Back and forth

 Looking back at the last posting and even at several before that, I have no idea why some items appear in all caps. I obviously would never post in all-caps, one of many flukes in the blogosphere. I also realize that sometimes what appears in all-caps for me does not always do so for my readers, so may depend on our own individual computer systems. But if you see all caps, that was not my intent.

Recently, I had once again considered no longer continuning with the blog, since most of what is reported here is available from other sources, though I do put my own spin on it and also add some personal items. However, now several family members and readers have urged me to continue, pointing out that I have led a rather uncoventional life, despite appearing to be a quite ordinary "little old lady," which gives my blog a special quality. And it's also been helpful for me to be able to go back in time when memory fails me. I cannot claim a huge readership, just family and friends around the world, including some former DC neighbors; but since we're all here in this world together, let's just carry on. I am not trying to sell anything or to become famous, merely to communicate with many friends and family members. And anyone who has something to share or a comment to make can always send me an email. Unlike with my books, where I have actual physical copies, I'm not sure how long the blog will remain after my death. Some writings and actual books have survived hundreds or even thousands, of years, but the history of blogs is still being written.

Interim Chief of Police of the Metropolitan Police Department Jeffery W. Carroll has said that Cole Allen, the would-be attacker at the recent Correspondents' dinner, was armed with a shotgun, a handgun, and multiple knives. He was able to bring them all from California by traveling by train, where luggage is not screened, as there are too many passengers getting on and off, some even daily commuters. Allen also had checked in as a hotel guest several days before the dinner. Security can only be provided at an actual event, as it would be imposssible to anticipate every possible undesirable scenario beforehand. Those who want to be in public life just need to take risks, though it would be most helpful to be able to jettison the so-call "right to bear arms," which puts all Americans at much greater risk than the residents of other developed nations.   

 

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Going outside now in Berkeley Springs, the air is quite balmy and everything is green: trees, grass, leaves, bushes--all in different green hues, 

Google says: Shades of green range from vibrant yellow-greens to deep blue-greens, offering a massive spectrum influenced by nature, such as lime, emerald, olive, and forest green. Common categories include pale greens (mint, celadon), bright greens (neon, kelly), dark greens (hunter, spruce), and earthy greens (sage, moss).

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My late father, Leonard J. Currie, a well-known architect and planner, avoided having the interiors of homes and buildings he had designed painted in green, as he felt there was already enough green outside in nature. Extensive information about him and his wide-ranging career can be found by Googling his name.

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A reader recently found the following bio of me on Huff-Post. It must have appeared there before I started this current successor blog, as only honduraspeacecorps.blogspot.com is mentioned, without the 2. That first blog mysteriously stopped in 2019, so then I launched this one: https://honduraspeacecorps2.blogspot.com/ Here now is what she found.

Barbara E. Joe

author, human rights activist, Spanish interpreter

Barbara E. Joe, MA, (last name thanks to a Korean father-in-law) is a Boston native and an alumna of the University of California, Berkeley. A mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother, she works as a freelance writer, Spanish interpreter, and translator out of her century-old house on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. An Amnesty International volunteer since 1981, she was a founding member of local Group 211 and has served in various national leadership positions, including 14 years as volunteer Cuba and Dominican Republic country specialist and the last 12 years as volunteer coordinator for the Caribbean. She is also a member of the National Peace Corps Association and a board member of several non-profit organizations working internationally. After the deaths of her older son and a Cuban foster son, she joined The Compassionate Friends, a bereaved parents’ support group, and began leading a Spanish-language bereavement group. She has joined a small, intentional Catholic community called Communitas. From 2000-20003, she served as a health volunteer with the Peace Corps in Honduras and wrote an award-winning memoir, Triumph & Hope: Golden Years with the Peace Corps in Honduras (Amazon.com, Kindle, & Nook). She has also written articles about Cuba, Haiti, Romania, Sudan, and other countries visited for humanitarian reasons. In April 2011, she was featured in Woman’s Day and in August 2011 and April 2013 appeared on Voice of America News in internationally distributed videos. In 2014, she authored another memoir, Confessions of a Secret Latina: How I Fell Out of Love with Castro & In Love with the Cuban People (Amazon.com, Kindle, & Nook). Her motto throughout her life has been to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. Readers are invited to view her blog, http://honduraspeacecorps.blogspot.com, where she posts comments about Washington, D.C., Cuba, and her annual humanitarian visits to Honduras.

