CALM A LA Delights Hundreds of Dems in Pittsfield, MA!!

By Claudia Ricci and Alyson Slutzky

It was an extraordinary experience all around last Saturday at the Colonial in Pittsfield! Hundreds turned out, thrilled to be part of this historic -- or was it HERstoric? -- event.

Naturally, Calm a la's supporters were out in force, but so too, were supporters of...oh, well, you know that other guy, the incredibly WEIRD one who is running for President as a Republican, along with his even WEIRDER Vice Presidential nominee, J.D. Vance, whose past (ridiculous) positions on women with cats etc are coming back to haunt him!

Once inside, we were instructed not to photograph Calm a la or any of the other participants: Former Governor Duvall Patrick, followed by U.S. Congressman Richie Neal, Massachusetts U.S. Senators Ed Markie and Elizabeth Warren, and historian Heather Cox Richardson. Oh, and there were a few musical luminaries as well: cellist Yo Yo Ma and classical pianist Emanuel Ax highlighted the entertainment. No less than Berkshire's own James Taylor also emerged and along with Yo Yo Ma and Ax, the threesome played and sang "Here Comes the Sun." What could be better?

Well, maybe when James’ wife and his son emerged and the whole Taylor family delighted the crowd with that goosebump-producing Taylor favorite: "Shower the people you love with love…”

OK, that's when CALM a LA came striding in from the wings of the magnificently restored Colonial, to the resounding applause of the crowd, applause that reverberated around the Colonial Theater, a treasured gem in the city of Pittsfield.

An avalanche of American flags were standing at attention right behind the Vice President and a huge Harris for President sign stood above the flags. Her podium boasted the Vice Presidential seal, of course, as well as the nearly invisible wings of a teleprompter.

Calm a la spoke for about a quarter of an hour, just enough to fire up the crowd even more than they were, with more cheering and applause. Interestingly, Calm a la was quite soft-spoken at the Colonial unlike the way she spoke in her Wisconsin speech which appeared on YouTube.

Speaking in Pittsfield, she went off script a bit, and I -- I being Alyson Slutzky, who as Chair of the Democratic Party in the Town of Egremont, MA, about 45 minutes south of Pittsfield -- had the distinct pleasure (and honor) of being in the crowd at the Colonial on Saturday! I liked the unscripted remarks best. What an incredible and distinct honor it was for me to hear the Vice President call for unity and a victory in November!

This exhilerating campaign event -- which had been planned BEFORE President Biden stepped down on Sunday, July 21st -- was expected to raise $400,000 but amazingly, the event raised $1.8 million! I had never been to an event like this before, and I will remember it for the rest of my life, as it was exciting beyond belief!

I just LOVED the way she spoke, because she speaks that way all the time. Her tough talk and her willingness to attack Trump (we will do everything possible to defeat that lying creep) reflect her many years being a Prosecutor, state Attorney General in California, U.S. Senator from California and finally, Vice President. She is so intelligent and so incisive and so powerful and she cuts through the BS and she makes me feel safe,

like she can really attack Trump in an effective way and defeat him in November!

Speaking for women and men across the nation, Alyson concluded: "I feel like a great weight has been lifted from my chest. And I hear other people say the same thing. I felt so incredibly hopeless for so long that Trump was definitely going to win. And now I feel like there is a really good that Kamala may pull this victory off!"

Slutzky says that she and others have been working tirelessly on behalf of the Democratic ticket, now headed by a woman. The work of Dems was given a huge shot in the arm by Calm a La's visit to Pittsfield.

Need we say more?

Claudia Ricci, PhD.,is a writer of fiction and non-fiction, taught English, creative writing and journalism at SUNY Albany and Georgetown University. Ricci began her writing career as a reporter for the Chicago Sun-Times, where she won numerous prizes, and later, as a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal. She has published four novels and is writing a fifth novel, called Finding Filomena, a fictional memoir about her great great grandmother, Filomena Scrivano, who delivered a baby -- her great grandfather Pasquale Orzo -- out of wedlock in 1870 in a small town in Calabria in southern Italy.

Alyson Slutzky is a Social Worker and Chair of the Egremont Democratic Committee, as well as Lead Organizer for Left Field, a Great Barrington area Swing Left/Indivible group. She and her husband, Richard, reside in Great Barrington, MA. Slutzky was able to secure tickets to be at the campaign event for Calm a La on Saturday, July 27, 2024.

CREATION STORY, a la CALM a la Harris

“On the first day, God created LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS. On the second, He created the sky. Dry land and plants were created on the third day. On the fourth day, God created the sun, the moon and the stars…

And on the First Day, Sunday, July 21, 2024, which happened to be a magnificent FIRST DAY day, a highly principled and very likable but aging statesman named Joseph Robinette Biden Jr.,

who had been President of THESE UN United States since January 20, 2021, posted a letter saying he would not be seeking reelection.

