Category Archives: Uncategorized

Environment Colorado

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CHECK THIS OUT AND PLEASE PARTICIPATE!
Thank you for signing our petition.

You see, our strategy is based on a simple but powerful idea: Each new person who joins our call to help save the bees from toxic pesticides makes it more likely decision-makers will do the right thing.

And there’s always more we can do to protect wildlife. Across America, human development has crowded out our wildlife, often leaving them without enough space to migrate or find food. The good news is that the next step is simple but impactful.

Will you sign this petition urging our U.S. senators to pass the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act? If passed, this bill will map out wildlife movement and protect habitat along the corridors. The petition reads:

Animals need room to roam, but development has too often divided and fragmented their habitats. This contributes to the dramatic wildlife population declines in the U.S. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The bipartisan Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act of 2025 will help ensure that wildlife across the country has the necessary space to thrive. 

We urge you to support this important bill, connecting nature and saving America’s wildlife all across the country.

Yes, I’ll sign it now.

As our advocates urge our senators to take action and our grassroots staff mobilize local elected officials, citizens, and others to get involved in this effort, you can help by signing our petition.

If you and every other new member who signed up today in your town takes this step, we’ll deliver dozens more petitions to the Senate. When we’re working to help save wildlife and wild places, every voice makes a difference.

Welcome to the team. And thanks for making it all possible.

Sincerely,
Ellen Montgomery
On behalf of Environment Colorado

Editing is an Essential Part of Your Life

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OR: Creating the Right Story
OR: Becoming a Warrior
For the last two weeks, I have been a little crazy (Really? You say, only just the last two weeks?) OK, just stop. Take a seat and read further. I sent my final copy of the book to my editor last week, and I have been on Zoom calls with her, my go-to gal! She has helped me capture each story I really want to write, going through all of my Dru-isms—a language of my weird brain that no one can understand, which pops up on every page I have written. I am also submitting it to my spouse, who tells me the truth, even if I don’t want to hear it. I have too much invested in my characters, so even though I don’t like it, he tells me when it gets weird, and I make the appropriate changes.

Having an excellent editor for your writing, who does the job well, helping you fix your draft into the story that you want to tell, into a work of art, is the best friend you’ll ever have in this business. A genuine editor can help you create a masterpiece. A real editor doesn’t try to impose their story onto yours. It’s important to have that to let go of the piece at the end. So, in a few more weeks, hopefully, I’ll have a product that is worthy of publishing.

But that’s not all of this post. Editing your printed work is just one thought regarding this subject. The second is editing for your life. If you could go back in time, how many stupid things that you did in the past would you delete? I think about this all the time (I know, my brain is a shoe box full of memories I wish I could get rid of! Although it does make a good story!) I have tried to forgive, apologize, and move on, but sometimes they are just stuck there. And, when I am down in the dumps, they rise once again for me to revisit. There are hundreds of articles on how to solve this problem, and believe me, I have read them all. But sometimes the only way I can process the negative tape in my head is to just let them go for a short time. I usually physically leave the house and then go for a swim or a walk, and come home to write about them in my blog!

And my final thought about editing is how to edit those nagging pictures of yourself when you don’t feel you have been courageous. (Sans editing tools on your phone!) In my life, I am always the behind-the-scenes person. I am the one who gathers intel and completes a report. I am the one who does the research. I am the one who advises others. In my writing, I am that hero, that action person who fights the good fight. I pour everything into the characters in the book. But sometimes, I wish that I were that person in the front, that warrior-woman within me, making things happen, protesting all the wrongs in public, rather than on paper. But my rational mind says the only way to create change is to help people understand their actions through the pen, versus taking up the sword.

So, stand up for injustice in the world, and for what you believe is the right thing to do in any way that you can. And maybe it’s okay to encourage others to be brave for you, and you embrace your warrior within.

I’ll leave you with these quotes by Kristen Hannah from her book The Four Winds. Add this book to your bucket list!

