Every Day an Adventure

Constrained by the limits of the web form, this is what I sent Senator Fetterman on Sunday:

Senator,

In October, you joined Republicans to end a government shutdown without getting any meaningful concessions for the top issue at the time. Health care costs are out of control for ordinary people, and losing the subsidies made it worse. Now, another shutdown looms and there is an even bigger issue: ICE is out of control, using excessive force to kill citizens who posed no threat and to suppress lawful dissent. The Senate has an opportunity to strip DHS funding from the measure and fund everything else. This is important: if you roll over again, you will be complicit in Congress's failure to be a co-equal branch of government. You will let executive abuses, abuses that are KILLING PEOPLE, go unchecked. How many more people will they kill and how many more cities will they destroy if you fund them for the next eight months?

Congress has abdicated its duty to stand against authoritarian rule. You have a singular opportunity to push back. Please do not squander it again. It was bad enough when Congress's actions only endangered our finances and livelihoods; now you risk endangering our lives. Vote NO on DHS funding until it is held accountable and reforms.

Fetterman is afraid of government shutdowns, but he should be more concerned about unaccountable thugs.

We got a bunch of snow on Sunday and paid someone to clear the sidewalks, but as expected, there was a lot more snow overnight. This morning I noticed that someone had done another pass on the public sidewalk in front of our house -- nice! I suspected our next-door neighbor, who's done that for us before (and I return the favor if I get outside first, though he usually beats me), but he said it wasn't him this time. He did, however, start shoveling my front steps at about the time I went out to clear a path from our door to the public sidewalk, which is how I found out he didn't know who did the sidewalk in front of both our houses. Later, when Dani and I were shoveling the back sidewalk and mini-driveway, he showed up again to help. After he helped us he proceeded up the block.

A bit over a year ago, we had a furnace emergency on a very cold day -- contractors had nicked the gas line, so service was cut off and couldn't be turned on until someone from the utility could inspect the repair, which in the end happened at 2AM. The neighbor three doors up noticed the activity going well into the evening, came by to ask if we needed any help, and upon learning that it was a furnace problem, immediately offered space heaters and said to call at any hour if we were too cold that night. I was touched that someone who I've only had occasional sidewalk conversations with both noticed the possible problem and offered help unprompted.

I'm very glad to live in a place where neighbors look out for each other.