Sunday morning, March 1, 2026
I woke at 4 A.M. this morning, as usual, because our furry friends – one elder kitty who desires only to eat and sleep and one kitten whose energy and enthusiasm keeps the German shepherd entertained – wake each other and me. The commotion starts with the kitten. But placing blame is superfluous to the situation that we bipeds created. We love our animals and they love us. I feed them while coffee percolates and I start the morning online spelling bee game. So far, I’ve avoided any news, knowing that I will scream into the void “Fuck Trump and the Americans who give him power!” This is a Sunday morning, and Sundays are restful days. Sunday mornings are the perfect hours for quiet reflection and replenishment. If I am driving, I tune into a local NPR station, KUNM, and listen to The Train to Glory.
To whom or what do I owe gratitude for the burst of energy and motivation I’ve experienced over the last few weeks? The change in weather as we approach Spring, longer daylight hours, increased neighborhood activities, finally deleting all my social media accounts and thereby getting my news and information via trusted sources that come by email, seeing my daughters thrive in their new experiences…or some alignment of cosmic forces that favor me…although I remain a skeptic and prone to thinking on the other hand, I know this renewal is a blessing.
But what has in fact changed since 2026 rang in? Seasons always come and go, sometimes with splendor and subtlety, often with flash, blunder, and conceit. March always slows down Spring’s approach as if Winter with all its gaudy holidays must not relinquish its clench. Daylight hours always grow between the winter and summer solstices, steadily and deliberately but in such an unhurried manner that we take it for granted until late summer when we mourn for the lost evening light. Neighbors’ roosters and guinea hens always sound off in the early morning hours. Neighbors always commit to completing outdoor work before summer heat sets in. My talented, intelligent, smart, creative, and empathetic adult daughters always find their way out of unproductive times and into activities that inspire them to be and do better.
Social and news media always stagnate my imagination and impair my overall well-being. Although I must have the facts and remain at 72 years of age a curious woman, I know I am better when I avoid incessant commentary on the news. I appreciate that both experts and amateurs like me must express our beliefs and opinions. However, a steady diet of others’ opinions and beliefs is nauseating and infuriating. The average television news reporter and commentator is as biased as I am. Except for the schmucks who serve the Trump regime and Republican power – CBS, FOX news, OAN, conservative radio, Newsmax, Washington Post, META, and X formerly known as Twitter, the rest do their best to keep us informed. But, as corporate private media who must earn profits, they submit to strategies that merely entertain the masses. Even daily participation on BlueSky, a social network of progressives and liberals, made me angrier than I ever need to be (unless I think about Destiny Ministries Church in Weston, Florida, or American conservatives). I have tried for two decades to use social media to my advantage and have healthy interactions with people. I failed where others succeeded. Facebook, Tribel, Twitter, and BlueSky are not for me.
This is the change I needed! Although I deleted my accounts and no longer have access to the information, family and friends’ posts, relevant and trustworthy news, and opinion posts – which is a genuine loss, I no longer expose myself to overwhelming vitriol and disinformation. The local, national, and international news stories I need to hear are available on NPR stations and through the multiple, trustworthy newsletters I get in my email box. During the 2024 election campaign, I put a challenge on Facebook and Tribel: Make a determined effort to limit your news and information to National Public Radio and PBS for three months. Severely restrict your daily diet of news and information to the most trustworthy source in the U.S. Say No! to news commentators and podcasters. Report back after three months and describe the results. No one got back to me. And, per the election results with eighty million choosing not to vote and Republicans winning a slim majority of votes, I knew that no one had paid any attention to my posts. I was always insignificant on the bizarre and sick social media broadcasting system.
Although I do not suggest that everyone delete their social media accounts, I do believe that many of us will be better people for doing so. The nation’s billionaires like Mark Zucherberg and Jeff Bezos own most social and news media. These billionaires do not give a flying toss about you or me; they care about profits and power. We should not play into their traitorous hands. But many writers and journalists who post on social media are good people hoping to influence and inform the public with truth. I wish them well. The algorithms, bots, AI content, right-wing agitators, and MAGA tend to drown them out.
One important lesson I learned from two decades of social media is that America’s wealthy conservative class will do anything they want to do to keep America’s masses in check…and that most Americans will not protect their communities and nation from the wealthy conservative class. Social media is like private education, television, for-profit private news media, and church: Bias and Ownership have all the power, The Other have scraps. Americans are an unreliable lot. Billionaires tell us what to think, and we haven’t the critical thinking skills to fight it. Most Americans struggle without progress under excessive debt, loneliness, worry, illnesses, and substance abuses. Most Americans do not read books, much less nonfiction and history books; most read at a fifth-grade reading comprehension level; most have no education beyond high school. Most Americans have no idea where the Ukraine or Iran are geographically located, must less know the history and current events concerning the two countries. Most Americans who were eligible to vote in 2024 decided a Republican authoritarian government that would start wars, harm our immigrants, and escalate Israel’s cruel war was better than a Democratic government that would support Israel’s genocide in Gaza and protect our immigrants and build a strong economy for all of us…so they did not vote at all. Unreliable, untrustworthy, hypocritical, stupid Americans. I know who will not protect democracy, liberty, and justice for all – most Americans.
Before I go outdoors to finish the window box project today and sew clothing for the stuffed animals that I’ll take to my nieces and nephew in Texas next month, I will wrap this post with one bit of encouragement. We as individuals and a nation will not get better if we poison our systems. We must use our best critical thinking skills to mitigate the right wing, billionaire class, Republican, MAGA, and Christian Nationalist poisons that leak into our systems via social and news media. Fascism and white Christian male supremacy wins everywhere that good people are silent. However, our voices and Truth have other channels outside social media: we have public protest, blogs and podcasts, radio and television such as NPR and MS NOW, journalism such as The Texas Observer and New York Times, the majority among artists, the majority among thinkers and doers and experts, and the courage and empathy for all others that is necessary to battle with America’s fascists.
We will win. Doing so by deciding where to fight the battles is how we win.