The 81-year-old incumbent, a gentleman and A TRUE STATESMAN, who cares for his country so enormously that he was willing to step away from the Highest Office in the Land, declared that he would step out of the race for the Democratic nomination for President. (Unlike, the DUMP, running as the Republican, who would never in a billion years do anything so unselfish.)

He, President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, poor and stuttering ("it's remarkable, isn't it," he himself said, "that I could become President -- only in America!" He said that in a rather low key manner in a speech, sitting in his Oval Office.)

Anyway, Mr. Biden on the First Day quickly as in the same FIRST DAY endorsed for the Democratic nomination his Vice President,

a SHE, she she she she she a BLACK WOM/b/an

Vice President CALM a la Devi Harris, the FIRST BLACK WOMbAN VICE PRESIDENT OF THESE UN-UNITED STATES

AND IN SO throwing the nomination Calm a La's way, Thus began unfolding

A NEW CREATION MYTH, a PHENOMENA, of a distinctly female/feminist cast. Some Americans of course were/are/will not be happy about this, about her, perhaps one out of three Americans (or more) is downright AGHAST at the idea of a BLACK WOMbAN PRESIDENT. Some objectors immediately started in on social media harassing and haranguing HER

oh my what is with these WEIRDO's, berating and belittling her for being this and that, or doing this or that, or for NOT doing this or that, as in,

because she didn't from her own body birth children, and then, oh are they really seriously belittling her for her LAUGHTER?

Which would be a real laugh, except for the fact it isn't funny at ALL because there is running against Calm a La, the DUMP who is forever drooling filth, his trash heap knows no limits. And if there ever were a danger to our democracy, it is from HIM HIM HIM HIM HIM that will have no name except DUMP.

On the Second Day, Monday, July 22, 2024, a seemingly calm CALM A LA raised a STUNNING $250 MILLION in large and small donations, setting a record! Pundits here there and everywhere — as well as creeps in the OPPOSING PARTY, were almost SPEECHLESS -- but not quite because they are never speechless (on Fox or everywhere else they speak). They were already on the attack like drooling wolves with blood dripping from their fangs.

On the Third Day, Tuesday, July 23, 2024, Vice President Calm a la spoke from her new (President Biden’s OLD) Delaware headquarters and SHE gave her first campaign rally speech. Thanking her staff, she said: "In the days and weeks ahead, I, together with you, will do everything in my power to UNITE our Democratic Party, to UNITE our nation and to win this election."

And then she hurried out to Wisconsin, a battleground state, where she rallied thousands of exuberant Democrats, saying “The Baton is In Our Hands!”

On the Fourth Day, WEDNESDAY, July 24, 2024, speaking from the OVUM, no, excuse me,

the OVARY,

no, excuse me, the OVAL office, President Biden, that real statesmen as opposed to the

TRASH HEAP OF A DUMP WHO IS RUNNING AS A MAGGOT

STATESMAN BIDEN made it official official, after weeks of speculation, that he would formally said step away. “I have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation. That is the best way to unite our nation…”

(Hey did any of you happen to notice that CALM a LA referred to the BATON IN OUR HANDS and Biden referred to the TORCH, and both of them are shaped…well, you know)

ALSO ON THE FOURTH DAY the dreaded opponents DARE I NAME THEM

of course they are MAGGOTS?

They were drooling, like I said, flashing and gnashing their razor sharp teeth, as opposed to their minds which are dull dull dull and full of shit,

They kept saying all manner of UGLY UNTRUE and also hilarious things about HER

CALM a La. My college roommate, Cathie M, who lives up in beautiful Maine, kindly sent this

Also on the Fourth Day, I learned that by some miracle, Calm a La would appear in Pittsfield, MA, the small Berkshire County city that is 45 minutes from my home in Massachusetts. OH CALM a la, how I hungered to go, but NO way all the tickets were long gone. And the event netted almost $2 million!

On the Fifth Day, The Berkshire Eagle

a fine newspaper based in Pittsfield, MA, heralded the donor event saying it would be grand and historic and it was, with people lining South Street waving signs in support of CALM A LA. These folks were sorely disappointed that Calm a La's 24-car motorcade scooted in the back door of the Colonial Theatre.

On the SIXTH Day, July 26, 2024, that being Friday,

Shabbat begins always on Friday nights in the Jewish faith. And so it is.

And so too did Presidential historian Heather Cox Richardson, who also attended the Pittsfield donor event, confirmed on THE SIXTH DAY something that I have dubbed the “CALM a LA Phenomena” it happened OVERNIGHT: “the national narrative as a whole has shifted,” Heather said, writing calmly in “Letters From an American.”

On the Seventh Day, I observed SHABBAT and did no posting. THANK THE GOOD LORD BECAUSE I a tad exhausted after all that writing!

Last week had to be, almost certainly was, right up there, ONE OF the MOST

no, perhaps the MOST HISTORIC

No, THE MOST HERSTORIC

weeks I have ever lived through! And I’m 71, I lived through Woodstock (and didn’t go!)

No matter what your faith, no matter whether you are a believer in God, may you believe in the NEW CREATION according to CALM a la,

and peace be with you! AMEN!

