Gerrymandering at its Worst

See this green area on the map above?  This is the Congressional District where I currently live.  This district also includes where I was born in the city of Detroit and where I lived for two years.  Also, where I worked in downtown Detroit for ten years.  Where I live today has absolutely nothing in common with the zip code where I was born, the most dangerous zip code in the city of Detroit.  And yet, the crazy Republicans in Lansing drew this district, gerrymandered it, under the false pretense that they were creating an African-American district - that is how it was explained to me by a politico. 
The Federal Court ruled yesterday that the map must be redrawn before the 2020 elections.  You can read the full story here.  Thirty-four Federal and State districts must be redrawn.  That kind of gerrymandering is no accident.  I may have run as a Republican for the twenty plus years I was in office, but I would never vote for another one ever again. 
Yesterday, folks were being interviewed on the radio and several said they care nothing for politics.  And that is just how our country has ended up in the mess it is in.

Remembering Notre Dame

I couldn't write this post yesterday.  I was just too upset.  My son called and asked if I was watching the news (as if, since my grandson was here).  I turned on CNN as instructed and instantly fell into tears.  The emotional effect was just overwhelming.

I blogged about my first visit to Notre Dame in 1969 just last year.  There are so many wonderful memories about this beautiful structure.  It wasn't until this morning that I was able to search my old picture albums from my 1999 visit.  At the time, the entire front of the cathedral was covered in scaffolding as it was being cleaned for the year 2000 celebration.

Already, nearly $600 million dollars had been pledged to rebuild the cathedral.  The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is collecting donations here in the USA.  It seems like an easier task to collect the money than it will be to rebuild.  But Europeans have restored many churches and palaces destroyed by their wars and I have no doubt this will be any different.

Here are a few of my photos from 1999.

Forgiving a Forgetful Uncle

So, if you have been reading my posts about my family search, you know that I have a great uncle who, according to DNA, is not really all that close.  In truth, it is some sort of anomaly since his other grandchildren show up as close relatives to me.

In researching this family line I found his marriage license from Pennsylvania.  What a hoot!  I told my sister that since I was not aware that he was an idiot, he must have just been drinking when he applied.  On the application he said he was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania when he was born in Nadolany, Galicia (now Poland).  He said his father was born in West Virginia when in fact he was born in Nowosielce, Galicia.  He also said he did not know his mother's name, whose very house he was living in at the time.  I mean, how is your mother unknown when you are living with her???

I sat here at the computer just shaking my head and actually thinking 'what an idiot'.  Then today I sat here at the computer and read another article about how the US President is still saying his father was born in Germany when he was born in the Bronx.  That's in New York City!  Now, I do think the POTUS is either an idiot or suffers from dementia, or maybe both.  So dear Uncle John, you're forgiven your lapses in memory.  Maybe you should have run for office.