The 28th Amendment

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving

February 26, 2026- I have been asked to copy and paste a pass-around from a friend on social media. As a rule, I do not do copy and paste, no matter how important it may be to someone. This is for security reasons. The content of the pass-around, though, addresses an issue that has been important to me for a long time. Below, is the content of a proposed 28th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

“1.The Congressional Reform Act of 2017 1. No Tenure / No Pension. A Congressman/woman collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they’re out of office. And, no more perks go with them.

2. Congress (past, present, & future) participates in Social Security. All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately. All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people. It may not be used for any other purpose.

3. Congress must purchase their own retirement plan, just as ALL Americans do.

4. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

5. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

6. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people (i.e. NO MORE INSIDER TRADING!!!).

7. All contracts with past and present Congressmen/women are void. The American people did not make this contract with Congressmen/women. Congress made all these contracts by and for themselves.

Serving in Congress is an honor and privilege, NOT a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators should serve their term(s), then go home and go back to work … not get all kinds of freebies.”

This has been proposed before. I can remember hearing an otherwise estimable member of the Unites States Senate, who is now deceased, complain that, under the proposal, he would have to give up his second and third residences. My response at the time: “I know several people who can barely put food on the table for their two children, and struggle to make rent and pay for utilities- in their two-bedroom apartment!”

Let’s get serious about the matter this time around. I was asked to send this to twenty people on Facebook. Well, this is going on that platform-and on Substack. It might even make it to LinkedIn. Far more than twenty should therefore see it.

In other news, Hana lifted her head today and crawled about two inches. That’s something worth cheering. She also has figured out how to amuse herself by making the bouncy chair go up and down.

Cautions

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Community, Family, impediments, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

February 25, 2026- As I brought Hana downstairs, after her bath this evening, I stopped on the last step before the living room floor. She looked at me and babbled a loud caution-perhaps wondering if I was about to stumble. Little ones have more intuition than we might imagine. No worries, though; I just stepped carefully and all was well.

Earlier today, I brought my Sportage up to the dealer for several items of maintenance. A recall that had been put off for several months was also addressed. It turns out that the ignition switch was plastic-as in “gone in 30 seconds” plastic. It was replaced by a metal switch-which is much harder to pop out.

I spent my wait time during the service call enjoyably, by walking to and from downtown McKinney-a 2.2 mile walk, each way. Reasonable caution is needed, as not all of the route features paved sidewalks. There are, however, nice grassy paths in the unpaved areas, and one just needs to find ways around a couple of construction sites. Once past that, Texas is very good about making sure there are metered crosswalks, at every major intersection. There is a three or four block commercial district, on the other side of US 75, then one gets to walk through a mile-long residential district, a peaceful place of stately homes.

We then come to McKinney’s historic downtown (There are few downtowns that are not regarded as historic, but I digress.) This area is a pedestrian’s delight, with a goodly number of shops and restaurants. For lunch, I chose a breakfast and lunch place called Spoons. A hot, if mild, cup of chicken tortilla soup went well with a meatloaf sandwich. Christina and her team take good care of everyone. I went on to Neighbor Books, ordering a couple of child development volumes by Michael Gurian and Sean Kullman and finally picking up a copy of “Nobody’s Girl”, by Virginia Giuffre. Caution, for a grandparent, especially for the grandfather of a girl, means being completely informed.

No child, no human being, should be viewed as the means to an end.

How Hard Is It?

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Family, Inner Struggles, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual

February 24,2026- Ten random questions come to mind, on this quiet day.

How hard is it, to see a girl or woman as a full human being, with valid dreams and aspirations that are worthy of support?

How hard is it, to not project one’s own insecurities or perceived inadequacies on another person-as a means of avoiding personal responsibility?

How hard is it to recognize that a person of another shade of brown is not an inherent threat to life and limb?

How hard is it to see that a person’s being from another country is not a “Go Straight to Jail” card?

How hard is it to not put an infant, or small child, in harm’s way, in the name of policy?

How hard is it to read the United States Constitution and abide by it?

How hard is it to listen to another person’s point of view, and not take it as a personal attack?

How hard is it to remember the person you once were and go back to the best of those basics?

How hard is it to place monetary gain well behind following the Ten Commandments/ Golden Rule?

How hard is it to have spiritual gifts and not use them as a means to an emotional or remunerative end?

