“Yeah, I read your blog every time,” the younger woman sitting next to me said. “Sometimes it’s good stuff and I print a copy of it and save it. Other times, it’s just babbling.”
I burst into laughter when she said that, but she wasn’t finished. “What’s with all this country music? Don’t you ever listen to anything other than country? You need to branch out.”
At this I protested, but she had another comment. “I can tell with the first sentence if it’s a good day or if you’re out there rambling around in outer space.”
Carmen is a beta follower for this blog, but of course I have no way of tracking whether she reads the entries or doesn’t so I was really pleased to hear that she does. Carmen is the granddaughter of one of the four most important women in my life, Willie Flora, and I’ve known her since she was a little girl in elementary school. I had her email address and invited her to follow along with me when I sent the original invitations. She accepted and now here we were almost two years later chatting and eating brisket in a booth at Dozier’s Barbecue in Fulshear, Texas in the middle of a Saturday afternoon.
She is a Reader. A Follower. And she had no reluctance to call it like she sees it. I’d love to take credit for some of that bravado but I’m afraid she learned at the tables of two masters, her mother Leora and her grandmother Willie. I’ve had a few lessons at those tables myself.
Good stuff or babbling? A new bar is raised. To publish or not to publish? That’s the question. I’ll let my readers, my followers decide whether I’ve made the right call.
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The Short Side of Time, a collection of my favorite blogs, was published in 2015. The above piece on good stuff or babbling continues to be a question looming over every post ten years after I first shared.
Voting records on gun control legislation in Congress
Here’s how our South Carolina Congressmen have voted on loosening gun restrictions: Republican Senators Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott have consistently supported laws loosening gun restrictions (or against a measure adding restrictions) for as long as they have been in the Senate (Graham since 2002, Scott since 2013).
The only person in Congress from South Carolina who consistently supports laws to tighten gun restrictions is D-SC Jim Clyburn, a lone voice crying in the wilderness of lives lost to gun violence in this country.
The stats above are year-to-date numbers as of July 22, 2023 – which means we are on pace for nearly 50,000 gun-related deaths this year.
This is madness. This is insanity. No gun toting gun owner needs AR15-style rifles. Nobody. Period. We need to start somewhere. Ban the damn things.
How old are you, Ella? my friend asked our granddaughter Ella. Ella looked at me. I looked at her. Tell her how old you are, Sweet, I said. Ella appeared disinterested in the question, almost as if she were thinking why are the elderly so concerned with my age – can’t they show more curiosity? No one ever asks me what I’m thinking about, for example.
I’m 4 October, Ella finally replied.
(which was her interpretation ofwhat we typically say her age is:
she’s 3 but will be 4 on October 1st)
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Overheard at bedtime last weekend:
Nana, why can’t you come live with meand Molly and Daddy and Mama? Ella asked.
Oh, darling, Nana has her own house and has to take care of three dogs and Naynay, too, Nana replied.
Naynay can take care of the dogs, Ella said.
Problem solved.
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Molly and me watching Wimbledon– I miss them both
Pretty and I acknowledge and embrace our adoration of our two granddaughters Ella and Molly. We realized when Ella was born we would become the typical grandmothers who think their little girl might be the cutest, smartest and funniest child ever. When Molly was born, we were sure they both were.
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Following a week of Vacation Bible School at Lolly and Pop’s church, I asked Ella if she knew who Jesus was. She said she did. I said well, good, tell me and Nana about him. Nana was in the front seat driving the car. Ok, Ella said and then came the slightest pause. She tilted her head slightly in Nana’s direction and said hmmm…Jesus was somebody that…hmmmm…(long pause)…he had…hmmm…he was really…hmmm… Naynay, I don’t know anything about Jesus.
