1. I always feel like I don’t like labels. We label to ignore and be safe. I know people label me, but I try look beyond the labels and see what each person is saying. There are human beings behind every political and social label who are not being heard. People under the label of liberal are often deafened by arrogance and righteous frustration. The racist right by ignorance which leads to fear which stifles all the diverse music of the world. I try to remove my earmuffs as often as I can and I hear the people who cynically perch above us laughing and patting themselves on the back. In Their ears is the song of material gain. They cannot hear the jackhammers eating away that the root of their tree. It will come down eventually.

2. Why is it so hard for some people to look for what there is in common, instead of fearing and hating differences? Why are people so fearful and ready to blame others? We need to figure these things out or that path to power will always be there, the path that leads through fear and blame. If we don’t rise together, we don’t rise at all.

3. It wasn’t just the haters that voted for Trump. I can’t figure out why they did, but I think we have to try to figure that out. I think there are a lot of things we don’t understand about people because we tend to listen in our own groups. I have a hard time with this myself. but I am pretty sure that if we can’t figure this out, we will be doomed to these cycles of no progress. We can’t just erase half of voters in this country as nonhuman. We have to listen when it is hard to listen and speak from understanding or we go down the shit hole with the people we label. We do have to protect our rights and fight for the marginalized first, but until we can communicate a commonality with those that are reachable, people like Trump will be there to divide us and set us against each other to the detriment of ourselves.