Regular readers know that I'll rarely say much without a musical tie-in, but I am saddened & outraged & I don't know what else to do. My old home, the place where I grew up, has eliminated all funding for domestic violence shelters.

Whoever you are, wherever you are, reflect for a moment and understand that by the time a woman seeks the safety of a shelter, she has exhausted all her other options. She often arrives with her children, and with nowhere else to turn. I spent Christmas & New Year's Eve of 1983 in a motel with my mother & my sister; we were lucky. My mom had a job. When I consider that mothers & sons & daughters without the means to get themselves into a Motel 6 might have to spend a night with their abusers after having found the strength to flee -- well, I wish I had a turn of phrase that describes what it feels like to think of people in such situations, but I don't. The state - any state - has a responsibility to protect its citizens. That is the function of the state. If it declines to carry out that function, then it is worthless.

Citizens of California & of the United States deserve better than this garbage, and I hope that readers of Last Plane to Jakarta will do whatever they can to restore funding to these most vital of services.