I set out on a narrow way Many years ago Hopin’ I would find true love Along the broken road But I got lost a time or two I wiped my brow Kept pushin’ through I couldn’t see how every sign Pointed straight to you
And every long lost dream Led me to where you are Others who broke my heart They were just northern stars Pointing me on my way Into your lovin’ arms This much I know is true That God blessed the broken road And led me straight to you
I think about the years I spent Just passin’ through I’d like to take the time I lost And give it back to you But you just smile and take my hand You’ve been there you understand It’s all part of His grander plan That is coming true
And every long lost dream Led me to where you are Others who broke my heart They were just northern stars Pointing me on my way Into your lovin’ arms This much I know is true That God blessed the broken road And led me straight to you
By Nancy Pelosi, House speaker emerita (msnbc.com)
On this day [July 19, 1848] 175 years ago, in the small town of Seneca Falls, New York, a group of visionary women shook the world.
With their Declaration of Sentiments, they not only echoed but improved upon our founding charter — boldly asserting that “all men and women are created equal” and rallying women to “demand the equal station to which they are entitled.”
Imagine the courage that it took for those women at that time. Some had left home without their husband’s or father’s permission, and spoke openly about issues of discrimination and disenfranchisement and domestic violence.
The groundbreaking convention in Seneca Falls further energized what was a burgeoning women’s rights movement in America. And since then, generations of fearless women marching, mobilizing and demanding full equality for all have carried forth their torch.
Today, we stand on the shoulders of our courageous foremothers. Because they took a stand, at last we have a seat at the table.
For their audacity in blazing a path for progress, our nation owes a debt to Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Lucretia Mott, Martha Wright, Mary Ann M’Clintock, Jane Hunt, Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony, Sojourner Truth and countless heroines of history, including those who were enslaved, abused or marginalized.
More than seven decades later, women won the right to vote with the 19th Amendment, although it would take many more decades before Black women could fully exercise this freedom everywhere. The Equal Pay Act of 1963 and the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 are both pieces of an ongoing effort to close the gender pay gap. In the 1990s, Congress secured expanded access to family and medical leave, as well as strong protections in the Violence Against Women Act.
Meanwhile, our coalition has only grown broader and stronger as we have fought for the rights and protections of transgender women and nonbinary Americans.
All this progress has made possible a woman as vice president, a woman as speaker — and someday soon, a woman as president.
Today, we stand on the shoulders of our courageous foremothers. Because they took a stand, at last we have a seat at the table.
Yet outrageously, our centuries-long march toward gender justice was abruptly halted last summer when the Republican supermajority on the Supreme Court took a wrecking ball to women’s health freedom.
The monstrous decision overturningRoe v. Waderipped away long-held rights — and unleashed a flood of draconian policies denying access to the full spectrum of reproductive care, even in life-threatening circumstances.
For the first time in our history, girls growing up today have less reproductive freedom than their mothers. Democrats will not rest until the rights of Roe are restored for all.
At the same time, women still face too many barriers in the workplace.
Gender justice starts with finally achieving equal pay for equal work. And we must ease the burden of caregiving that falls disproportionately on women by investing in the expanded child tax credit, universal child care, paid family and medical leave, home health care services and more.
This is the imperative, ongoing work of the Biden-Harris administration and Democrats in the Congress — and we are committed to finishing the job.
The story of America has always been one of ever-expanding freedoms, from abolishing the scourge of slavery, which was strongly supported at Seneca Falls, to ensuring all women and people of color are able to vote, to securing reproductive freedom, to achieving marriage equality.
These victories were made possible by everyday Americans participating in the highest form of patriotism: outside mobilization. This is the indelible legacy of Seneca Falls, stirring generations of women not to wait but to work for change.
So, on this momentous 175th anniversary, let us renew our pledge to continue the work of Seneca Falls. Because all of America’s mothers, wives, sisters and daughters must be able to enjoy the liberties and opportunities that they deserve.
When women succeed, America succeeds.
Nancy Pelosi
Speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi has represented San Francisco in Congress for more than 36 years. She served as the 52nd speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, from 2007 to 2011 and from 2019 to 2023.
I'll Call It Like I See It 
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