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Just now, after looking for my name on LinkedIn, I've found another Barbara Joe there, someone apparently of Asian descent. Joe as a last name is probably used mostly by people of Asian ancestry like my late former husband, Tom Joe, whose father came from Korea.

I forget whether I've already shared the message below received from Sirley Avila the Cuban woman whose right hand was cut off by a regime supporter. I had helped bring her to this country. In any case, here is her most recent message, so get out your Goggle translator.
Gracias, Barbara, tus recuerdos me hacen honor, eres una mujer valiente y tienes un hermoso corazón.

She also asked for my photo, so I sent her one taken with my granddaughter Natasha. I plan to see Natasha very soon in Florida at her son's high school graduation. but won't be going as far as Miami, where Sirley lives. 

Here is Sirley's own photo.

Sirley says her son and his family would like to join her in the US, but she doesn't have a job here and, under the Trump administration,she would need to have a place for them to live and other costs covered. Surely there is an organization that could help her and her family, though bringing in anyone from abroad is tough now with Trump saying that the border is closed. 
Ellos quieren estar conmigo, pero no he tenido ayuda para traerlos, como no he trabajado aquí en USA, se me complica traerlos porque necesito demostrar que tendrían vivienda, seguro médico y otros gastos cubiertos hasta que obtenga permiso de trabajo y trabajaran.

I recommend the following article, written by someone I once met years ago, Carlos Eire.

https://time.com/article/2026/04/23/waiting-for-spring-in-havana/

Here's something else to ponder: “Had I been present at the creation, I would have given some useful hints for the better ordering of the universe.” So wrote Alfonso X King of Castile (1252-1284).

Probably all of us, if actually present at that early time, could offer our own recommenations. 

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Can we now avoid talking about our erstwhile and current president, Donald J. Trump? No, probably not, since he is always making news. And no one can predict what he might say or do next. Almost nothing he does should surprise us, as he seems to like being unpredictable, keeping everyone in suspense. Or maybe he really has no partictular plan at all and doesn't even know himself what he might be doing next.  

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In a letter to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Mark Kelly of Arizona, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut -- all members of the Senate Armed Services Committee -- argue that the Pentagon did not take "basic precautions" ahead of expected Iranian retaliation after the U.S. and Israel launched a war against the regime in late February.

Yes,Trump had simply ordered the strike without consulting anyone, just after Netanyahu had suggested it to delay his pending corruption trial, urging Trump to keep it top secret, as Bibi knew Congress would never approve it.  

Poor Donald Trump--and poor USA with him now as our president--as he isn't thinking ahead, and often doesn't even seem to be thinking at all. 

Germany's Merz says Iran is humiliating US as talks stall

 Chancellor Friedrich 

Merz 

says the US has no strategy in the Iran war

. He is quite right, as Trump started the war on impulse with no plan in mind, just at Netanyahu's urging to delay Bibi's corruption trial to get him off the hook. As a result, Germany and other US allies are confronting economic and political fallout from a war that Trump had launched without any warning or ever consulting them. Now Trump has no idea on how to exit a war that he had started simply on a whim.

If Donald Trump doesn't know what to do next, he might consider retiring and letting Vance clean up the mess, as at least JD Vance doesn't suffer from senile dementia and senile attention deficit disorder. But even then, at every turn, Trump would try to undermine Vance. If Kamala Harris had been our president, the US would never have started this war, as Kamala is so much smarter than Trump has ever been.

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I've just found out that Sister Alice Zachmann, met years ago in Washington, DC, at masses celebrated by Communitas, a progressive religious gathering within the Catholic fold, has now died in Minnesota, 2 weeks after celebratig her 100th birthday. 

Valiant Sister Alice was a woman ahead of her time. She quietly triggered reforms in the US Catholic Church from within before anyone realized what she was actually doing.

Is Trump thinking of retiring as president? It's a dangerous job.

