Someone posted this on facebook this morning.

I feel very sad for this person. Yes. Some of what he has copied and pasted on his page is true.

We have not been able to take trips or to attend large group gatherings — to protect ourselves and to protect others. I can agree with that.

Otherwise, we are at odds.

To begin with, I believe he has used the word “communist” when he means “dictatorship.”

I am “not afraid” to leave my home nor am I forbidden to do so. I choose not to. It is the least I can do to protect myself and others.

I speak my mind all the time. I’m really old. Don’t mess with me!

I make up my own mind and think differently from lots of people, those with “mob mentality” (whatever that is), racists, sexists, bigots. I’ll stop here. It’s a long list.

No one has forced me to “subscribe to fear.” I am rightly concerned and cautious.

I have been an avid student of history since I was a little girl. How could I be “forced to erase it”?

I would certainly not allow myself to be “controlled by the media.” If you feel controlled by the media, by all means, turn it off. I avoid all cable news and read a number of carefully-chosen newspapers online which express different viewpoints. Right now, I am recommending The Christian Science Monitor.

No one has ever even tried to “force me to apologize.” No one would dare. I do say sorry whenever I hurt or offend.

The only time I kneel, when these old knees permit it, is in worship.

No one can forbid me to worship. I certainly do miss being with my community and singing with my choir. My congregation — and most others– have been offering YouTube services and Zoom meetings, and musical presentations on-line on an almost daily basis. I bet yours does too. Turn off cable news and tune in.

I freely show my patriotism.

For a while, I didn’t fly my American flag out front because there was a time people tended to think that meant I was a Republican Then, I decided to reclaim it. It is my flag. I am an American. Think whatever you like.

As an American, I support the ideal of liberty and justice — for ALL.

This week, I felt an irrepressible need to “say their names.” Freedom of speech by putting neon post-its in my front windows with the names of some of my fellow Americans who died brutally, without liberty or justice.

Oh, I speak my mind! I worship. I show my patriotism.

I readily admit, these are hard times. Americans have faced and survived many. It’s the home of the brave.

Do not be discouraged or discouraging. Be certain that what you write, post and say is the truth.

“Lift up your heart and sing till earth and heaven ring, ring with the harmonies of liberty . . . “

At a recent event highlighting job growth during May, Trump was asked about his plan to address racial inequality and framed his answer through an economic prism: “What‘s happened to our country, and what you now see, it’s been happening, is the greatest thing that can happen for race relations. For the African American community, for the Asian American, for the Hispanic American community, for women, for everything, because our country is so strong, and that’s what my plan is.”

Three big questions are weighing heavily on Americans today. Here are the answers. Like on Jeopardy, you ask the questions.

1. November 3
2. When there’s a vaccine
3.

I was born in a little town in Oklahoma in 1943 and lived in a lot of little Oklahoma towns until moving to West Texas in 1958.

I remember a happy childhood. Playing outside all day every day in summertime. Going to school the rest of the time. I loved going to school.

I did not know that Oklahoma had the financially poorest schools in the country until I was studying the history of US education when I was taking Education classes in college. Ranking just above Mississippi and Alabama.

In spite of the poverty, about which I was oblivious, I learned a lot of good, basic stuff in those classrooms during my first nine years of school.

I remember some very good teachers who made do with practically nothing. Those teachers were the primary — sometimes the only — resource in their classrooms. I thought I had a good education. I learned to love reading. I loved memorizing arithmetic facts and operations. I learned how to write in beautiful penmanship. I loved learning geography. All these basics serve me well to this day. I can figure my bank balance in my head and I can sign a check not in kindergarten printing. I know which direction Canada is.

We had lots of Geography. History. Not. So. Much.

History was introduced in about 5th grade. I remember Early American History. Nothing about the Civil War or anything negative about how Indian Territory came about or how it became a state in 1907. WWII was too recently painful to be broached.

Nothing about the law-breakers who burst in early and claimed free homesteads before the appointed time. Somehow, these settlers became heroes and are more honored than disclaimed. “Sooner” is a proud motto rather than a shameful thing. I don’t get it. It was the wild west then, but some of the morals and attitudes of those days need a serious revision.

About history, I learned about my Choctaw heritage. Sort of. I just knew that my maternal grandfather was very proud of it. He never said anything about how our tribe was forced-marched from our home in Mississippi in the dead of winter to the poorest part of Indian Territory. One-third of the tribe died along the way. It’s still one of the poorest areas in the country today. Never mind about how the casino hasn’t made everyone rich.

But that is not the story I want to write about today.

Today I want to write about what I wasn’t taught about people of color when I was a young school girl.

Oklahoma was not a state during the Civil War, but it was profoundly “a Southern State.” A statue of a very young Confederate foot soldier stands to this day in front of the courthouse in the town where I was born. “Negroes” were not permitted in that town after sundown. They came in during the day to do menial work for white people.

On the mezzanine of the JC Penney there were water fountains designated “whites only” and “colored.” I wanted to drink from the colored one thinking it would produce rainbow water. That was my first lesson.

I never even heard about the race massacre in Tulsa in 1921.

I didn’t know about the murders of the Osage people in the 20th Century until a book about that was published a few years ago.

Do you know what brazil nuts were called?

Do you know what little children said when they sang “Ring Around the Rosie.”

Do you know what my own father said when he had been working out in the hot sun and came in sweating?”

I have always loved going to Sunday school and church.

When I was a little girl, it meant getting dressed up in pretty clothes and getting to see friends. In college, it was often a date with a handsome young man in a three-piece suit. Love three-piece suits.

I am not a biblical scholar, but along the way, I learned a lot of stuff. I can certainly find any book in the Bible quick as a wink. I can turn to key verses in moments of grief or fear or joy.

When I started writing here many years ago, I never intended to be political. I meant to write about my daily life, emphasis on puppies and gardens and kayaking and holidays.

These days, many of them, I cannot write about rainbows and butterflies.

Do you ever fantasize about being in a certain place at a certain time and saying just the right thing?

Yesterday, I would have said, “Mr. President, will you read to us from that ceremonial ‘state’ bible you are carrying? May I suggest 1 Timothy 3: 1-3.”

How long do you think it would have taken him to find First Timothy?

“The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable . . . “

For some reason, I actually knew this verse. For more, I turned to a concordance in the back of one of the Bibles I have here at 1880. I looked under “leadership.”

If you don’t have a bunch of old Bibles gathering dust on your shelves, just Google something like “Bible verses, evil leadership.”

Jeremiah 23:1-4 will pop up. How long do you think it would have taken POTUS to find Jeremiah? 

“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the Lord.”