  • “He used to tell me that courage was a lie. It was just fear that you ignored.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 403). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
  • “Courage is fear you ignore.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 403). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
  • “It wasn’t the fear that mattered in life. It was the choices made when you were afraid. You were brave because of your fear, not in spite of it.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 423). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
  • “A warrior believes in an end she can’t see and fights for it. A warrior never gives up. A warrior fights for those weaker than herself. It sounds like motherhood to me.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 426). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
  • “The world can be changed by a handful of courageous people.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 427). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
  • “History has shown us the strength and durability of the human spirit. In the end, it is our idealism and our courage and our commitment to one another—what we have in common—that will save us.” [Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds: A Novel (p. 453). St. Martin’s Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]

I love you all on this almost perfect day! Enjoy the coming of fall!

Where Everyone Knows Your Name

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Or: Have You Made Your Mark in the World?
Remember the old Cheers TV sitcom show where you walked in and everyone called out your name? (Noooorrrrmm!) The upside of that wonderful local bar is that you got to know everyone and it was a sense of community. The downside of that is that you went to the bar every night before going home.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if everyone knew you as a positive force in your neighborhood, and that you created a life where people will remember you for the good deeds you have done? Wouldn’t it be lovely if you made a difference in the world? Instead of retreating into a cocoon, go out and celebrate life to the fullest. Become the Barbie and create a world where both men and women have an impact!

It’s amazing that one of the most impactful creation on kids, especially girls, was the Barbie Doll and what she represented. She was an inspiration for every young girl from the 1950s on. She could be beautiful and smart, and with each year’s rollout, she grew up more and became a little wiser. Sure, she had lots of clothes and was a stereotypical buxom blonde in the 1950s and 1960s, but Mattel expanded with the times, creating Barbies of all colors, careers, clothing and lifestyles. Who wouldn’t love her? Of course it was all about selling toys and accessories to the company, but to young girls who aspired to be more than what men thought they should be, she became a role model.

Rhea Perlman, who played Carla on Cheers, had an awesome comeback in the movie Barbie. She was the CEO/creator of the Barbie world (the real life person was Ruth Handler, who grew up in Denver, Colorado). Ruth and her husband created Mattel. Barbie and Ken were named after their children.

“Handler was inspired to create Barbie after watching her daughter Barbara, the namesake of the doll, and her friends play with paper dolls. “I discovered something very important: They were using these dolls to project their dreams of their own futures as adult women.… Wouldn’t it be great if we could take that play pattern and three-dimensionalize it?” she recalled in her memoir.
https://people.com/all-about-ruth-handler-children-barbara-kenneth-7562635

At the end of the movie, Perlman revealed that she was the creator of Barbie. And she delivered best advice (the best line in the movie) to Barbie when she was having an existential crisis about where she fit in, what world she would live in, and if her life would end. Handler stated: “That was always the point, I created you so you wouldn’t have an ending.”

Now I think I have stated out loud that I was a big nerd and tomboy back in the day, and we couldn’t afford all the outfits. But our mother gave each of us girls a Barbie when we were pre-teens. Barbie changed our ideas about playing with dolls. She became our hero in so many imaginary worlds we created. We would take those legendary tales and become the people that we were supposed to be.

We all know that our lives will end someday, but we learn to embrace our potential every day that we live. We learn to be helpful to others and ask for help when we need it. We learn that not everyone will know our name, but we strive to be a part of each other’s lives in our community. So climb out your shell, embrace the Barbie and Ken in your lives, and be who you need to be, a positive force in nature. And who knows? Maybe everyone will know your name (In a good way, that is….)  Cheers Theme Song

GLORIOUS RAIN!

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IT RAINED! GLORIOUS RAIN!
My rain barrel is full and my tomatoes, zucchini, and acorn squash are producing and are finally happy plants! I am watering from the barrel every day and it is a wonderful thing. And ZINNIAS! My Georgia friends, ZINNIAS!