 

Trump safe after shots fired at White House Correspondents' Dinner; suspect in custody

Thanks or no thanks to the so-called "right to bear arms," long promoted by the NRA, as well as by gun manifacturers and sellers, those attending public gatherings here in the US are always at risk of being shot. That same risk does not threaten those in other developed countries because of their much stronger firearms control laws, freeing their citizens from the constant dangers of our own gun culture. Nor are guns needed for hunting any more, as we no longer need to kill wild animals for food. Fewer guns in ordinary hands means fewer gun deaths. Firearms in the home are not protective--that's a fact,  just look at the statistics. The guns end up killing the home's occupants, not intruders. (How many homes actually have intruders? In decades of being a homeowner, I've never had an intruder.) 

The President is always being guarded, meanwhile other Americans are being killed or harmed by guns. (My son still has problems with his foot, injured when he was only 11, after another boy dropped a family's bedside gun that went off.) Guns put everyone at risk, even you and me, even our neighbors, even the US President. The "right to bear arms" puts us all in danger. 

The would-be shooter (would-be assassin) at the Correspondents' dinner certainly acted with "malice aforethought" by checking in as a hotel guest beforehand. He had traveled from California by train, not air, to avoid having his guns revealed in his luggage, My sympathies go out to Charlie Kirk's widow who was present at the dinner and must have been traumatized after her own husband was shot and killed.

                Guests hastily left the dinner after the shooter was subdued. 

=====AThe more gunsdd Yahoo as a preferred source to

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So do you think that Donald Trump, soon age 80, may now not only feel worried about being shot, but also be getting tired of actually being president? He often looks tired. And he knows that his life may be at risk. Is it all really worthwhile?

 Is President Trump actually dozing here below or just "resting" his eyes? He often seems to be snoozing on the job.

Donald Trump went to Florida last Friday, planning to return to the White House for the correspondents dinner that he had never attended before. He had skipped the event in years past, saying that the press had been "extraordinarily bad" to him. Now, apparently, Trump thinks the press is improving in its coverage of him. But the man has really been looking increasingly fatigued lately.

Some prominent names in conservative media, including Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson, have turned completely against the president ever since he launched his war against Iran on Feb. 28. Lots of political churning has been going on, as has been reported in the media. Trump may have started to view the media more favorably, thinking it is actually helping him now.

Trump’s Own Voters Turn on Him in Shock New Impeachment Poll

The media may now be viewed more favorably by Trump because he considers it 

less critical of him. However, his most faithful voters are actually expressing less support. Is Donald Trump possibly trying to become somewhat mainstream and more moderate? Hard-core voters don't really like seeing that.

MAGA REVOLT

The new numbers put Trump at the same approval as at the “peak of the Watergate scandal,” a pollster has said, no longer showing very high approval among his previously faithful supporters, but possibly gaining more non-Maga fans.  

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Trump DOJ’s Alarming New Plot Against U.S. Citizens Exposed

Donald Trump has indicated that he wants to "de-naturalize" US citizens not actually born here. If so, why not start first with Melania and her son, Barron, born to Melania as perhaps a non-citizen mother? (Melania, who came here on a tourist visa that had expired, then got herself pregnant by Donald Trump.) And what about de-naturalizing Trump himself, since his own mother wasn't born in this country? How far back might we want to go? Even those tracing their ancestry to the Mayflower might become de-naturalized, according to Trump's current whims.

Google now says: 

The U.S. population is experiencing a significant slowdown in growth and is projected to start declining by roughly 2056, or potentially sooner, due to declining birth rates and reduced immigration.

Reducing immigration and deporting people are signature Trump policies. Now he is also thinking about "de-naturalizing" folks who have already become citizens. Is that even legally possible? He apparently thinks that having fewer immigrants and fewer residents overall would somehow boost his own popularity. In fact, reduced population growth, perhaps even a decline in overall population, usually has negative national consequences. This problem had never before faced our country until Donald Trump came on the scene. Trump supporters may believe they will do better if more immigrants are deported. I don't have time or space here to explain why that simply is not the case. It might require me to write a whole other book.

NY Times, Iran and U.S. Sink Into Awkward Limbo of ‘No War, No Peace’

Each side is betting it can last longer than the other, analysts say. But there are risks in a stalemate without a deal.