A Better Fit

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Community, Education, Family, impediments, Inner Struggles, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

February 23, 2026– While I was going through my twelve exercises, on the machines at Planet Fitness, this evening, a young woman nearby was benching 225 pounds. I passed by, on my way to the massage lounge, while she was resting, and offered a glance of encouragement. She certainly was performing a feat that I am unlikely to even remotely approach. She is doing something right for herself, and those in her circle who are encouraging such achievements deserve kudos as well.

This is the sort of elevative wraparound I want to build for Hana. The “Mighty Girl”ethos, not taking away from a similar network for boys, but making personal empowerment a universal child rearing model. This is not a zero-sum game, and those who insist it is are themselves only coming from a position of weakness-regardless of their personal trappings of wealth and power.

I have read a fair amount, recently, about the debilitative effects of patriarchy. It is not only the rich and powerful who operate under this system, as any young woman in a tradition-laden society, who has to marry the man who her father has arranged for her, finds, often to her sorrow. There are more subtle ways the patriarchy knocks the props out from under a woman or girl-linguistically, vocationally, or in terms of expectations. Perhaps the most insidious is the use of women who are either defeated or are somehow in league with those men who are maintaining the patriarchal system. There are several prominent examples of this phenomenon in our present society.

Hana will face many more choices, as she gets older. My main focus will be on helping her sift out the limiting agents of the patriarchy (including those who come on as glamourous or empowering, but are really old vinegar in new bottles). Her parents and I will be her sounding boards, and biggest cheer squad-and God help the person or persons who try to derail her.

Observant

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Community, Education, Family, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

February 22, 2026- Hana enjoys sitting and watching her mother do simple household tasks. She is very intent while Yunhee folds clothes or cleans countertops. Of course, when Mommy is putting a small piece of furniture together, that brings a smile to Hana’s face. It’s almost as if, the more complicated the task, the more it captivates her. I can see that once she starts walking, Hana will be her mother’s shadow and will probably want to help in small ways.

Babies, being pre-lingual, can learn best by such observation. How ironic it is that so many of those with the power of utterance forget to be observant. There is a seeming disconnect between the five senses and speech. We are at a stage where, for too many, my late father-in-law’s wry comment “In the brain, out the mouth” is a rule of thumb. Pop would have liked Hana, just quietly watching everything that goes on, and only fussing when her initial cues of discomfort are not noticed by her grown-ups.

She has only one standing request, to be included in the life of the family, no matter how quotidian the course of events. It means the world to Hana to be sitting on the lap of one of us at the dinner table-again watching how we eat, listening to our conversations and seeing how we care for one another by passing food around the table and sharing everything.

We could all stand to remember what it’s like to not yet be mobile, and yet so observant, drinking in all the practical skills that will be needed later.

No Infantilization

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Posted by on in children, collaborating, Community, Family, impediments, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual

February 21, 2026- Hana was squalling about a break in the feeding action, until I came downstairs and reminded her, in a calm voice, that being burped was part of the feeding process. She stopped squalling, let herself be burped and went back to feeding.

I know all the warnings given to grandparents about not spoiling their little darlings. As loving as I am to her, though, I will never jive the little girl. Those cautions and that guidance which her parents have in place have my backing as well. I want her to succeed and to enjoy the best that life has to offer. Those things don’t come to someone who throws a fit, and that realization comes with the first sets of delays and procedures that an infant experiences.

I will not infantilize my granddaughter. Her feelings, and her language, when it comes, will be honoured with respect. I will hold her and comfort her as often as she needs; I will not, however, enable her intemperance. Calmly, but firmly, we are checking all reasons for any distress she is exhibiting, and she is most appreciative once the hunger, the gas pains or soiled diaper have been addressed. She already knows, after only two months, that she is being taken seriously by all three of her adults.

I learned a lot from the parents at Dharma Farm, in Paulden, AZ, about not babying infants. That does not mean skimping on nurturing. It means teaching patience, consideration and gentleness, from the time a child can recognize faces and voices. It will also mean being considerate of others, from the time Hana can walk and speak.

I look at the larger situation around our country today and see that there are far too many, even in positions of power, who have been infantilized and pampered, and who have learned to fulminate at critics; manipulating people and situations to their advantage, Whether this has come from a lack of spirituality or from overemphasis on the material side of life, it has laid low any society where people have become numbed to the machinations of the overindulged few.

