The Burrow

OFA asked me to shepherd a group to Congresswoman McSally's office this morning.  We were a small but vocal band of three retirees, each with a story to tell.  OFA does provide fact sheets with talking points; our voices amplified them with a personal point of view. Bill talked about gun safety and DACA and his experiences in the field.  JannyLou talked about insuring a loved one with Type 1 Diabetes before and after the Affordable Care Act.  The Congresswoman's staffer nodded and sighed and took notes.  He was properly sympathetic and bemused by a system that forces long time partners to skip marriage in case health care costs should bankrupt their family.  He heard what they were saying.  I asked him if he'd visited the Gabe Zimmerman room in Congress, the one dedicated to Gabby's staffer who was killed on January 8, 2011.  After all, Gabe was employed in the same capacity, meeting with constituents, before he was murdered by a Glock wielded...

A columnist teased me about stealing his next story. Friends of friends emailed friends who emailed me, making sure I knew they were glad to read what I wrote.  Classmates smiled.  Old friends shared the link. And my family wondered how I was doing. I'm not reading the on-line comments. I'm sure there are people trying to put a gun in every hand who think I'm over-reacting. They are entitled to their opinions and, after a while, I'll read them all.  Right now, I'm still pretty raw.  Willful ignorance, perhaps, but necessary. I'm waiting for a response from Rep. McSally to the message I left on the tape after her tele-Town Hall.  I asked where my article misrepresented the facts, where it was flawed.  I'm sure there were a lot of us leaving messages for her; I'm not faulting her for taking her time and answering everyone with respect.  I don't mind waiting; I can't be disappointed while I'm waiting. And I'm tired.  I'm very ver...

Rep. McSally held a "so called" tele-Town-Hall today, and I called in from my car, sitting atop a parking garage at the UofA.  I gave my name and hometown and the subject of my call (my op-ed in The Star) to the staffer managing the queue for questions.  I listened, and then I started screaming at my dashboard. My Congresswoman drew a moral equivalency between my words and the words of Kellyanne Conway.   "I cannot believe the paper allowed this misrepresentation of fact to be published." Nope.  Facts are facts.  (Unlike her assertion in that same response that this is Social Security... it's our Seniors... old folks.  Sure, but it's also the younger, disabled recipients of SSI.) She may disagree with my interpretation of her motives, but there are no misrepresentations of facts.  (And while we're on the subject, I think we need a word for not-a-lie-because-I-don't-know-what's-in-her-heart-but-it's-obviously-not-a-fact.)  Her handlers k...

I want to make double sure you're certain you want to do that.  The question surprised me.  I hadn't considered the consequences.  That felt like progress, and I let myself smile.  Then I shrugged my shoulders and typed back my only regret: that I wasn't angry enough. Remember all those rules the House of Representatives overturned last week?  Among them was the Implementation of the NICS Improvement Amendments Act of 2007 (NIAA) (Formerly Disclosure of “Mentally Defective” Individuals (NICS submissions)). Behind all that verbiage my Congresswoman agreed with her Republican leadership that individuals already adjudicated incapable of managing their own financial affairs by the Social Security Administration ought to be protected from the FBI's don't sell to these people because they are too dangerous to own and operate a weapon list. I know.  Unbelievable, right?   She apparently thinks that enabling his ability to shoot me is a higher good tha...

I wrote this missive to my Congresswoman: Dear Rep. McSally, Silence=Acquiescence. Hatred, division, and vengeance have no place in civil discourse. Can you stand up for women, and our right not to be groped? Can you stand up for the First Amendment, and the right of cast members to speak truth to power: You took on the Air Force and won; I admired that.  Are you brave enough to speak out for others, too? I await your response.  Mr. Trump's behavior is often inappropriate - will you call him on it? I took my letter (handwritten, on my embossed stationary) to a Pantsuit Nation Tucson Meet Up  on the street in front of Rep. McSally's office.   There we stood, men and women of all ages and descriptions, holding signs and smiling at the cars passing us by. I joined them after thanking the Tucson Police for their presence in the parking lot nearby; they were looking out for us and that made me feel marginally safer.  Drivers slowed to re...