I am taking up more grass, and increasing the vegetable garden for next year. And I ordered my Colorado red flagstone to finish my path in the dead grass zone. Thanks to Colorado Materials in Longmont for providing me with the best experience! Kiddo is coming home and his buddies are helping me lay it. Yea!
https://www.coloradomaterialsinc.com/

I have to admit to you that writing about the future post-apocalyptic world has freed my current worrisome mind. There is still so much to do to avoid a real downfall of the republic in my lifetime. But in my make-believe future world, adults are working together to make sure kids are safe, don’t starve, are educated about everything, know how to use tools, and know how to get along. The kids in my book have an incredible life. There are no mean and unreasonable parents or their offspring in my book. There are no color barriers of any kind and they are all loved in equal amounts. No religious pressure, no hate, just love. The last vestiges of civilization should have places like this.

And let’s all realize that this is also the type of world we should have today—a place where we can feed, dress, and keep all children safe, no matter who they are or where they are from. That is what we should wholeheartedly strive for every day that we are alive on this planet! Parents should teach children how to create that better world, and help them understand how to embrace challenges without anger and strife. We can all make a better world if we listen to each other. So stop the hate, love everyone equally, and let’s just get over ourselves!

I hope everyone is enjoying the little things that make you happy today. No doom and gloom. No drama. Just glorious rain! Have a great rest of the weekend!

Be Who You Are

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BUT HELP THOSE IN NEED
In continuing my theme from my last post, FEELING RETRO, I have been pondering about why we strive so hard to fit into someone else’s definition of who we should be. We are all unique in our own way and where we should be right now. But people want to work and do and achieve, and be recognized for their achievements. Sometimes that is a hard thing to do with all the competition out there for fewer and fewer jobs.

I am reading Kristin Hannah again. In the book I am currently reading, The Four Winds, she has researched the Dust Bowl thoroughly and the lands and people who were hit hard during the Great Depression. Her description of the protagonist and her family trekking all alone from the Oklahoma Panhandle all the way to California is a wake-up call on how things could get worse in this day and age. The successful post-WWI farmers lost everything, including all of the topsoil. They had farmed like everyone else who came out of the east coast, scraping the land of the prairie grass and planting wheat and corn, among other things without irrigation. And then the rains stopped. For TEN years. The dust storms not only buried everything that they owned, but people also became sick and died. During the Roosevelt years, they tried to help, but many of those didn’t want to be on the dole. They had been taught that it was wrong. And, they didn’t use irrigation like their current farming methods; and that is yet another subject that needs to be addressed.

When so many people left home and moved to California, they were turned away or shunned. They lived in horrible conditions, camps by the road, and were ridiculed. They had no money for gas or new clothes. The locals said they carried disease and treated them horrendously. Their life was incredibly difficult. (Grapes of Wrath is a must read if you don’t understand).

And even when these Americans worked their fingers to the bone for 10 hours a day, like the woman portrayed in the book, they were given a pittance salary, a handful of coins, which was not enough for gas, and not enough to move out of their situation. They all had hoped for planting or picking jobs, or any job that paid them a wage to move out of the camps. But sometimes they just starved to death.

So the reason I am telling you this, is in reality, this could happen again. The stock market could crash, and many of us on the margins could wind up in a similar situation, especially if there are no services provided by our government. The working class that are being ignored by the Silver Spoon Class will suffer like they have over the past 100 years. There has to be a balance between the upper 1% and those in the middle class and especially those at poverty level. They are not bad people. They just have bad situations. Why can’t we all see this?