While I shudder at some of the behaviour of people both in positions of authority and in positions of civic responsibility, I see where it started, and will do my small part to make sure a little girl coming up in the world doesn’t follow poor examples.

Cyclical

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Family, Inspiration, Matters of Faith, Personal goals, Personal Values, service, Social, Spiritual, Striving

February 20, 2026- I heard a few days ago, and read this morning, that with Saturn and Neptune converging astrologically at O degrees Aries, a 6000 year cycle has come to an end and that a new one has begun. Savvier people than I, with regard to astrology, will have a clearer understanding of what that means,in that particular sense.

I do know, though, that there is, and has been, a unifying energy around the planet, released in 1844 by al-Bab and energized even more in 1863, by Baha’ullah. Like most such processes, it has been slow to unfold, even with two world wars, several civil wars in various nations (including the United States), a global economic depression, a global pandemic and various countries choosing to live-for a time-under authoritarian rule. The unity of the human race, however, is sure to be one of the processes that arise out of this new cycle. It cannot be imposed on us. We must choose it for ourselves. Truthfully, though, I don’t see that we have many other options.

It was said, two days ago, that many shopworn institutions will continue to collapse and fade away, with new institutions, more fitting for this day and age, rising up to take their place. We certainly are seeing that-and I am not talking about models of Artificial Intelligence whose main feature is the exacerbation of human greed. I am talking more about grassroots efforts at improving the quality of life-from language preservation activities, to experiments in backyard farming, to co-operative small groups of parents raising children across familial lines,to alliances of countries that are not being organized by one or more “major powers” .

I want to mention that in my own life, another sea change has taken place. Just as in 1981-82, I became a Baha’i. left the Roman Catholic faith, relinquished alcohol dependency and entered into wedlock; as in 1986-92, we left the United States and learned to live in the beautiful land and culture of South Korea, becoming parents to a beautiful little boy; as in 2011, I laid my beloved wife to rest, let go of a house and community in Phoenix and moved to Prescott, traveling widely and also devoting many hours to community service, so now has the call of grandparenthood been answered and a new community become my Home Base.

One cycle ends, indeed, and another begins.

Re-Adjusted

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Inspiration, Personal Values, Social, Striving

February 19, 2026- It’s been two months, so today I made contact with a chiropractor in our area, who can continue the work done by Dr. Robert Boehland, at Cornerstone Chiropractic, in Prescott. This gentleman, Dr. Jason Venn, has been in practice for about fifteen years, in the city of Frisco, eight miles northwest of us, and about halfway between the cities of McKinney and Lewisville. It’s a straight shot for me, up Legacy Boulevard. Although it’s farther from the house than Cornerstone was from my place in Prescott, it is worth the drive. Dr. Venn is a knowledgeable advocate for natural medicine and adheres to the same regimen that did me so much good in Prescott. Of course, I am back to a couple of once-a-week sessions, so he may get to know my spinal column and clear up the detritus of my recent moving activities. In the long run, I will be back to where I was in early December.

I spoke softly, but firmly, to Hana, this morning, about slowing down her drinking from her bottles of mother’s milk or formula. She seemed to understand, and has re-adjusted her pace of intake. This will help her digestion and lead to less intestinal gas-always a problem for newborns. Whoever feeds her also takes care of burping her afterward, but I want to encourage her to think about her feeding habits on a very simple level. I am happy to say, it has worked so far. She is also sleeping more soundly at night, for an hour or so longer, each night, for the past three nights.

We are moving more into Spring, which seems to be coming a month early this year-unless, as a Canadian friend mentioned, with regard to her own area, this is the “first false Spring”. The two-week forecast calls for more of the same, with a day or two of rain thrown into the mix, here and there. Of course, we have no word on St. Patrick’s Day yet, and that is very often a day for late winter nasties.

Life is ever full of re-adjustments.

Animal Friends

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Posted by on in animal and plant life, Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Education, Family, Personal Values, Service Activities, Social, Striving

February 18, 2026- The video showed a little girl getting ready to go back in her house, after playing in the snow. Of a sudden, a cheerful polar bear cub scampered up and put its paws around the delighted child. She asked her mother if she could bring the bear cub inside, as “it’s freezing out”. The frantic woman called for her husband, and probably figured that the other mother was about to show up and charge at her daughter. The video cut off=and may well have been an AI-created snippet.

