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October 9, 2020

Hello Everybody,

So why am I here in D.C.? It's a good question. It's partly a vacation/get-away (after viral sheltering in place and going no where since March) and partly civic duty/election action.

In some ways the get-away part reminds me of my long trip in 1984-85 (which I wrote about here). Note that I include several links in this email. Some of them are quite long. Skim and peruse them at your leisure.

And the election-action part reminds me of several political things I've done:

So there are several historical reasons why I'm here.

So what will I DO while I'm here? Again, it's a good question. Very often in the midst of a massive national election we all feel overwhelmed with the media onslaught and are busy with our lives and understandably feel that nothing we do will have an effect on the outcome. Still, some of you are:

In the past few days it seems to me that Trump is simply so unhinged that he is sabotaging his own campaign. Time will tell. It saddens me that we have to be concerned about beating someone who is so provably unfit for the office. Who ARE the people who are voting for him? I do not know many myself. I did have a conversation with a "staunch" Republican cousin. It didn't prove very fruitful. It seems that they are simply loyal in a tribal kind of way.

With the election this year for some reason I felt that I needed to take some other kind of action.

On September 11 I was texting with a friend about doing some kind of a "ritualistic austerity" dedicated to the election of Biden. I told them about my nephew who trained for and ran an Ironman Triathlon after my sister was diagnosed with lung cancer. He asked for sponsors and raised over $18,000 for research. It gave him something to DO instead of feeling helpless. It focused energies.

So on September 12th I began to ride my bicycle around the perimeter of Davis on the very safe and beautiful Davis Bike Loop. I woke at sunrise and headed out. It's a 12 mile loop and took me about 2 hours. And I was very regular about it - in large part because it was "for the campaign". I rode every morning from Sept 12th until I left for D.C. on October 4th. Good exercise, too!

Did my riding have any effect? Who knows? It DID clarify my mind and focus MY energy.

On September 18th Ruth Bader Ginsburg tragically died. McConnell and Trump vowed to push a nominee. I read an op-ed that said "outraged people should take to the streets en masse". Soon after that I decided to travel to D.C. to take part in whatever was happening there.

There is a large Women's March here on October 17th. I signed up to help local organizers. Yesterday I gathered materials to make a first-class sign. In a continuation of my daily sunrise ride I'm going to do a daily walking circumnavigation of the White House carrying my sign. I first did such a circumnavigation (I love that word for some reason) in 2009 on the last day before George W. Bush was in the White House. Here's a picture:

Note that there are footnote asterisks after Thank you * and We Love You **.

* for trying
** because you, too, are a child of God

Any suggestions for what my sign will say now?
Tanya offered "Peaceful Transfer". I like that.

I lived in the D.C. area for 6 years 1971-1977. Graduate school (mathematics) and first job (Census Bureau). During my time here I will visit places I remember and see how they have changed. That is healing in a way.

Be well. Stay safe.
Jon

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