We all want to be these entrepreneurs and hit it big! But cheap foreign goods cut us out of the market. Small businesses can’t grow because they can’t get the capital. The largest industry today is the financial or banking industry. Since 1980, the economy has shifted from making real products to making financial products. In other words, the working class suffers once again, blames the past democrats, because every president in office listened to Wall Street instead of providing stability and focused on balancing the government budget. Folks that lost their jobs reason they still shift to the people like you know who. In reality, he has created a situation that is absolutely worse than any democratic president in office. And who benefits? The upper 1%.

“According to the latest official poverty statistics, the poverty rate in 2023 was 11.1%, representing approximately 36.8 million Americans living below the federal poverty line.”
https://www.theglobalstatistics.com/statistics-on-poverty-in-united-states/

36.8 million Americans! Why?
Unfortunately, the government isn’t going to solve everything because they are cutting programs every day. They are creating new rules for the upper 1% to keep their wealth. Working class America will always suffer if we don’t help each other.

So today, I am asking everyone to think about how all of us who aren’t millionaires or billionaires are going to prepare for the inevitable changes to our economy. I am asking us to be prepared, but help out those in need, even when they say they don’t need your help. Don’t blame them for their misfortune or their poverty. Help them climb out of poverty. Give them a clean pair of clothes, and help them get off the streets. Most people are truly just trying to find work and a safe place to sleep. You can save lives if you just care. Give to support shelters, give to mental health centers and drug rehabilitation centers, give to education, and give goods to your local food banks. Help those who need help. Thank you.

FEELING RETRO

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Today I came across the book Sundog, by Jim Harrison and re-read some of the passages. I had forgotten that I had modelled Wendy Blair-McFreel’s character (from the Caitlin Ferguson mystery series) on Robert Strang. This book’s protagonist particularly struck me as to how she should be portrayed. And, after binge reading all of his books so many years ago, I learned to love his prose, as well as his idea and creation of a novella. I would have loved to have met him and discussed his style.

According to Wikipedia,
“James Harrison (1937-2016) was an American poet, novelist, and essayist. He was a prolific and versatile writer publishing over three dozen books in several genres including poetry, fiction, nonfiction, children’s literature, and memoir. He wrote screenplays, book reviews, literary criticism, and published essays on food, travel, and sport. Harrison indicated that, of all his writing, his poetry meant the most to him. Harrison published 24 novellas during his lifetime and is considered America’s foremost master of that form. His first commercial success  came with the 1979 publication of the trilogy of novellas Legends of the Fall, two of which were made into movies.”

Here are a few Jim Harrison quotes that are timeless. I think they are worth thinking about for today:
“One need only dabble in psychoanalytic literature to see how deeply idiosyncratic we are. Catholics and Tantric Buddhists have been wise enough to accommodate this lushness in human impulse; Protestants must subdue their heretical yearnings. They belong to the cult of self-improvement and hammer at their poor souls as if they were tract houses. The point is we are all quite different, and everyone tells us we’re not [emphasis mine]. There is this inescapable, incredible variety of perception and sensation, the little parcels of experience that add up to a whole not necessarily typified by any sort of symmetric unity, but the urge of life herself.”

“We achieve our dimensions for very specific reasons we ourselves ordain. In other words, we already are, at any given moment, what we, in totality, wish to be…. Scarcely anyone at any given time can locate himself in a meaningful sense.”

“I got this theory… that most people never know more than vaguely where they are, either in time or in the scheme of things. People can’t read contracts or time schedules or identify countries on blank maps. Why should they?”

“Don’t you wonder about these first affinities? I’m sure nearly everyone in the world has had them, with all their frightening intensity, which comes from our vulnerability at that age. We “love” before we know how to protect ourselves, pure and simple.”

“Symmetry is a term better suited to engineering than to people’s lives. By the time you wish to become something, you’re already something else…. I’m aware that everyone sees the world differently….”

So my short and sweet answer for today’s woes comes to this:
Be who you are. Learn to love others and yourself. See the world the way you need to see it. Stop the hate. Stop the madness. I love you all on the ponderous night. Stay safe and keep learning, keep reading, and hold your loved ones close.

