For nearly a decade, Republicans complained the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, had been shoved down their throats. They said it was passed too quickly and no one had time to read the bill. On Thursday, May 4, the Republicans in the House of Representatives did the same thing, throwing the entire health care system into chaos.
On any given Sunday, the movie theater was where you used to be able to find me. Cinemas 6 in the Caldor Plaza was about a mile’s walk from home. It eventually expanded to become Cinemas 9. My friend, Doug, and I would spend the day there, arriving for the first show around 11 a.m., and leaving after the last, near midnight.
Before going, a plot was made of each movie and which theater it was in or the time listing from the newspaper was torn out and kept in my pocket. As each movie ended, we walked with the exiting crowd, slipping into the next open theater.
Employees and management didn’t seem to mind. We didn’t cause trouble. If we were loud and disruptive, we’d be kicked out.
Cinders stares off into the distance.
Sometimes the purring wakes me up.
It’s 4:30 a.m. Without opening my eyes, I can feel her head nuzzled on my collar bone. She’s only partially awake, but I must disturb her so I can begin my day.
Like clockwork, she comes near me at 7:20 a.m. She extends her left paw toward me for head scratchings and belly rubs before I head out the door.
“Have you seen the paper today?” a man I know asked, clearly irritated. I nodded yes, but wondered why he was so angry. My bewildered look prompted him to open the newspaper and turn to a story about a transgender man going to court.
“Nobody cares about that shit here,” he said, throwing the paper on his desk. The story was about Gavin Grimm, a transgender man, and his case being heard at the Supreme Court. “No one wants to see that. It doesn’t matter.”
On Friday night, Donald Trump tweeted, once again, about his disdain for the media.
The FAKE NEWS media (failing @nytimes, @NBCNews, @ABC, @CBS, @CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2017
My twitter feed filled soon after with cases of journalists who are not the enemy. Journalist Lauren Wolfe pointed out countries, such as Russia, Burma and Venezuela where the media has been declared enemies of the state.
Immigrants have been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Every immigrant I have ever known has had a positive effect on my life and shaped who I am today.
Last week, US District Judge James L. Robart ruled against the president’s executive order banning Muslims from Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Syria, Libya, and Yemen after a lawsuit was filed against the EO. Robart granted a temporary restraining order.
NOTE: The Star-Herald has decided to stop allowing reporters to write columns. This is what I wrote for tomorrow’s column and would have run on Thursday, February 2, 2017. I normally have more links and photos in my stories, but I did not know until late Wednesday afternoon this column would not run in the paper. I’ve added links for the sites I could remember and could find again.
I’ve been driving around town for about a year with this playlist in my car. I don’t think I’ll be changing it anytime soon. It’s a good mix of different styles of music.
In mid-January 2016, I came across a reading challenge. Since I like to read, I figured I’d have a go at trying to finish each category. It wasn’t always possible. Here are the categories and how I fared.
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