Chapter Four, "Dear Noah, How Do You Know What You Know?"

Chapter Four: “Noah, How Do You Know What You Know?”

The date of course doesn’t matter because time doesn’t exist, but for the sake of argument make the date July 3, 2024. That means it is today. This morning. But today and yesterday and tomorrow all of that can fall away.

Anyway, it dawned cool and bluebird clear and sunny like the sunflower, and the hummingbirds

are battling it out at the feeders and sucking at the beebalm.

This morning, I struck a deal with my son, who is visiting from Colorado.

I told Noah that I would make another attempt to read Journey of Souls, Case Studies of Life Between Lives, published exactly 30 years ago, a date which of course is meaningless. In return, he would read the new novel I am writing. I call it "Fi and Me," but really the title is "Finding Filomena." It's the true but made up story of my great great grandmother, Filomena Scrivano, who had a baby "OUT OF WEDLOCK" -- oh thank God that term is almost dead! -- in 1870 in Calabria in southern Italy.

Anyway it seemed like a good deal that I was proposing. Reasonable.

I’m not sure whether Noah has read any of my previous four novels. When I have asked him in the past, he has always smiled and said that his best friend Chris from college never read any of his mother’s novels either and well, hey, she was a really famous writer. Unlike me. :)

By the strangest coincidence, Chris recently purchased a home ten minutes down the road from us in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts. He also owns an elegant apartment in Manhattan. So yes it does make a difference if you manage to sell your novels, like Anita Shreve did. (Sadly, she passed away from cancer in 2018 at the age of 71.)

Two days ago, my husband Richard and our dog Poco and Noah and I sat with Chris and his lovely wife and their son in Chris' backyard and out of the blue Chris turned to me and said he wants to plant a young sugar maple at one end of the yard in honor of his six-month old son. He asked me what I thought of sugar maples.

I was astonished, and I started to chuckle. Had Chris secretly read my first novel? :) “Oh well, I really really love sugar maple trees,” I said.

At which point Noah piped up and said, “My mom’s first novel is all about maple trees, it’s called "Dreaming Maples." That book, published in 2002, took me ONLY :) five years to complete -- during which time I dwelled in an imaginary sugarbush in Vermont with a group of aging women artists.

So maybe Noah does know my work.

But all this is really irrelevant, as in, IT'S NOT IMPORTANT.

What is important is that this morning he said to me, “Mom, you really should read 'Journey of Souls,' -- because I believe that you and I were souls together in previous lives.”

I blinked. I inhaled.

I know when my son is leveling with me. He is. Was. Completely serious about this.

“OK, honey. I’ll try again. But then you have to promise to read a few pages of this story that I am writing about your great great great grandmother Filomena Scrivano who gave birth to our venerable ancestor, your great great grandfather Pasquale Orzo, in southern Italy in 1870.”

So we made a pact and that morning, meaning this morning, he took the blue folder and started reading my story and instantly he made improvements in the opening paragraph. It's amazing what a good writer he is. But that is really not the point either.

The point is that suddenly I realized that Noah

is going to be part of the book that you are reading, because he is so immersed in thinking about past lives. For the past six or seven years, Noah has been informally studying with a rather remarkable healer in Longmont, Colorado, a wizard of a man that we all refer to as Dr. A. He is a functional medicine doctor.

Noah convinced both me and my husband and my daughter to see Dr. A (in person and via Zoom) and just as Noah promised, he has helped with a variety of difficult health issues. Part of his success comes from the fact that he often focuses on the emotional underpinnnings of illness. Dr. A is the person who introduced Noah to the book, "Journey of Souls."

Past lives is a subject that has long fascinated me. It figured in my third book, Sister Mysteries, which took me ONLY 23 years to write. It was a haunting story about my life as a nun, Sister Renata, in California in the late 1800s. I wasn't able to finish the novel until I underwent Past Life Regression Therapy with a practioner in New York City.

So yes, I have had at least one past life that I know of, living in a stucco convent tucked into a golden hillside, surrounded by bay trees, the sun blazing down on the old blue and white tiled courtyard. But still, reading "Journey of Souls" has been challenging for me. The book has been sitting on my nightstand for who knows how long.

So today I said to my son:

“The outer story I am trying to write honey is all about the soul… and maybe its journies. I realize that you are trying to teach me about the soul just the way you have taught me about so many other spiritual and health matters. So I am going to write about you in the book -- if that’s OK with you. “

He was sitting on the couch, legs propped on the coffee table. He was busy working on his laptop -- he is a consultant to solar energy developers around the U.S. The issues he works on are highly complex. He was, at the same time, listening to an audio by the famous spiritual leader, Ram Das. He told me he wasn't actually absorbing Ram's words. He just liked the sound of Ram's voice in the background. "It really relaxes me," he said.

How he manages to do two things at once I’m not sure but that’s not the point either.

He paused, and looking up at me. He smiled. “Cool, Mom, just be nice to me in the book, will you?”