Common Good

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I finished and printed out the first draft of my book, Silver Lore, the last Caitlin Ferguson mystery,  and it is now in the hands of the readers and editors. I am excited to wrap it up and move on to the next project. I will finish up the final Canyon Rangers, Rudy Gordon, novella in a few months, so hopefully all will be online before Christmas!

So right now, I have more time for blogging and my brain is bursting! I was thinking about the state of the world a lot today and this 80-year-business of slowly destroying industry and housing for the middle class in North America. When large corporations take over industry, and housing, people suffer, period.

When manufacturing was booming, the middle class was starting to get ahead of the curve. When the big corporate raiders took over (in the 1980s it was called Hostile Takeovers), they not only gutted the employees, laying off millions of people, they also invested their pension funds and lost a lot of the workers’ money in the stock market. They sent the work overseas, and huge losses were felt by the cities that created infrastructure and investment into these businesses. People had to move to find work, so these cities shrunk as a result of closing facilities and factories and sending the work overseas. This has happened over and over again, and today people are hurting. I am told that the Gen Zs who will be graduating in the next few years will walk into a stagnation job market and we will lose a lot of our talent to overseas firms, like Australia, the UK, etc., because there is nothing for them here, or at least jobs where they can afford to have food, housing, and all of the amenities that are necessary to live here.

And don’t get me started on housing! These corporations and pacts buy up houses and apartment complexes, evict and even arrest people to clear the buildings out so they can raise housing prices, are despicable. The new owners would rather keep them empty, because they get huge tax cuts, instead of fixing them up and selling them, therefore decreasing the available and affordable housing to people who need them. The community suffers as a whole, and owners who live out of state really don’t care. That is a sad state of affairs all because of greed. The Greed is Good! mentality is back and we let it happen.

So my questions to all of those who support you know who and his ilk are:
-Why are we letting them gut businesses for sheer purpose of the billionaires making more money at the expense of the workers and the cities who gave so much to bring industry in?
-Why are we letting them ignore the stakeholders at the expense of their shareholders making more money than they will ever need, increasing prices, and decreasing wages, and thus making the middle class become the low income class?
-Why is that right?

We lose our brightest minds to other places because they can’t find work. (Remind you of the Great Depression?) Today these practices are even more evil and it seems that We the People have accepted this as just business as usual. Good working people of all walks of life suffer, and have no resources to turn to because of Federal funding cuts. We are a divided people and that is just too unbelievable to me in this day.

“When the only purpose of business is to make as much money as possible in the shortest time, regardless of how it’s done, the common good is sacrificed. There can be no social balance. In pursuit of high profits, CEOs have ignored, circumvented, or worked to change laws intended to protect workers, communities, the environment, and consumers. They have abandoned the principle of equal economic opportunity [emphasis mine].”
[Reich, Robert B. Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America (p. 195). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
READ HIS BOOK!

So I am reaching out to those who have small businesses and are feeling the pressure to sell out to reconsider. Please think about it before you take the big bucks from some corporate conglomerate. I understand that you want to make more money, but think about all those good workers who you employ. Think about the neighborhood that you live in and what you bring to it. I am sure what those corporations can offer you is more money than what you would see in profits of your business, but for the common good, think about that sale and the people that will suffer as a result. Think about the common good of your community if it is thriving in part because of your business. Just… think about it!

I love you all and hope you are continuing the good fight to keep democracy alive and well in these times of hurting humankind!

Thoughts of Friends

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Last night, I found this in my stash of miscellaneous thoughts and bad poems so I wanted to share:

Friends
When things are tough,
You’re all alone and it’s so rough,
Just remember your friends,
Who are always known.

They’re always there,
For you to share,
No need to hide,
They’re always inside.

They lead their own lives,
You may not hear,
From ones so dear,
For many years.

Suddenly, they reappear,
When you thought they’d forgotten.
How nice to see
Them in eternity.

