Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"Our bodies and our minds are not meant to bear the trauma of mass shootings."  -- Kentucky Gov Andy Beshear          

The victims are our family, our friends, our neighbors.      
No place on earth faces the frequency of deadly mass violence as occurs in the U.S.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

There is much I do not understand and must let be.      
What I do not understand and cannot let be is our inability / the lack of will to find common ground about how to stop (slow) the epidemic of gun violence in America.

We are the only industrialized country that chooses guns over common gun sense.    
Simultaneous to slaughter in America there are U.S. states passing legislation that puts more shooters with weapons of war on the street.

Why are we not working together to pass common gun sense legislation?

V O T E  for gun reform.

Robert Earl Olson

We have short memories. Bush let the law against possession of semi automatic weapons expire in about 2004 and we can't seem to get it back. Kids in our era were taught to fear Russia. Remember the civil defense alerts with sirens and hiding under our desks? Now kids practice fear mass murders and practice how to defend themselves. Pity 

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

What a relief, to hear a classmate's voice, Bob.      
We all need to stand up and make our voices heard.        
Support gun reform.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

  If guns aren't the problem,

       people are (the problem);

why do we want the problem to have guns?

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"Fire and explosions are everywhere," said a doctor in a public hospital in Omdurman, sister city of Khartoum, Sudan. "We haven't seen such battles in Khartoum before," said a resident of the Sudanese capital city. Gunfire exploded after days of tension centering around a dispute about a proposed transition to civilian rule.

I lived in Khartoum, Sudan, 1958-59 school year.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

When are guns going to start making us safer?      
If more guns is the answer, the U.S.
(with the highest per capita rate of assault weapon ownership on the planet),
should be the safest country in the world.

Alas! AMERICA IS ARMED & DANGEROUS

Absolutely frightening to see national Republicans, and every Republican who's a 2024 presidential wannabe, court the NRA in the wake of rising mass shootings. Defiant as ever, the GOP pledged their undying loyalty to the NRA and the gun lobby.

Republicans are all about protecting weapons of war on our streets and gloss over the loss of liberty Americans are experiencing at school, and birthday parties, concerts in the park, and everywhere else. Americans are changing their lifestyles and their patterns of behavior.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Traveling in Europe, the Sudan (and what is now South Sudan), and Egypt in 1958-59 as a 12 and 13 year old, I wondered about people's conception of the U.S. Little did I realize how accurate their view of life in America is in 2023.

Doorbell shootings, and wrong turn shooting deaths are part of the landscape. The U.S. is under siege.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Armed & Dangerous
What is wrong in America?      
How is it possible we live in this space where Americans are shooting Americans for honest mistakes?

Is our focus on leaving earth        
- or -             
caring for one another and the earth?

What's happening in Ukraine and Sudan?        
Ukraine 🇺🇦 struggles on with its fight for independence. Ukraine is on a long path to NATO membership.       
Sudan 🇸🇩 is verging on civil war. After failed attempts for a cease fire, the U.S. is positioning "additional capabilities" near Sudan to be in place for possible evacuation of the American Embassy in Khartoum. (A Russian mercenary outfit, the Wagner Group, which has close ties to the Kremlin, has made inroads across Africa in recent years and has been influencing operations in Sudan since 2017.)

We live in a volatile world.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

What's your favorite ice cream?    
Ice cream is the best -
"we all scream for ice cream."
There's more to ice cream than meets the eye,  
Eat it in good health - 
There are health benefits to eating ice cream.

Marvin Irving Blusteln

Re:1955

What's wrong in America.

There are people who continue to support and re-elect "politicians" who have no moral compass.

I think the U S is being controlled by people who love to hate others.  Our system is broken,  Our founding fathers had no inkling that heartless and self-indulgent people could and would be elected to public office.

Our system is broken.  We function under minority rule.   Too often the elected forget there job is to govern and be the caretaker of the country.  Margery T. Green is a fine example of our failing system.  Investigations do not goverrn, do not promote the functioning of the government for the benefit of all Americans.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"Ubuntu" (defined as "I am because you are" in Swahili).      
We are not islands.

American Embassy staff and their families have been evacuated from Sudan; the Embassy is closed.      
Sudan is at war again. The Sudanese are caught in what seems an endless cycle of violence.

