Dear Sec.Clinton & Sen. Sanders

Good Afternoon;

One of you was a First Lady, US. Senator & Secretary of State, the other was a distinguished & innovative Mayor and a widely respected member of the House and now the Senate.

You are both smart, forward thinking and compassionate.  You both care about lifting all portions of the economy, you both support our troops, you are both pro-choice, pro health care and pro including the LGBT community in the full communion of the American dream.

One of you is going to face either Donald Trump or Raphael Cruz in the fall. It is going to take both of you to bring your supporters along in that battle.

So, do me a favor.

Knock it the fuck off.  Stop the bullshit.  Stop the name calling. Stop the "outrage".  Stop asking for "apologies" from each other.  Stop sending your surrogates onto TV to trash talk the other side and then sending someone else out to walk it back with back handed compliments.

Just stop it now!

Go back to battling about ideas and visions and issues.

You are both more qualified the any of the GOP contenders.  You both have better ideas.

Just stop, at long last I am begging you just stop.

You are pissing me off and you DO NOT WANT TO PISS OF Donald C. Flad Jr. It is not pretty and no one ever recovers from it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Your once and future supporter.

dcf

Harvey Milk's Stamp on History

The United States Postal Service has announced a stamp honoring Harvey Milk .  Mr. Milk, as I am sure you know was an gay rights activist who was elected a San Francisco City Supervisor way back in 1977 and was one of the first openly gay elected official in United States.


Supervisor Milk served less than a year in office because he was murdered by a psychotic and disgruntled former Supervisor Dan White.  White's murder of Mr. Milk and Mayor George Moscone was successfully defended by his attorneys because they convinced a jury of no ones peers that he had eaten too many twinkies.   Mr. White was convicted voluntary manslaughter not murder and sentenced to about 7 years - time was taken off for his good behavior and he served less than 5 years for the murder of a Mayor and a City Supervisor.

Congratulations to the USPS for their inclusion of all Americans and all parts of our society in the honor roll of stamps.

I can't wait to hear the sturm und drang from the extreme right wing on this.

You know it will be petty, small and pathetic.

And, you know it will be desperate and weird because they know that we know that they know that we know that they are on the wrong side of history.
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Well Done You! Mayor Panto & Easton

Good news for my other home town its S & P  bond rating was raised to A+ by the influential credit rating company.


The improved rate allows the city to receive lower insurance fees, borrowing fees and interest rates.  Which comes will come in handy as the city is about to embark on a major building project.

Easton's recent successes can not be attributed to one person or one organization and have been a long time coming but I have to and will give some major credit to the inspired leadership that Mayor Sal Panto brings to the city.


Well done you!  Mayor Panto, Easton City Council and the citizens of the dynamic little city that still owns my heart!

il Papa Francisco - A Pope for the People?

This Pope is is sort of kind of awesome .  I am not sure what to make of all this.  I am not a Catholic so I really do not have a dog in this hunt but I am fascinated by the workings of the Mother Church.


During the recent Papal primaries and eventual run off I sat around the lunch room explaining how the whole process works to a table full of of Catholics.  But, then I can tell you the royal succession line in Great Britain.  I am my own little version of "Rain Man"...... But, I digress.

Since Francis became Francis he has done some pretty remarkable things. Some traditionalists would say very un-Pope like.  He seems to be striving to be unlike any of his predecessor less Prince of the Church and more Leader of the People.  On the night of his election he did not ride to dinner in his private limo he rode on the bus with the guys who just elevated him to the throne of St. Peter.  He has decided not live in the palatial Papal apartments but in the area with the other prelates who work in the Vatican.  Granted he is not living in a sparse monks cell but he is not living like Brooke Astor either.  He eats his meals with the boys in black as well.

Pope Francis spoke out against homophobia by basically saying "who am I to judge?"  The reaction from New York's Cardinal claiming it did not matter what the Pope said he was going to judge anyway was disappointing but interesting in itself a change in the way the Vatican works.  The Cardinal did not toe the line in this case in a bad way but he was not summoned to the bosses office.

Now His Holiness says the church has been too obsessed with the gays and abortion and these obsessions are getting in the way of his mission to make the church "as a home for all."  Do I think women, married or out loud & proud priests are on the way?  No.  Do I think the church is going to soften it's approach to abortion or it's treatment of women in general? No on abortion but perhaps slowly with it's treatment of women.

Hopefully this Pope will be around long enough to enact real change and reform to this great institution.

Remember 9/11/01

We must always remember that the horrific acts carried out on 9/11/01 were attacks on all of humanity. 

Today is a day for remembering, mourning and honoring.

Tonight we will hope that tomorrow will bring us a better world.

Shalom