Here are some others that I found enlightening from a blog site called Unwritten
https://www.readunwritten.com/2023/03/09/quotes-live-by-life-rough/
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”—Theodore Roosevelt 
Focus on what you can do, and do it with pride.
“No matter what happens in life, be good to people.”—Taylor Swift
You never know if anyone is struggling. Everyone’s struggle looks different, and some hide it more than others. Don’t underestimate the power of kindness.
“Wherever you are, be all there.”—Jim Elliot 
As cliche as it sounds, it’s true: all we have is now. All we can really do is live in the present. You don’t have to love every moment you’re in, but try to be in every moment.
“You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.”—A.A. Milne 
You are amazing. It can be easy to forget when you compare yourself to others, but we’re all different in unique ways. The world will never have someone like you, someone with your exact talents and strengths. Never forget this.
“Not all those who wander are lost.”—J.R.R. Tolkien
How many of us can truly say we know what path we’re going on? I know I can’t, and that’s okay! Uncertainty is one of the few guarantees we have in life. can. Life is a journey, a book that hasn’t been fully written, so we may as well make the most of it.
“In three words, I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.”—Robert Frost
It may seem impossible, but it’s true and worth repeating—life will go on. History shows us how much we’ve already been through. Whatever the future holds, we’ll make it.

So when the hazy days, bad atmosphere, and hot temperatures keep you inside and in your head, know that your friends are out there and will be there for you when you need them. It’s strange how they know when to call you (I have had visits from several this last week and connected once again). It’s amazing how life goes on and how you make it possible to continue to live and create wonderful life lessons.

Know that your first draft of your book is complete and out to the readers. Know that progress has been made and connections are happening for the book cover. Know that the zucchini and acorn squash will continue to give to you. Make something delicious and don’t worry about the rest. Have a terrific weekend and enjoy your friends and family. I love you all!

Beginnings and Endings and Living Out Loud

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I have been writing my whole life. I first wrote little stories for my family and kept a few tucked away in a file somewhere, fading into obscurity (we wrote in pencil back in the day!) They were silly but I made people laugh—a middle child thing. I wrote papers for college which weren’t always good, but it got me through the classes. Most of them were for English or Psychology classes, not always perfect, or scientifically accurate, but they sufficed to get me As for the classes.

I journalled during my travels, to my adventurous move beyond the 100th meridian. My career in law enforcement allowed me to publish a few papers through the various government agencies, which may or may not lie in a dusty bin or archived on microfiche (remember those?) in the Justice Department. All were in the non-fiction realm about how we were going to save all of the juvenile delinquents! In another paper I published, I talked about how we shouldn’t stomp into all the various Pagan and Wiccan, or indigenous people’s ceremonies and take their stuff, back in the day. Some of the guys even appreciated my advice. Ahhhh, the 80’s….

When I went back to college out west, I finally graduated with a bachelor’s degree and, while still working, began a non-fiction self-help book. It was published on Amazon back 2012. I consider it my thesis and my legacy for my child since I never finished my master’s degree. Most of the advice I provided still holds true to this day, and I still quote sections of the book to others who want to listen. (I know, I know….If you have filled out my 14 Essential Questions and been interviewed by me you understand what I am talking about.)

Then, my life and world got busy. I moved to another city, so I took some time to try on a new set of career clothing—the writer’s cloak for real. It was and still is a tough market to embrace and you have to love the art. It is not about making money (although that would be great!) but a labor of love and having something to say out loud. It took a discipline that I haven’t always adhered to in my early years. My very active brain is sometimes hard to settle down and complete the pages that need to be written every day. (Thus, the emergence of my Blog to write down all of the stray thoughts, to keep true to a story line, Ha Ha Ha….) https://drutieben.com/

In 2012, I started writing fiction, and I am now in the process of finishing up my first fiction series, a three-book series of fictional and mysteries (or mysterious), tales from my life and others I have met and enjoyed knowing over the years. It has been a long time coming (the first book was published in 2013), and it started out as a mystery series based on the various cases I hope that I helped solve, generally those cases that were a bit strange and caught my attention in that real world genre. The third book changes directions slightly, with more of a science fiction twist. It has meaning to the state of the world at this point in my life and how I wish it will turn out in the end times—in hoping for a positive and good ending to those who are different.

