Month: August 2020

Posted in Appalachia, Non-fiction

Appalachia and Comfort Food: Tonic for the Soul

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

I guess, when life gets too much for us, we go back to our roots. My roots lie in two very diverse places, but one of my feet stands in the Appalachian region of Eastern Kentucky. I think that the cooking, when I was growing up, was perhaps the best in the world! Even now, when I’m way past all grown up, I want to eat what my mother cooked, and what her mother cooked. My comfort food comes straight from Appalachia with only a few exceptions.

I still seek out roadside vegetable markets that crop up in the summer all around where I live. I now live on the fringes on Appalachia and, just about every week in the summer, I’ll take a drive 50 miles south in search of homegrown vegetables. I did that on Saturday and have a refrigerator stocked full of wonderful vegetables grown in the region.

Today was a very stressful day for both my husband and myself. About mid-afternoon, all I could think about was cooking some of those vegetables the old-fashioned, Appalachian way. I knew that eating what I grew up on would be a tonic for my soul. During this pandemic and the uproar in our country, I think we’re all looking for a little tonic.

I started to cook dinner and grabbed the green beans. I wanted green beans and cornbread. I’ve already given you my recipes in another blog post, so I’ll skip that. I put the green beans on to cook after spending two hours stringing them. I made the cornbread, with buttermilk, and put it in the oven. While the cornbread baked, I sliced fresh tomatoes, small cucumbers, and a cantaloupe for dessert. I took the cornbread out to cool and waited on the green beans. I don’t cook my beans with meat anymore, my one nod to health. I slice up a sweet onion and season them with onion, salt, and pepper. Delicious!

Dinner was wonderful and I was much calmer and less anxious after eating my comfort food. What’s your comfort food? Try it during the pandemic. Maybe it will be tonic for your soul too.

Posted in Non-fiction, Politics

Protect Your Voting Rights!

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

american flags and pins on white background

Americans today have an issue with maintaining their right to have free and fair elections. There are issues about voter suppression; specifically, the defunding of the postal service and voting by mail. There is also evidence that Russia is, once again, trying to manipulate our 2020 Presidential election.

In the 2016 Presidential elections, it is known that Vladimir Putin of Russia and his intelligence agency tried to manipulate the election and succeeded, at least to some extent. The Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by Marco Rubio (R-FL), knows that Putin is trying to do it again in the 2020 Presidential election. Putin is, and always has been, in favor of bringing down American democracy.

Russian interference is affecting your voting rights.

Several states have had 100% voting by mail for a number of years. Those states are Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. There has been less than 1/2% fraud. Despite that, Trump is against the vote by mail option, even though many people prefer to vote by mail this year due to the spread of COVID19. In the face of the facts that there has been virtually no fraud in the elections of those five states, he insists there is fraud. Then recently, he allowed the state of Florida to vote by mail. But no other state! Why, if he believes, fraud is likely? Trump is trying to suppress the vote because he knows that fewer voters are always better for Republican’s running for office than more voters.

Voter suppression through the vote by mail option is affecting your voting rights.

The U.S. Postal Service has been operating on a shoestring. Trump is trying to defund the postal service by installing one of his cronies as Postmaster General. The new Postmaster General fired the top personnel and any overtime work has stopped. Postal workers have been encouraged to leave mail undelivered and work shorter hours. Trump’s goal is to make sure that the Postal Service can’t handle the load of mail-in ballots which is another voter suppression tactic.

Voter suppression by defunding the United States Postal Service is affecting your voting rights.

Trump does nothing to stop Putin’s antics regarding our votes. He is actively trying to suppress our votes by defunding the Postal Service and trying to stop vote by mail.

Is this a man who should be President of the United States? Americans need to take back their right to vote.

Posted in nonfiction, Politics

Trump Cancels Social Security and Medicare Tax

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

On Saturday, August 8, the Democrats and Republicans in Congress could not come to an agreement on what kind of stimulus package to provide to the American people in the wake of COVID19. Due to their wavering, Trump stepped in, as always, seeing an opportunity to, once again, try to buy votes from the American people. He issued four executive orders, which are not yet law although he tries to tell us that they are. I want to focus on one of the four executive orders that should be important to all of us.

Trump cancelled the payroll tax until the end of the year. Supposedly, that is to help working people by giving them a bit more take-home pay. My question to my readers is this. Does this really help you? Particularly in the long-run when you retire? The answer to that, in my opinion, is a resounding no.

You see, the payroll tax is a shortcut way of saying “what you pay in for your share of Social Security and Medicare.” If the payroll tax is cancelled, no one is paying into the Social Security Trust Fund. They are not paying into Medicare. If working people are not paying in, the Trust Fund is not growing, waiting for you when you retire. This is Trump’s first shot at getting rid of Social Security and Medicare, which he and his Republican buddies have always wanted to do. A sneaky way to do it, isn’t it? Especially since the average person may not know what the term “payroll tax” really stands for.

You may say, “Oh, but Social Security will not be there for us when we retire anyway.” Do you know that for certain? No, you don’t. Do you want your parents and grandparents to lose what may be their only, or one of their only, sources of income when they retire or if they are already retired?

Medicare will pay 80% of your medical expenses at retirement. Your grandparents or parents may be on Medicare now if they are over 65 years of age. A program that pays 80% of medical expenses is a valuable program for you in the future and for them now. Trump is threatening the security of what could be the only health insurance you might have and that’s Medicare.

Here’s the kicker. Trump says that, if he is re-elected, he is going to cancel the payroll tax permanently. That will definitely mean the end of Social Security and Medicare. Think about that when you cast your vote in the November Presidential election.

Different (or the same) opinions welcome!

Posted in Flash Fiction, weekendcoffeeshare

#weekendcoffeeshare – 8/8/2020

Posted on by R.M. Carlson

Hi all! It’s been a while since I have participated in a #weekendcoffeeshare, but I’m glad to be back. Please join me in a cup of coffee and I’ll share with you what’s been going on in my life.

For several years, I blogged extensively on this site – mostly fiction and mostly flash fiction. I learned a lot! I had been a writer for years, but this blog helped me get back into it after a long sabbatical when life got in the way of writing. After several years of writing on this blog, I took a writing job and then another and a freelance writing career was born. I’m still working for both companies, but I’m also going to make time to blog here because of two reasons.

First, I’ve missed it. I’ve missed writing here. I’ve missed all of you. I need to get back to it. Second, I’m working with a literary agent who wants me to have a platform. I detest social media, but it is the way of the world now. I have a limited presence on social media, but I’d prefer that my platform be this blog. I’m interested in writing a book with (possibly) this agent or another one. So, I’m back and glad to be back!

This blog will be a little different going forward. I’ll still write some fiction, but I’ll focus more on non-fiction. Women’s issues such as gender inequality and wage inequity and many offshoots of those topics. Writings about where I come from which is a part of the US called Appalachia, a very interesting cultural region. Politics and cultural/social change as they relate to women’s issues and just in general. COVID19 and its effects on us and our society. You get the picture. I will slowly reorganize this blog into just a few categories – fiction, non-fiction, Appalachia. Maybe a few more. I’ll probably blog twice a week and I’ll participate in some of the prompts as well.

I look forward to seeing the posts of my old friends as well as making new friends, so please join me!