As long as the 2 sides are not killing each other, l say let the stalemate continue. If it goes on long enough, they may even forget why they were fighting. 

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The next article is by a Cuban man whom I actually know. He was mentioned on the blog years ago, also in my Confessions book. Luis Manuel has never given up the struggle.  So please read his article.

The New York Times, April 24, 2026

I’m One of Cuba’s Political Prisoners. When Will I Go Free?

By Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara

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A few days ago, on a blog posting entitled To blog or not to blog?  That is the question I had posted this photo of my Cuban friend Sirley who was attacked on her farm in Cuba by a man with machete, saying he was punshing her for efforts in trying to keep a local school open. Ten years ago, I had facilitated her arrival in the the US and invited her to give testimony at the Amnesty International office in Washington, DC, when I was then the organization's volunteer Caribbean Coordinator. She now lives in Miami. 

Now she just told me:

Gracias, Barbara, tus recuerdos me hacen honor, eres una mujer valiente y tienes un hermoso corazón.

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Another long-time friend no longer answers emails, though I've recently sent her several, asking for a reply. She lives or was living in Canada. Did she die or did she just move away and then change her email address? She had mentioned the possibility of moving back to Britain, her birthplace, so maybe she has gone there now. Another friend living in a nursing home also wasn't responding. Then someone there answered her phone and told me that she had died. But unless someone else answers the phone for a deceased person or checks on their email, we might never know what happened.

So now I need to give instructions to my kids about answering email queries after my death. I've already lost my older son and a Cuban foster son, so no one else in my family is allowed to die before me! No one else! God, fate, destiny--do you hear me now! And we all should leave instructions with a family member to check our email after we have departed this mortal coil. Don't leave all our friends guessing. 

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I keep on getting online ads in Spanish. So how does the internet know that I speak Spanish? Of course, this ad, like any emphasizing big savings, first requires actually spending money. It takes spending money to save money.  

Paga $0 durante 2 meses.

Solo en línea: Obtén 2 meses de internet de fibra óptica 100% gratis al contratar Fibra 500 y 1 Gig. Empieza a ahorrar hoy mismo.

To blog or not to blog? That is the question.

 

Let's see now if the blog is working again, as it was stymied for the last 2 days. with some kind of glitch which I hope is gone now. I tried trashing and erasing some items which seems to have helped. We shall soon see. Otherwise, I am tempted to give up the blog  altogether. But several readers have urged me to continue. The follwing is one.

looking at online news all around, it’s very crazy how one man can create so many difficult situations for so many.  and we are witnessing it, not only here but also around the world; resonance!    

     i m thinking that you may be lucky residing far away from the maddening crowd!  have u thought of it that way?

    please keep posting! we need you!

Several readers have urged me to continue with the blog, so I am doing so, at least for now. 

Most Americans say there was not sufficient reason to start war in Iran: Polls

Just to delay Netanyahu's corruption trial was definitely not a good enough reason. 

Wash. Post,  Appeals court clears way for U.S. to reopen border for asylum seekers

A federal appeals court found President Donald Trump’s declaration of an “invasion” at the U.S.-Mexico border was illegal, effectively reopening the U.S. to migrants seeking asylum.

Politico, President Donald Trump has refused to rule out the idea of seeking a constitutionally prohibited third term in office, telling NBC News’ Kristen Welker in a phone call that “there are methods” for doing so. “You have to start by saying, I have the highest poll numbers of any Republican for the last 100 years,” Trump said. “We’re in the high 70s in many polls, in the real polls, and you see that. And, and you know, we’re very popular. And you know, a lot of people would like me to do that."

                    Here is a recent cartoon from the Washington Post. 

A display on DC's National Mall of thousands of tiny teddy bears seeks to help abducted  Ukranian children be reunited with their families.

Millions of Americans may now also be considered Canadian under new law

Yes, for me, becoming a Canadian might not be so hard, as my late father was actually born in Stavely, Alberta. His mother was the youngest of 12 children growing up there on the family's wheat farm. However, my Dad renounced his Canadian citizenship as was required to serve in Europe as an officer of the US Army during World War II. Our family must have many relatives still living in Canada.

