Science fiction, fantasy, mystery and what-not
Satyrda saw Ashland welcome the 15th annual Southern Oregon Pride Parade. This was part of a three-day celebration of community and acceptance. Photos from Rep. Pam Marsh.
More available at Ashland.news.
I’m grateful that Ashland holds to its modern roots of trying to be inclusive, open, and accepting.
After returning from the market and eating breafast, I read an article which a friend referred me to.
“How busing, school desegregation shaped Kamala Harris’s views of race” is a WaPo article about Vice President Harris’s childhood and integration through busing informed her mind about the possibilities.
An important lesson is conveyed in it which is lost on the GOP. Inclusion and diversity strengthen us. They are not dirty words or immoral ideas. Inclusion and diversity help us understand one another better and further, fertilizes new ideas and insights that would have been lost.
Broadening horizons, expanding work forces, and forging social bonds through diversity and inclusion are not new ideas. We’ve been using them for some time. And if the GOP can pull its collective head out of their collective ass, they would see that it’s one of the fundamental reasons why we attained and maintained global leadership positions in so many areas of modern life.
The GOP should not be allowed to throw away all that progress just for the sake of narrow Biblical viewpoints, fragile male egos, reactionary ideas about women’s rights and gender roles, nor for the benefit of a super-powerful and wealthy one percent. Vote Blue in 2024.
Keith captures my thoughts on it. The difference in values and optics between the Republican and Democratic conventions is striking, highlighted by the current and former Presidents appearing and giving rising speeches, along with notables such as Oprah Winfrey, Pete Buttigieg, Wendell Pierce, Josh Shapiro and Andy Bashear, and a performance by John Legend with Sheila E. to introduce Gov. Walz. Then Gov. Walz spoke about true American values of service, community, and inclusion. We’ve worked hard to become inclusive as a nation. The GOP now want to tear it down.
Former President Obama captured the essence in the difference the two parties and their visions. Trump’s MAGA-dominated GOP is interested in outing people, excluding those not like them. They use hate and fear as their tools to manipulate voters. As Barack Obama noted, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz and the Democratic Party will work with you, even if we disagree with you.
And that, friends, is a significant difference.
Vote Blue.
Michael Seidel, writer 