Notes To or About Letty

Randy Chan (Nephew)

Dear Auntie Letty,
Thank you for being a great auntie over the years. As a kid, I was somewhat aware that the aunties were helping Grandma prepare and cook all those tasty meals every Sunday, but I just took it for granted. I never thanked any of you, so I want to make sure that I at least thanked you for your hard work and dedication all those years.

Some of my very best memories were those trips to the Wong cabin every summer. The bonding developed among everyone will last forever. This was made possible because of you and Uncle Cliff.
Lastly, my Mom told me many years ago that you and Uncle Cliff agreed to take care of me, Tony, and Darcie if anything happened to her and my Dad. Fortunately, this was not necessary. However, I know that we would have been in the very best of hands if it was. 
Goodbye for now. I know I will see you again when my time is up here.
Love,
Randy

Terry and Doug Rathkey (Niece and Nephew)

Give your dear mom a big hug from me and Doug with this short message…
Hi Auntie Letty,
We want you to know that we are thinking of you right now…your smile and contagious little chuckle, always brightening our visits together and bringing joy to our hearts! We’ve missed visiting with you, but even as you are sleeping more, we hope you know how much we love and appreciate you. Praying for God’s peace, rest and comfort for you on this New Year’s Eve and in the year to come. 
With our love…
and happily keeping warm in the beautiful blanket you made for us 40 years ago,
Terry & Doug 🥰🥰

I’m Back - and Taking “No Shitler”

 I took a much-needed break for a few reasons:

1) My mom died on January 4 and I needed time to grieve and deal with that.

2) Tech Bros including Zuckerburg were bowing down to Trump, abandoning any real fact checking on the social media platforms. Worse yet, they contributed to his inauguration to suck up and let him spread his lies on their platforms.

3) I couldn't stand looking at some of my old "Christian" Nationalist church friends' posts, looking forward to the Trump Presidency. I was grieving the loss of these friendships on top of my mom.

4) I went to Hawaii with some friends and didn't want to keep up with FB. I also realized some of my very best friends don't do social media anyway. They reach out to me directly.

5) I didn't feel my posts mattered. Sure, people liked my gratitude posts (of which I truly am thankful), but warnings of Trump were falling on deaf ears. As one of my friends said, "I've never heard anyone say, 'I changed my mind because of what I read on Facebook.'"

All these reasons still hold true - I'm still grieving my mom and old church friendships, my best friends still contact me directly, and I don't really feel my posts move any political ideology significantly. But ever since I was a kid, I wondered, "How could a guy like Hitler come into power and fool a whole nation into thinking racism and cruelty is the path to greatness?"  Now I know.  When Trump started running in 2015, my Fairfield Dad told me, "He's like Hitler."  I laughed and said, "Don't you think that's a bit much? Besides, this country wouldn't go that route." He replied, "You watch." 

Sad to say, he was right.  Both my dads grew up in the Depression era, lived through WWII and served in the Korean War. They survived Trump's first term but thankfully do not have to watch this one which will be much worse. Now I see the cowardice in the politicians, media, tech bros, etc. Now I see that fear is probably how Hitler came to power just as Trump has. These guys played on baser instincts of people to blame others (Jews for Hitler, immigrants and liberals for Trump) for their misfortunes. Years later, "The Diary of Anne Frank" is one of the few documents of somebody watching hideous behavior unfold and criticizing it from a "real person's view." How I wish there were more records of how people could watch that unfold.

I know many people who just will not watch, read or hear anything that Trump and his Musk Administration is doing. It upsets them. I get it. This behavior upsets me too and I will never again buy anything Tesla related for my house. But I can't just do like the Germans did and bury my head in the sand or, worse yet, support the a$$holes as they try to end birthright citizenship, round up undocumented immigrants and put them in concentration camps like subhumans, pardon police officers who kill innocent Black people  claiming he's pro-police while also pardoning all his January 6 Nazis. He's a blatant racist and I believe that anybody who says otherwise is a liar and a fool. I'm tired of hearing, "Oh, he was misunderstood or taken out of context." Bullshit - actions speak louder than words and his actions prove it. 

He is trying to cut the federal workforce (never mind that many of them voted for him) so that he can pocket more money for the top 1%  instead of having the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes. He claims DEI is a bad thing because people of color are taking jobs away from White workers. Never mind that Obama and Harris were infinitely more qualified than he was  to even be considered for the Presidency, or that men still make more than women who do the same jobs. He's distracting his followers with negative talk of DEI and LGBTQ so that he can lower his and his rich buddies' tax rates because they do not care for the poor and needy as Jesus commanded. They only want more money. Ronald Reagan started the nonsense about trickle-down economics and the rich only get richer.  Citizens United enabled the rich to buy political power and now this country has become an oligarchy. America has elected an Authoritarian Dictator and he's counting on us to turn the other away.  

When Trump got elected, I wrote this post and promised that I would stay in the fight.  That is why I'm back. I can't have future generations look back and wonder, "Why did a whole country let a guy like Trump be so cruel?" I can at least do what Anne Frank did and write about it.