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US is adding firing squads, electrocution and gassing to federal execution methods

As already mentioned, I support life from womb to tomb, so oppose any execution methods whatsoever. However, it is hard to argue against executing this next guy. 

Rex Heuermann, age 62, a former Long Island architect, pled guilty in April 2026 to murdering eight women, including victims in the long-unsolved Gilgo Beach serial killer case. Heuermann, arrested in 2023, admitted to strangling the victims—many of whom were sex workers—between 1993 and 2010. 

Heuermann will not face the death penalty because he entered a plea deal on April 8, 2026, admitting to murdering seven women and killing an eighth, in exchange for a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole, thus avoiding a long and contentious trial. 

Heuermann's wife and daughter have said they had no knowedge whatsoever of the killings.

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Here is a message now from my Cuban friend Sirley Ávila León, who has invited me to visit her in Miami. I actually had helped her get to the US over ten years ago. A regime supporter had been harrassing her because of her efforts to keep a local school open. He then started killing her farm animals,and destroying her crops. After that, he had attacked her with a machete, slashing her legs and cutting off her right hand, throwing her hand into the mud to contanminate it so it could not be reattached. Of course, he was never punished, having been protected by Cuban state security which had actually sent him to harass her. After bringing her here to the US, I held several events for her in Washington, DC, including at the Amnesty International Office. Here is the message she has just sent me now. 

Querida Barbara que Dios te siga bendiciendo, con salud y larga vida. 

Yo sigo en Miami, porque no he aprendido inglés.

Sabes que esta es tu casa, si quieres o necesitas venir, puedes hacerlo.

Saludos para toda la familia y los amigos, Sirley

In 2016, here below I was with Sirley after inviting her to the Amnesty International office in DC. Her left arm with her missing left hand is not visible there. She was walking with a cane due to machete injuries inflicted on her legs and knees when her hand was cut off.  Now she has invited me to visit her in Miami.

Here is a brief summary of her history and previous testimony after her arruval in Miami.

Sirley Ávila León, is an ex-delegate of Cuba's People’s Assembly of Majibacoa. She joined the democratic opposition after she was driven out of her position for trying to keep a school open in her community. Official channels ignored her, and when she went to the international media she was removed from office. Following escalating acts of repression by state security, the mother of two, aged 56, was gravely wounded in a machete attack on May 24, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. The enforcer was Osmany Carrión, who had been “sent by state-security thugs,” Ávila León explains, for an act of aggression that “was politically motivated.” Ávila León suffered deep cuts to her neck and knees, lost her left hand, and could still lose her right arm. Although Carrión was the principal assailant in the coordinated attack, his wife forced Ávila León’s hand into the mud to compound the injury with infection. Sent home from hospital, Ávila León remained in this critical state without the proper medication. Five months have passed, and she still needs medical attention, completely incapacitated, demanding justice, and denouncing irregularities in the judicial process against her assailant. On September 2, 2015, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concurred that she was in a “serious and urgent situation, since her life and physical integrity are at risk.” On March 8, 2016, she arrived in the United States to give her testimony and obtain medical care from the Miami Medical Team.

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Whenever donating money to individuals or organizations anywhere in the world, if I am actually there in person, I prefer to hand over cash in US dollar bills, just in paper money, usually in denominations of $50 and $100 and let the recipients exchange them however they can. That way, I am never left with local currency when I leave and US dollars are usually good anywhere. In some places, they are really preferable to the local currency. US dollars if kept in a safe place may actually increase in value over time. The friends to whom I gift this US paper money know they can trust that I am not handing them any counterfeit bills. 

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My friend in Barcelona has sent some photos: 

Today in Barcelona we celebrate Saint Jordi’s day (April 23). It is a fairy tale, but is so beautiful because all the City celébrates with gifts of flowers and books. 

Do you ever wonder if the universe has always existed? Or whether it actually only came into being with the big bang exploiding from nothing to somthing a zillion eons ago, for reasons that humankind may never know? And are there any other universes out there? What about other living and thinking beings? If individual humans even live to their thousanth birthday, it's something they might never, ever know. Indeed, human knowledge is always limited and never will be complete. 

nly 

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Millions A (April 23) =mericans may now also be con

sidered Canadian under new wi,h the "big bang" th la

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