Switch Dimensions

By Faith Chatham - December 23,
Sometimes we just simply need to tune out the clutter which sucks the air out of the room. When opening a social media wall or turning on the television fills up the space with despicable human excrement, it is beneficial to switch dimensions.

We can do that by focusing on friends and family, getting immersed in holiday chaos, or puttering in a garden. Seeing pet video's posted on Facebook is a relief these days.

I'm enjoying sitting in my sister's living room looking at her Christmas Tree and letting her serve me hot chocolate.

We are discussing making Bread Pudding for Christmas Dinner and Quiche for Christmas Eve Brunch. I've recommended drinking the rum instead of using it in pudding. This is a great break from continually hearing about the shut-down, realizing that children are sleeping under mylar blankest without toys or cherished, trusted adults to hold and comfort them this Christmas, that the Donald thinks his warped ways are progress and some in this nation are warped enough to agree with him.

This year I am especially appreciative of the efforts of the ACLU and other organizations who are working tirelessly to relieve some of the unnecessary suffering inflicted by our government on the innocent and upon the vulnerable.

It is comforting to sit with my sister and look at her Christmas Tree and remember the people who nurtured and protected us. I know we have battles to wage next year. We have women and children to rescue, politicians to support, and some to oppose. It will not be a year when we can sit passively, trusting that all will be well with our state, nation or the world if we leave things to others or to happenstance.

Tonight, it is necessary to switch dimensions for a few hours and enjoy the moment, even though I realize that many in this world are so threatened and frightened that they have little opportunity to enjoy anything.  I will fight for them with all my might once I tune-out for a few hours the bombardment of the despot who sucks the air out of space where he neither belongs nor understands, nor values. Soon, by some means, we will be free of him. Until then, we persevere, we resist, we write, we share, we verify, we study, we research, and we value those who are discounted and sorely abused.

Faith's Christmas Eve Leek Quiche

1 stalk of Leeks cut up
salt and pepper to taste
2 pads of butter
1/8 cup cheddar cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese
6 eggs beaten throughly
1 pie crust


Saute leeks in butter
Add to beaten eggs
Add grated cheddar and mozzarella cheese, salt and parsley to the beaten eggs.
Pour into prepared pie crust.
Bake in heated 350 degree oven until the eggs are done and the pie crust is lightly brown.
Taste good served warn or chilled.

Faith's Leeks and Potato Casserole

1 stalk of Leeks, cut up

Five potatoes, sliced thin long wise

1 can evaporated milk

1 cup mozzarella cheese

1 teaspooon to 1 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
1/2 cup cheddar cheese
Salt to taste
Crushed black pepper to taste.

Wash and salt the sliced potatoes.
Mix them in a casserole dish with the sliced leeks
Sprinkle in the shredded mozzarella cheese.
Pour in one can of evaporated milk
Sprinkle one layer of shredded cheddar cheese on top of the casserole

Bake in a 350 degree oven until the potatoes are soft (about 30 to 40 minutes).


When the cheese on top melts, take out of oven and cover with a second layer of cheddar cheese and sprinkle lightly with crushed black pepper.  Return to oven and bake until layer of cheese on top melts.

Cool slightly before serving.

What Has Become the Quintessential Question of Our Time?

By Carolyn Chatham - Wise Woman Press.net September 11, 2018

WHY I WRITE, PURPOSE, ACTIVISM
How to make sense of the tsunami of information that bombards us daily, hourly, minute by minute. The serfs knew only what they were told by their masters. The ordinary person of the middle ages knew only what the church told him. The renaissance and then the age of reason opened the valve of knowledge to many more people. Knowledge had value. It was something not everyone could have. It gave a person status and power.

Now technology has far outstripped our ability to create meaning from information. Unless we have a matrix by which to decipher, organize, and evaluate information, it is not only useless, it is crippling. If a little information is, as the saying goes, a dangerous thing, too much information is a debilitating thing. Knowing a little, but not enough can lead to the wrong conclusions and actions. Being inundated with too much information can lead to paralysis, or to feeding any belief we need to feed, or to wrong action.We can easily find the stories that nurture our paradigms, that "prove" our points, regardless of the validity of our paradigms.

How do we learn to filter,evaluate,accept, or reject information based on reliability and accuracy rather than emotion? Are we able or willing to learn that way, or is the average person incapable of rejecting emotion and comfort over logic and fact?