I am now ready for my next adventure. As I re-read parts of the first two books, I am happy with my growth. Beginnings are always rough and as you grow into your writing style. If you are like me and have had a change in careers, you hope you have embraced growth in your writing as well as in your life. It is inevitable that we change as we age. Life experiences become life lessons and we see the world differently from when we were young. Sometimes we see too much and focus on the wrong things, forgetting about the good things that happened to us because the bad things are so overwhelming that they take up more space in our brains. I like to think that my experiences gave me a head and vision full of wonder, exploring feelings and magical worlds that are on the fringe of the real world, worlds that we wish could take place in real life.

I still have thoughts of positive endings in both my writing as well as for humankind, dissimilar to those who wrote science fiction in the 50s and 60s. We have messed up a lot of things in this world, but hope is still out there somewhere. Those of us who continued to read science fiction in the 70s and 80s might believe that the dystopian worlds like Orwell’s 1984 exist back then (and right now), but in my world, the 90s brought back a hope of scientific and space exploration, revisiting the greats such as Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven, Michael Flynn, and so many others, too many to name in this blog. That’s where I want to focus my efforts.

The 2000s have brought about genres that didn’t exist before, with crossovers into science fiction/fantasy, science fiction/mystery, and many others I’ve yet to explore. It allowed us to drift away into new realms. Even though today we feel like the people who believe in the Ayn Rand bull*#!t have taken over the world (you know who never read it, trust me!) we writers need to band together and send messages of hope and support based on a general caring and science to keep civilization intact, and to keep democracy alive.

Sure, the assassinations in the 60s brought a jerk into office (Hello! Nixon years) and became a blow to our idealistic selves. But as Robert Reich stated in his book: “Hope needs leaders to provide a moral compass. Those leaders don’t need to be vested with official authority…Millions of Americans wanted to believe that these men [Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy] would lead us to a moral high ground, a common good that would transcend the crass, selfish brutality of America…And now that both had been gunned down, there didn’t seem to be anywhere else for that momentum to go. We were thrown into a moral abyss…Humphrey’s loss to Nixon represented the end of the Democrats’ New Deal coalition, and it seemed to be the end of idealism. [Reich, Robert B. Coming Up Short: A Memoir of My America (p. 107-110). Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.]
READ THIS BOOK!

And sure, the last year has been a wakeup call and a shock to us about not listening to the other half, so it drove us apart as a people and allowed people become more me-centric. Writers, bloggers, youtubers, and realistically, any citizen of this country must heed our moral and ethical responsibility, to push new generations into thinking about ways to increase the greater good, to bring back respect for the laws of the land and decency and kindness to all human beings. (And law enforcement should take heed: stop the violence on people, and get a spine to become better humans and enforcers of the law of the land, not the law of those rich and powerful!) We should not selfishly support the “It’s all about me, and I don’t want to help anyone else” society. We have to care for each other if we want to continue a peaceful and caring world. Otherwise, chaos will continue to rule our lives.

So I hope these writings have been good for everyone I have reached out to and that we take a moment each day to show concern for what is right in the world, respect each other and center our thoughts on all others, not just ourselves. Every day I live, I try to do my very best to uphold the law and what is right and just in the world. I hope you can say that you do the same.

Keep reading, keep listening, and take a break from your own brain every day. Just be kind to everyone and they will reciprocate. Learn a person’s name and say it back to them when you greet them. Respect those that are different. I love you all and hope you are inside away from the smoke and the heat.