Some of my most vivid (and best) memories are from my time in post-colonial Sudan, living in Khartoum, at the time the most primitive capital city in the world...
experiencing a bloodless coup d'etat with tanks on the street and a halt on all imports;        
being among the international crowd, some on camels, for the parade welcoming Tito (Yugoslav dictator) to Khartoum;        
attending Unity High School for Girls with girls who were local and from around the world (my closest friends were a German girl and an Indian girl), and teachers from around the world, and from across the British Commonwealth: an English teacher from New Zealand, and my French teacher, a native born French woman; not 'til I watched "Doc Martin" did I understand my Précis teacher's expectations for imaginative writing;   
sitting in the row behind the American Ambassador and his wife Sunday evenings at the Evensong service at the Anglican Cathedral;      
sailing on the Nile with my dad's students;      
traveling up south on the White Nile to spend time in what now is South Sudan;    
sleeping on the roof of our house in Khartoum at night (except during haboob season), sleeping in a bedroom during the heat of the afternoon, waking up and swimming at the international Cultural Centre and/or going to the outdoor cinema.

The fighting in Sudan began as the Sudanese were attempting to transition to democracy. The generals who worked together to force the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir turned on each other to seize control of leadership in Sudan. Their struggle is complicated by the interest foreign backers and fighters have in the riches of rare minerals and other natural resources in Sudan. The countries that border Sudan are mired in their own conflicts, with various rebel groups operating along porous borders.  On top of that there are many external would-be mediators who could further complicate Sudan's complex path to peace and stability.

Real people live in Sudan, Sudan is in great peril.

Nancy Doyle (Sudlow)

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"A new Fox News poll shows that 87% of voters favor background checks for gun purchases, 81% favor making  21 the minimum age to buy a gun, 80% want mental health care checks on all gun buyers, 80% want flags for people who are dangerous to themselves or others, 77% want a 30-day waiting period to buy a gun, and 61% want an assault weapons ban. And yet, Republican majorities in state legislatures are rapidly rolling back gun laws."  -- Heather Cox Richardson

All this info from a FOX News poll.      
Gun stuff:        
age requirements, mental health checks, red flag legislation, waiting periods, assault weapon bans.        
And yet sadly the source of the news poll will nevertheless tell its viewers that the proactive measures illuminated by the poll are disguising the primary objective: to take everyone's guns.

The Fox News poll simply states that the vast majority of Americans actually want no nonsense, common sense, gun safety legislation.

Why do most Americans support common sense gun initiatives?            
We've seen far too many children slaughtered in America.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Beware: "There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to accept what is true."    -- Soren Kierkegaard

CS Lewis said: "One of the most cowardly things people do is to shut their eyes to the facts."

Are we running towards something or away from something, or maybe in both directions?

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

The senseless violence in America is too shocking to just shrug off.        
It is time to elect a Congress that is ready to seriously wrestle with the gun problem in America and the 2nd Amendment.

We need to elect adults.

We need a Congress that is ready to be serious about the debt ceiling and immigration and ethics in the Supreme Court.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Human nature is as capable of depravity as of virtue.    
The only powers we have in the public square is the voice and the vote. As citizens we have the responsibility to exercise those powers.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"Sometimes the Bible in the hand of one person is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of another... ".      
-- Harper Lee, "To Kill a Mockingbird"

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

For all the fear of Sharia law,        
the consequences of the legislation Christian Nationalists are attempting in America are of similar concern.
The separation of church and state is foundationally important to our society; hunkering down with only those who agree with us is a threat to the health of our nation.      

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

If Universal Background Checks and Red Flag Laws create an insurmountable barrier to you owning a firearm, then you ARE the person we're worried about.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Golf form a partnership:
- a total surprise and disheartening disappointment, an absolute turn of events.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Facts are facts:          
The Saudis are heavily invested in many of the companies that sponsor PGA Tour events.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

 Glory to Ukraine.

    🇺🇦 🇺🇦 🇺🇦

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"How could players who imagine that they are independent, self-determining contractors wind up in this position? The answer is, Jack Nicklaus and Arnie Palmer didn't mean to, but they ceded way too much control to the commissioner and his policy board (of tour players) when they formed the PGA Tour back in 1968.            
(Note: The board of Tour players was not included nor aware of PGA Tour negotiations with LIV.)

"Today's players should use this moment as an opportunity. The players have the advantage: they can form a new platform and court new suitors, cleanly.

"The players are the game of golf. Not the cigar smokers."

with attribution to Sally Jenkins, "It's time for golfers to seize control of their game", WaPo June 15, 2023

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

  On Juneteenth 2023

  "God speed the day when human blood    
   Shall cease to flow!    
   In every clime be understood,      
   The claims of human brotherhood,      
   And each return for evil, good,      
   Not blow for blow;        
   That day will come all feuds to end,        
   And change into a faithful friend           
   Each foe."        
   -- Frederick Douglass, 1852