Some people find their filters by choosing Fox News. Some listen to Alex Jones. Some listen to their church leaders or preachers. Some search out sources that are more reliable, that attempt to be fact based.

Recently Tom Heger and I were discussing politics. He told me the story of two men, one a farmer, the other a "progressive." The progressive was trying to convince the farmer we meed more regulations. The progressive laid out his reasoning layer after layer, but the farmer maintained that regulations are bad. Finally the progressive said,"And it killed the cows." Then the farmer agreed. 

We have to get to the cows in our political conversations. Everybody has a cow. We have to know what it is to move the argument past the road block.

Also, everybody has a paradigm. Sometimes it's just about having a paradigm that is so different from our own that discussion is fruitless. We don't have to love the fascists, but it's good to understand them and know one when we meet one.

When selecting our reading materials, choosing the channel on our TV, clicking on stories, we need to be aware of our own cows and paradigms and choose fact over emotion. Thought, then speech, then action. 

I will be the arrow straight and true

that pierces your enemy

through and through

So long as you know the arrow flies

only as true 

as the archer's eyes

I will be your arrow straight and sure

so notch me now 

and let me soar

            Published in Those Bones that Float About, 2018

Carolyn publishes political and social commentary,  literary reviews and poetry on WISE WOMAN PRESS.net

Her book,THOSE BONES THAT FLOAT ABOUT, is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble

First there was only one. Now there are Two Texas Swing Congressional Districts!

By Faith Chatham December 13, 2018
Jan McDowell has managed to move the Texas 24th Congressional District from solid red to a toss-up in 4 years! Jan had no political experience and little support when she ran against Marchant in 2016. She showed up and told people face-to-face why she was running. She learned. She impressed people with her intelligence, reason, and what is commonly referred to in Texas as "common sense."

Jan is not your typical extroverted egoistical political candidate. She is a CPA by profession. In 2018 in a three-way General Election she got 125,231 (47.54%) of the vote to GOP incumbent Marchant's 133,317 votes (50.61%) . In her previous run in 2016, she was unopposed in the Democratic Primary. In 2018 she had three male opponents in the Democratic Primary and avoided a run-off by securing 52.47% of the Democratic Primary votes (14,628 votes out of a total of 27,878 Democratic Primary voters). Turn-out wasn't all that stellar for the Republicans in District 24 in 2018 either. Despite a contested primary, only 40,735 Republicans voted and 25.59% of them voted against their GOP incumbent.

When we drill down and look at prior years, there has been a steady gain in the number of Democratic Primary in Texas’ US 24th District. In the 2014 Democratic Primary there were. 8,247 votes cast. That year 34,265 Republicans voted in the Primary. The Democratic nominee in 2014 in the 24th District was Patrick McGeherty who received 46,548 votes (32.31%) in the General Election to Marchant's 93,712 (75.04% of the in 2014 General Election vote).

In 2016 (McDowell's first race) she ran unopposed in the Democratic Primary and got 27,803 votes. Marchant ran unopposed in the Republican Primary and got 67,412 votes. He had a strong advantage: He was a multi-term Republican Incumbent running in a Congressional District gerrymandered to be a safe Republican District. He entered the General Election with twice as many voters identified who preferred his political party than his first-time Democratic opponent. He had money and she had very little. In a four-way General Election, McDowell with Green Party Kevin McCormick and Libertarian Mike Knolls reduced Marchant's percentage to 56.18%. Jan gained 7.01% over the Democratic percentage of General Election votes cast in 2014.

2016 was a presidential year. There was increase of 61,842 more people who voted Democratic in the 2016 General Election in the district than who voted Democratic in the 2014 General Election. Republican turnout increased by 61,133 votes in the 2016 General Election over the number of voters for Marchant in the 2014 General Election. The increase in those voting Democratic between 2014 and 2016 was over double whereas the increase in Republican voters was about 25%.

In her second run, Jan McDowell entered with experience. She knew how to run a bare-bones campaign and how to stretch her campaign dollars. She had volunteers who were faithful and experienced. She knew the "lay of the land." Marchant got 21,528 fewer votes in the 2018 General Election than he got in 2016. Jan McDowell got 16,389 more votes in the 2018 General Election than she received in 2016. Only 8,086 more voters chose the multi-term incumbent Republican than voted for his Democratic challenger in the 2018 General Election. In a district which previously had been classified as SAFELY REPUBLICAN. Kenny Marchant only won with 50.61% of the vote in 2018.

