Parallel

For those of you who know me personally, you are aware I am a fan of baseball. I grew up watching and loving baseball above all other sports. While still living in California my dear friend and I had season tickets to all of the A's midweek afternoon games, a ticket plan no longer available to an A's fan.

Today I am struck by the parallel between the "earthquake" that has happened within baseball this past week and hopefully the one that will happen in the Senate. The issue of presidential impeachment moves from the House of Representatives, where the President was indeed impeached, to the Senate where its process begins Tuesday, January 21, 2020.

Unlike the previous Commissioner of Baseball who did not confront the prevalent usage of performance enhancing drugs by professional baseball players, Rob Manfred, the present Commissioner of Baseball, drew a line in the sand this past week. He thoroughly investigated the sign stealing by the Houston Astros in 2017 and in 2018. Commissioner Manfred is holding managers and general managers accountable for the behavior of baseball players on their teams. He suspended both A.J. Hinch, the Astros' manager, and Jeff Luhnow, the Astros' GM. Both men were subsequently "dismissed" by the Astros' owner, Jim Crane. Manfred's mandate directly affected not only the Astros but two other teams where "the ringleaders" from the 2017 and 2018 Astros teams have been hired to manage those teams: the Boston Red Sox hired Alex Cora in 2018 and the New York Mets hired Carlos Beltrans in this off season. So for those of you following the news in the baseball world, you are aware these two men have also been relieved of their duties. This leaves three teams scrambling to find managers with Spring Training "just around the corner". 

Nancy Pelosi has guided the House through the process of impeaching the present United States President. Now I wonder whether the United States Senate, as Rob Manfred has done in baseball, can step up to the task of ousting the President who has grossly boggled his job? Will the Republican controlled Senate be able to set aside their adherence to party line and impartially view the wrongdoing of their party leader? 

Life On Mars is a community gathering place
and bar serving vegan food in Seattle, Washington.
Dwight's daughter, her husband and another
couple, who are vegan hence the menu,
 opened Life On Mars this past May.

We no longer live in a "Blue Bubble" here in New Mexico. We have neighbors who have befriended us who believe the present President supports their firmly held position against abortion, that he has masterminded the strong economy and he is an upstanding human being. Whoa! I say. Then I realize one of these neighbors watches no news and the other gets her news from Fox. Those neighbors whom are "functioning" adults are as appalled as I am that these lovely neighbors could have voted for and continue to support this sociopath who is our country's 43rd President.

View of the recent snow from our open front door.

Stillness is abounds when snow falls and dampens the massive turbulence here on Mother Earth. Will humans still step up and "do the right thing" when there is so much at stake for our country, i.e. the upcoming impeachment process in the Senate . . . not to mention the climate crisis threatening all BEings on our planet we call home?

"Oh, Great Spirit,

I pray for myself in order that I may be healed.

Oh, Great Spirit,

I pray for my close friend who is sick and needs help.

Oh, Great Spirit,

I pray for this world so that all these atomic weapons

And other bad things that we point at each other

Will someday soon all be destroyed.

I pray that adversaries will communicate

And all the mistrust will be healed.

Oh, Great Spirit,

I pray for the environment.

I pray for its cleansing

And the renewal of our Mother Earth."

Ed McGaa, EAGLE MAN.

"Oh, Great Spirit", I pray that our voted in Senate members of the Congress of the United States will step up and perform the job Chief Justice Roberts has sworn them to do.

To discharge all of our emotions lauding the excellent job the baseball commissioner has done as well as those emotions surrounding the impeachment trial soon to begin in our nation's capitol, may we often