A South African Big Cat specialist, Kevin Richardson, has posted several videos of his work with hyenas, leopards and lions. I watched a couple of segments where he treated a male lion for ringworm and monitored the animal’s tooth, which had abscessed, but was somehow starting to heal on its own; another of him playing with “normally aloof ” hyenas, after he returned from a trip to another part of South Africa; and a third, “memorial” to a black leopard, which had died of advanced age. He had bonded with the panther, and noted that the male was a congenial sort, but had its boundaries, which responsible keepers respected.

Hana likes the four little figures on the mobile above her smaller bassinet. She coos and talks to them, as they revolve while she is laying there and gazing at them. There are an elephant, a zebra, a giraffe and a sheep. They are all grey and white, which matters none to my granddaughter. She is a generally happy little girl and smiles at the animals, as she watches and talks to them.

She will be taught to be careful with real animals, being kind to them, while remembering that they are going to defend themselves if they feel threatened. She will learn, as hopefully the little girl in the video did, to not intrude on a wild animal’s territory or try to touch an animal that is not cleared by her parents or the animal’s owner/keeper. The jury’s still out, as to whether we will have a pet here. Penny and I got Aram his first pet when he was five, and he learned the basics of caring for a dog. He and Yunhee will consider the matter, a few years hence.

Animals can co-exist with us, yet we have a duty to understand their natures and show restraint, not being either overly trusting or adversarial to our fellow creatures.

Celebrations, Losses and Growth

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Posted by on in Assistance, children, collaborating, Community, Education, Family, Personal Values, Social, Spiritual, Striving

February 17, 2026- Hana slept through the night,at least from her midnight feeding to 6:30. when we woke her for her breakfast feeding. She might have slept longer, but was very happy to get breakfast. She is growing at a steady pace and is awake more during the day, alternating between our developmental activities with her and gazing up at a revolving mobile, talking to the animals in her soft voice-which gets loud when she needs something from us.

Today was a day of two celebrations: Mardi Gras and Lunar New Year (The Year of the Fire Horse begins today,) Mardi Gras is not such a big deal here, though many Texans, like Arizonans, will tell you “It’s Fat Tuesday, because we speak English in America”. Still, there are some Cajun and Creole places here. We observed Mardi Gras with a simple Cajun chicken salad for dinner. We don’t go out much at night, so costumes were not on the agenda. The Year of the Fire Horse will see us celebrating a bit more, over the next fifteen days. Penny was born during a Year of the Horse (1954). Hana’s birthday came at the end of the Year of the Snake, and she definitely has some Fire Horse qualities, especially being assertive and outspoken-like her grandmother was.

We lost two noteworthy people, yesterday and today. Robert Duvall was another of the greats of cinema to leave our midst. His roles, especially in “Apocalypse Now”, “The Godfather” and the television series. “Lonesome Dove”, showed characters of steel and velvet. He famously objected to the cutting of a scene in “Apocalypse Now”, in which his hard-nosed character saves the life of a Vietnamese child. He was in life, a man of integrity and conviction.

So, too, was Jesse Jackson. I recall his first run for the Democratic Presidential nomination, in 1984. Many who were disturbed by the Iran-Contra matter and who were equally put off by the “business-as-usual” nomination of Walter Mondale, gravitated towards the Reverend from South Carolina and Chicago. He made a respectable showing that Spring, and maintained a presence on the national scene for decades afterward, before a neurological disease ended his mobility and, today, his life. Jesse Jackson extended the reach of the Civil Rights movement- pointing out that “all means all”. Regardless of how uncomfortable that made many feel sometimes, he did not flinch.

Lastly, my heart goes to the family of a woman of whom many had never heard before today. Linda Davis was a highly-regarded Special Education teacher in Savannah, She was killed, while on her way to work, when an undocumented migrant from Guatemala panicked during an ICE traffic stop, and fled the scene, ran a red light and made a u-turn, before crashing into Dr. Davis’ car. It is unclear as to whether officers were “chasing” him, but what is clear is that Dr. Linda Davis died unnecessarily. My heart goes to her family, colleagues and students, whoby all accounts, loved and cherished her.

Growth, celebration and loss are inextricably intertwined.