By Linda Irvin-Craig February 2023 As a complete political junky, I watch every new day unfold with what government could do for us and then what it actually does. As the song goes, "Some days are diamonds and some days are stone."
Today, the partial release of the Grand Jury recommendations about the attempts to overturn the Georgia election results told me that the jury felt they had been lied to, under oath, by possibly multiple witnesses. My thoughts were knee jerks about Flynn and Giuliani and maybe one other on the list. Flynn and Giuliani have both lied before, but Giuliani certainly knows the penalty for doing so.
Regardless, it seems clear that someone may be going to trial for attempted election fraud, who are not the Georgia officials, and maybe perjury. The DA there must look at possible schedules available for trials before bringing charges because the law requires a "speedy and fair" trial.
Other issues are the people who feel they cannot go home due to the train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio. Some are already experiencing health problems. Some are blaming that too many cars were on that train for efficient braking to occur. We recently had a train wreck here, which has yet to be explained. Fortunately, the primary cargo was grain, which spilled everywhere...not much of a hazard to clean.
Then we have the speeding up of those likely to jump into the Republican presidential primary race. Two so far, Trump and Nikki Haley, with countless actions and rumors about Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo and then just today Mitt Romney. I have no say in this run, but I would like to kick out everyone but Romney and Haley, based on decency and experience. In spite of Pence's religiosity, he still carries too much water for Trump and that makes him indecent. DeSantis has proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that he wants to take the country backwards to when the blacks in this country had no rights.
I know that there are times when I experience a need to confront myself about inner racial reactions, but knowing more really terrific black and brown people because of a conscious effort to do so, I try to check my reactions as quickly as I can. I grew up in a town that had those "whites only" signs on drinking fountains and restrooms. It was not until I saw the torture of black citizens, including children, tossed into concrete sidewalks and brick buildings by high-pressure fire hoses on the news that I realized what those signs really meant.