Weekly Recap: Let's Address This
Summarizing a full week in one email, plus our weekly dad joke
A Quick Note
This week I attended my 25-year high school reunion. With that came an opportunity to see the people who made me who I am. The ones I grew up with. The ones I got into trouble with. And the ones I built my hopes and dreams with. Some have sadly departed us. Some couldn’t make the event. Many could, and did, and it was a beautiful night of reflection, joy, sharing past sorrows, envisioning future hopes, and telling and re-telling bad jokes and well intentioned roasting.
My classmates are mechanics and mathematicians, medical doctors and physical therapists, judges and lawyers, artists and entrepreneurs, blue collar workers and white collar executives, stand up comics and stay at home parents, and some are still trying to figure it all out. But above all there was an innocence about our gathering. A comfort that you can only experience with those who knew you when you were still learning to tie your shoes in the first grade. That innocence fostered a seemingly innate connection back to our youth. Back to freshman year World History Honors with Mr. Lohrke, back to senior year AP Physics with Mr. Baiar, back Driver’s Ed with Mr. Sumka, where everyone had a story about a classmate almost getting them killed on the highway. A former teammate on the Track team. An intramural basketball rival. A story about that one time at band camp. And a vulnerability that we felt comfortable embracing because we were with the people who made us who we are.
As I drove home that night, dropping off a friend along the way, I reflected on the last 25 years and how much has changed since we walked across that stage in late Spring 2000. Life is incomprehensibly different now, but one thing remains the same.
One thing I came back to a moment of reflection: This is America. This is our home.
Thoughtful, loving, sincere, compassionate people just trying to do better. Trying to build a better future for their children. One in which each person can live their lives to their fullest, without fear of hate, discrimination, or ridicule. One in which we can build a more perfect union where we don’t see each other as lesser than, but as neighbors who can help us be greater than we’ve been. One that is possible, if we want it to be.
So despite everything, I was reminded of why I remain optimistic. Why I remain hopeful. Hopeful for a better and brighter future. Confident that we can make it so. And committed to put in the work day in and day out to make it happen.
My gratitude to each of you on this journey with me. This is America. Let’s stand together, overcome the collective struggles we face, make our home the more Perfect Union we know it can be.
This Week’s Articles & Updates
READ: A Journey of 1000 Miles
WATCH: Interview US Veteran Bae Franklin on the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza
READ: I FOIA’d the FBI for Border Czar Tom Homan’s Alleged Bribery Tape
Dad Joke of the Week
I got rejected from a pun contest because the rules were quite complicated. Later I learned that nine puns were rejected despite one pun intended. #DadJokes 😅
I graduated from high school in 1960, and at our 50th reunion, I shared the feelings you so eloquently expressed. And those feelings and hopes keep me optimistic, too. Thank you.
Qasim,
It’s nice that you had a fun time at your 25th. You don’t seem like the type of guy who got into trouble in high school, though. Maybe you got into good trouble or played hooky from school every once in a while with your friends.
But seriously, I was disappointed that our Attorney General, Kwame Raoul, was caught on his back heel regarding the Trump regime’s illegal and unconstitutional deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago.
He should have had a lawsuit ready to go, like the OR AG did. Maybe you should run against him in the 2026 IL Attorney General Democratic Party, being that you are a lawyer who has expressed outrage (rightly) over the regime’s treatment of immigrants.
He does not seem to me like he is completely up to the job, although I like him, largely agree with his policies, and voted for him in 2022.
Also, Democrats in Congress have not demanded that the regime abide by federal law and the United States Constitution as a condition for securing their votes to re-open the federal government.
This is an enormous mistake, IMHO. Yes, demand health care be fully funded, both ACA subsidies and Medicaid (most Democrats have not yet done so with respect to Medicaid). And also demand that the Epstein files be released because it involves powerful people covering up for pedo pervs (I have a hunch Trump is one, FWIW).
But, nothing is as important as defending the rule of law and United States Constitution. If Trump agrees to the demand of Democrats to fund health care and then unlawfully impounds the appropriated monies, what is the point of Congress passing a budget in the first place?
Hence, it is imperative for Democrats to not agree to fund the federal government, even one additional penny beyond what is already law, until there are verifiable enforcement mechanisms in place to ensure that all federal laws are being abided by the regime.
Supporting and defending the United States Constitution is the transcendent national interest.