone grows each day

(though they’ll claim

it came

in a quick, monstrous surprise).

QUOTE:  "On this point, there is no room for debate. Those who invaded our Capitol and battled law enforcement for hours were motivated by what President Trump had told them: That the election was stolen, and that he was the rightful president. President Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack." ~ U.S. Representative (R-Wyo.) Liz Cheney, Vice-Chair of the January 6 Select Committee

Lives in the Balance (Jackson Browne)

Night of Stars by Victor Sparre

Feeling a bit melancholy this morning, in that Garden Day was cancelled, due to (steady earlier this a.m. and now pouring) rain.  In fact, there is a Tropical Storm Warning for South Florida this entire weekend, meaning a few plans I had are now on hold, or at least re-calibrated.  It's okay, though; I've done two short yoga sessions (Adriene released her June 2022 calendar) as well as a Joy Workout (noted below) shared in the New York Times a few weeks ago.  Prior to that, I had my standard two cups of coffee, the second accompanied by an apple fritter my dear husband went up to Dunkin Donuts for.  Yum!  My day bodes an overabundance of reading (is there any such thing?!?), and maybe a hot bath.  No reason to leave this house, so I am burrowing in... ☔

As more details continue to unfold re: the Uvalde school shooting last week, it is obviously apparent that stricter gun controls are needed, and I am appalled that so many resist the need for even the smallest of restrictions (no assault rifles sold to anyone under the age of 21?  Hello, no-brainer!).  In the meantime, we grieve... we mourn... we speak our minds/truth... and we continue to advocate for the children, and for anyone who has been killed or wounded in these senseless acts of violence.  And, while we change the world, we can still count our blessings... 💖

It is indeed Feel Good Friday and, as is tradition, five items below of beauty, interest, and humor to brighten/enlighten your day/weekend/week.  Enjoy!

~ Jen Psaki’s legacy? One of the best press secretaries ever:  During her last week at the White House, we look back on her tenure and the integrity she brought to the job.

~ Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki will join MSNBC this fall:

Psaki will also host a show on MSNBC's hub on the Peacock streaming service, which the network said is expected to debut in the first quarter of 2023.

~ In Life’s Last Chapter, What Matters? A Room With a View:  A window overlooking a stand of trees helped revive this writer’s dying mother

~ Emily Dickinson’s Electric Love Letters to Susan Gilbert:  “Susie, will you indeed come home next Saturday, and be my own again, and kiss me as you used to?… I hope for you so much, and feel so eager for you… that the expectation… makes me feel hot and feverish, and my heart beats so fast.”

~ The Joy Workout:  Six researched-backed moves to improve your mood (reach, sway, bounce, shake, jump for joy, and one I named “celebrate” that looks like tossing confetti in the air)

SONG:  Lives in the Balance by Jackson Browne

BOOK:  Children Under Fire: An American Crisis by John Woodrow Cox 

POEM(S):  We Need to Teach the Children the Old Words by Caroline Mellor

“Words are world-makers”

— Robert MacFarlane

We need to teach the children the old words,

words like brabble and grubble,

twitter-light and clinkerbell;

words which dance and trip and slip

and drip like honey off the tongue

Teach them that a hazy halo of cloud

around the moon is called a moonbroch

and that swiftly moving clouds are named cairies;

how a vixen’s wedding is a sunny shower of rain,

and that a single sunbeam breaking through thick cloud

is known as a messenger

Teach them to know the seasons and scents

of queen of the meadow and bride of the sun,

how to tell Jupiter’s staff from fairy fingers

and which roses bloom with the strawberry moon

Teach them to spot pricklebacks in the tottlegrass,

how to recognise a smeuse or a bishop-barnaby,

when to watch the sky for flittermice and yaffles,

and to pay attention to the dumbeldore and mousearnickle

as she graces the lazy leahs of summer

Teach them a few of the old Sussex words for mud,

like gubber and slub and stodge and pug,

so they know that the precious soil beneath their toes

is anything but worthless dirt

Teach them to be users and keepers and makers

of the words which bring the land alive:

a storybook, where everything has its rightful place,

including us;

where the wilds are fearful and filled with magic

and people do noble things, and nothing is impossible

In this world of harsh new words —

words like planetary dysmorphia and solastalgia,

extinction debt and grief mitigation,

megadrought and megafire,

anthropogenic, pyrocene,

words which alarm and get stuck in our throats

describing a world which our hearts cannot grasp —

we need to teach the children the old words,

so that if they should feel lost,

the old words might colour for them

a warm and breathing, living map,

a light to guide them safely home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Glossary

brabble — to argue loudly about matters of no importance

grubble — to grope around in the dark for something that you can’t see

clinkerbell — icicle

twitter-light — twilight

queen of the meadow — meadowsweet

bride of the sun — calendula

Jupiter’s staff — mullein

fairy fingers — foxglove

*prickleback — hedgehog

*tottle grass — high grass

smeuse —the gap in the base of a hedge made by the regular passage of a small animal

*bishop-barnaby — ladybird

*yaffle — green woodpecker

*flittermouse — bat

*dumbledore — bumblebee

*mousearnickle — dragonfly

leah — meadow, clearing

*gubber — black mud of rotting organic matter

*pug — a kind of loam, particularly the sticky yellow Wealden clay

*stodge — thick puddingy mud

*slub — thick mud

Author's Note:   I owe the title and first line of this poem to my friend, Jelly Julieda, who has graciously granted me permission to use her words here. I have also been hugely inspired by the work of Robert MacFarlane, and urge you to read his wonderful book Landmarks if you are interested in the relationship between landscape and language.

The words marked with an *asterisk are native to my home in the Sussex Weald.

Poem to Be Read at 3:00 a.m. by Donald Justice

Excepting the diner

On the outskirts

The town of Ladora

At 3 A.M.

Was dark but

For my headlights

And up in

One second-story room

A single light

Where someone

Was sick or

Perhaps reading

As I drove past

At seventy

Not thinking

This poem

Is for whoever

Had the light on

QUOTE(S):  "The world spins. We stumble on. It is enough." ~ Colum McCann

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” ~ Helen Keller