The Cook's Political 2020 forecast announced that they are now classifying two Texas Congressional Districts as Swing or “Toss Up” for 2020. They have moved Texas' US 24th District for 2020 into the"Toss-up" category along with US 23. Jan McDowell and her supporters have transformed the 24th into Texas' second swing district for 2020. It is probable that the DNC, which relies heavily on Cook’s data, will classify it as a Red to Blue District. It is probable that this will make the 24th an entirely different ballpark in 2020. Before, Jan McDowell was not seen as a threat to the GOP controlled seat. Now they see blood in the water and will either circle around to replace Marchant in the Primary or to support him with massive outside support to protect the seat in the General.

Jan McDowell has announced that she is running for Congress in the 24th District again in 2020. She needs to begin building a war chest. She will need several hundred thousand dollars in her account in December 2019. She prefers individual contributions from small donors. This race is a good one for progressives to target. If we jump in and give a small amount monthly during the months leading up to when she files to run in December 2019, our contribution will probably be painless on our end but cumulatively, can make a significant difference in helping her position herself to fight a much harder fight than has ever been waged in the 24th.

 Donations as small as $5, $10, or $25 a month given through ACT BLUE monthly for the next 24 months helps us equip Jan McDowell to fight off the Republican donors who want to hold onto the 24th District seat. She has demonstrated her ability to campaign and win the support of the voters in the district and she has demonstrated her ability to manage a campaign organization and to leverage the dollars donors give her. Let’s start now and target the 24th District by supporting Jan McDowell with a monthly contribution through ACT BLUE.

Checks can be mailed to
Jan McDowell for Congress
P.O. Box 110303
Carrollton, TX 75011
E-mail: Jan@JanMcDowell.com

Realistic Assessment is Important

By Faith Chatham - Dec. 11, 2018

American's Contemporary Medical/Scientific Dark Age Inquisition

By Faith Chatham - Dec. 10, 2018
I read that Trump is quietly reducing HIV research. We have faced Republican controlled Congress transferring funding from Ebola research and treatment programs. I wonder how much less suffering we would have in this country if right wing religious zealots who lack the brain cells to understand the Bibles they thump had not controlled this nation's political rhetoric and succeeded in blocking stem cell research and treatment for three decades! Other countries (many with much smaller GNP's) are far ahead of us in treating spinal cord, bone, respiratory and other chronic illnesses with stem cells than we are. If stem cell research had been able to proceed, we would probably be less dependent upon big pharma! Instead of having to be on medication regularly, many individuals would probably have had their bodies regenerate damaged cells and much less time would have been lost from work and school and community service and recreation.

Too many treatments and cures which have YEARS of success in other countries are still classified as experimental in the USA. This nation is currently living in a contemporary dark-ages from politically motivated denial and ignorance.

One of the more costly diseases to treat is diabetes. Some forms have been demonstrated to be CURED by a specific form of stomach bypass surgery if performed within a specific number of years of diagnosis. However, in the USA that is not an approved treatment for diabetes here even though it is available and proven in most European countries. Over time the cost for insulin - not to mention amputation - is much greater than the surgery but most Americans cannot afford the cost of the surgery without assistance from insurance.

I have a friend whose husband works for the state of PA which "self-insures." She has had to have two partial amputation on her toes which could have been avoided if her insurance company had approved the stomach by-pass. They tried to scrape together enough money for her to go on "medical tourism" within the time-frame for a cure to get the by-pass but were not able to afford it.

Americans should not have to attempt to travel to other countries to get quality appropriate medical care. Politicians influenced by America's equivalent of the Taliban (mid-western evangelical pastors) should not dictate what scientific /medical procedure works and is appropriate for Americans throughout the country.
Ironically, many of those who label themselves pro-life, fight the hardest to prevent treatments which save and extend life and enhance the quality of life by actually assisting bodies to heal.

We look back on the Spanish inquisition and shake our heads. We should be looking at the realities impacting lives right here in our own families and circles of friends!

Fear of change and fear of the unknown is understandable. Imposing outdated practices when there is sufficient evidence of success is not prudent. It is cruel and unnecessary punishment. In contemporary American medicine, it is practiced too frequently and is much too costly.