the chronicles of jackson christopher st.cyr
This summer you did a number of camps. One of you favorites, along with magic, was the cartooning camp. You really got into drawing these awesome characters with slightly strange proportions and huge round eyes. They continued to show up in your drawings well after the summer. Keep drawing.
This evening me, mom, Tyler, Nonna, and Poppa attended the middle school theatrical performance of the play “Once on this Island.” You of course were part of the sound and lighting crew. You controlled the spotlight for the first of the two-act play. All dressed in black complete with your new black hoodie from Old Navy and your new black and red Air Jordan’s you manned the spotlight from the balcony seats in the auditorium. This was one of those times that you were strongly encouraged to participate in an activity. You weren’t crazy about it at the beginning because the first meeting was the day after we got back from Christmas in Florida. You ended up really enjoying it. I’m so proud of you for doing this. I love that you try new things. Never stop doing that.
Merry Christmas. This year we headed to Florida to see some family. The main purpose was to see Pops who wasn’t feeling well. In fact he ended up going into the hospital for surgery while we were there. He was fine and got out the day we flew back to Albany. As usual you caught a fish at the pond near his house. Before visiting Pops and M.A. we went to Universal Studios to Harry Potter World. It was awesome. You and I went on the Escape from Gringots ride after waiting in line for 45 minutes. You bought a magic wand that activates different displays around HP World. After visiting the grandparents we went on Jacksonville to stay with the Wrotens and see Grammie and Gramps. You had great time playing with the cousins. You went to St. Augustine, went geocaching, and played around the neighborhood.
Dear Boys,
It has been a hard week for me. Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States. He was elected on the basis of fear and anger. Many of his supporters are average Americans who felt they were not represented in our government, many feel they are entitled to something, and many are tired of the politics as usual. I understand a lot of what they are going through, but there is a disturbing element to his supporters. Leading up to the election he said many things to incite many of his supporters to say and do things that are not acceptable to my way of life. He made campaign promises to reverse laws and policies that support women’s and LGBTQ rights; to round up millions of people to deport them; and to get rid of the Affordable Care Act. There are so many other things that he said that I don’t agree with that you will learn about or by the time you read this you will have learned. Mr. Trump got elected by playing to the racism, sexism, homophobia, and extreme nationalism that exists in our society. These are the aspects of our world that we must be aware of in order to fight against them. We must fight against them by standing up people who need our help, by giving back to our community, and by voting. These actions must be taken to ensure that someone like Donald Trump does not get elected again and that someone like him doesn’t even come into existence because if we are being thoughtful, inclusive, and good then there is no need for his type of representation in our government. Hopefully four years from now there will be another post to this journal that is about a more positive vision of our future. Until then we fight!
I don’t know why, but looking at grid paper makes me happy.