Do you, like I do, feel that things are just not as expected?  Like some cosmic switch was flipped and now the tracks are aligned in a direction we were not planning to go?  It is like we are in a big April Fool’s joke and we can only hope that the universe has a good laugh and lets us go back to “normal.”  The whole country, many of our family and friends, even the climate seems to have experienced an “Invasion- of- the -Body-Snatchers” moment.

We have never been a perfect country by any means, but overall goodness, generosity, kindness and grace were more the themes than demonizing half of our population, insulting and damning our allies, bombing and threatening countries with which we are not at war. Now we disappear citizens without due process, threaten voting rights, take away assistance from our most vulnerable neighbors and make any hope of affordability now or for future generations unlikely with the unrelenting influence of billionaires and the mounting debt and deficits of our economy.

We are now four months into this year and despite the authoritarian slant of the current administration, I feel hopeful that we now are on a trajectory that could put this country right and let us uphold the ideals this country first established.  Last weekend we saw and participated in an effective “hell no” to this administration.  Over eight million people flocked to over 3000 planned protest events and showed solidarity with the Constitution. In addition, all over the world, protest events brought thousands into the streets in solidarity.

Every political persuasion stood up at these events.  Red, Blue and in between were there together to protest the actions of the President and his spineless enablers.   This was peaceful and non-violent with the only extremely few reported problems occurring when others tried to disrupt or a harm protesters, not the other way around.  This is a movement that is gaining momentum.  If we can get all these people to vote, and vote blue like never seen before in history, we will change this country and again claim back our ideals.

Also, this last weekend was the Colorado State Democratic Assembly.  Candidates made their final best appeal to delegates to gain a place on the primary ballot. Nearly 1,400 delegates from all over the state converged on Pueblo for this historic event.  I was so glad to see that one in four of the delegates was under 40!  Young people taking interest, lending their energy to this event and the process left me with a good feeling that things are in good hands. There were some surprising outcomes, and the results are posted below.  I am a little underwhelmed with candidates who chose to bypass this procedure and just petition to appear on the primary ballot.  It is a slap in the face of all the hardworking volunteers who at great expense and effort follow the rules and create these election events to pick our candidates. It is their right to petition on, but not having the courage to face your constituents I think says something about connection, ego, and deep pockets.  If you haven’t seen the results, they are shown below.  Thanks to Joe Salazar for posting these in an easily readable format.