A Ray of Hope (a rant)

Hi All,

A clamshell's shape and lines are a wonderous example of nature's designs, and yet it's easy to forget that as you walk past hundreds of them, barely looking down. I took this shot with a Panasonic Lumix GX7 macro camera with 3-D lens and approximated it into a phantgram.

I have it on good authority that by this coming Friday, December 18, I'll have the first 100-200 copies of Macrophant 3D to send out. If you want to order or just learn more about the book, go to http://macrophant3d.com/. If you use the promo code 25 when you order, you'll get a book delivered to your door for just 25 dollars of your hard earned cash (only in the USA).

As to today's rant:

If you somehow managed to ignore the news this past week, I envy you. Just when you think "we've won this election, things will start to get less crazy," no, it's not that way. 126 republican members of the US house of representatives, seventeen state attorney-generals and Trump, people who've sworn to defend the constitution of the United States, sued Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia petitioning the US supreme court to throw out votes from those four states, mostly the votes of black people, and instead install Mr. Trump for another term. Did I mention these are people who've sworn to defend the constitution of the United States?

For these signers, it's was all just a joke, a loyalty test, to curry favor with Trump. They knew the supreme court wouldn't go for it, so they'd be off the hook. They also knew Biden won, and by a lot. So why did they do it, why did they abase themselves and humor Trump's madness? Because the Donald wanted them to and told them he'd be writing down who did and who didn't. Because keeping their jobs, money, prestige and power was the most important thing to these people.

My bright ray of hope comes from knowing that the false illusions about what America is and who we are have left me. The past four years have proven Americans to be as naïve, stupid and gullible, mean spirited and uncaring as any people on the planet. My blinders are off.

So we're on our own, no more delusions of equal protection under the law, no expectation of fairness, no more mirage of the shining city on the hill. It is up to each and every one of us to look closely at the world around us every day, and live the best lives we can. Our society is unjust and racist, and we must fight it. We must reach out and help those we know and those we don't, and those we can, and by our examples bring about a society we want to live in. That's what we can do. That's my ray of hope.

Keep safe,

Barry Rothstein

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