I’m starting this post with a quote from Thornton Wilder in The Bridge of San Luis Rey, a book I read periodically.  I believe in the power of Love.  

There is a land of the living and a land

of the dead and the bridge is love, the 

only survival, the only meaning.  

With that, I suggest everyone read Heather Cox Richardson words for today, September 12.  She begins with this:

On Thursday, in The New Republic, conservative judge J. Michael Luttig published a dire warning to the Republican Party…and to all Americans. In the piece, Luttig outlined how Republicans could refuse to seat elected Democrats in January after a Democratic victory in the 2026 midterm elections of November. “The coming crisis,” the piece says, would be “The Final Battle for America’s Democracy.”

Luttig spelled out that Trump is fighting a war against America’s democracy. While the refusal of Vice President Mike Pence to assist his power grab made it fail in January 2021, Luttig notes, today Trump and his Republican congressional allies are more determined than ever to take over the country.

Luttig focuses on the ability of House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to prevent the recognition of duly-elected Democratic representatives on January 3. Johnson has the power, Luttig says, to remove the current House clerk, Kevin McCumber, and replace him temporarily with a MAGA loyalist who will refuse to list Democrats on the roll of those elected to the 120th Congress.

We know what Trump did on January 6, 2021.  Only Mike Pence’s courage stopped it.  Now, they’ve planned more carefully, and they have Mike Johnson doing Trump’s bidding.  I don’t understand it and I know we’re all doing what we can to ensure our vote counts, and yet, it almost didn’t in 2021, and now, and with it all, we hold onto and believe in the power of love.

Mary Oliver: My work is loving the world.