In considering America’s latest record-setting mass murder of unarmed people – the Orlando nightclub shooting of June 12 – I have to once again ask this question;
“Is a periodic mass murder of innocent people inside homes, churches, schools, shopping malls or other public places, a reasonable price to pay for the unrestricted right of anyone to own as many guns, of any type, that they desire?”
Today is the national holiday honoring the birth of Martin Luther King Jr, the man who forced America to examine our history of racism for a short while. I was only 12 years old when he was cut down in the prime of his life, but I remember the day of his assassination just as clearly as I remember the day President Kennedy was cut down.
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5 – 4 in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges that the Government cannot prevent same-sex couples from marrying. Their decision came down to an entirely appropriate application of the Fourteenth Amendment to our Constitution.
To hear Conservatives wailing and gnashing their teeth, one might think the End Times have arrived. I guess for them, it may have.
Last week the Washington Post ran a blog post titled “Washington Post Story: Here’s how much of your life the United States has been at war.” The author Philip Bump used a chart to show the percentages of a lifetime an American has spent at war, based on their ages.
This got me thinking about just how many American wars I’ve experienced during my lifetime.
The December 29 edition of the New York Post reported that the New York Police Department is essentially on a work slowdown/strike. This is apparently due to many police officers feeling upset over lack of respect by the city’s Mayor and general public
Unless you’re fortunate enough to live in a news-media free wilderness you’ve heard about the Michael Brown shooting in the town of Ferguson, Missouri, a place most Americans outside of St. Louis never heard of before last summer. Accounts and opinions are raging across the political spectrum, and I’ve been sorting out my emotions triggered by this disgraceful event.
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
This past week President Obama went live on prime-time television (with some notable exceptions) and announced he was directing his cabinets to make some minor changes in the way people who crossed over into our part of planet earth were treated. Notable was that we, a culture that boasts about being a nation of immigrants, would no longer gratuitously tear apart families and deport parents of legal American citizens back to the countries they originated from.
Which leads me to share some thoughts on immigration.
I’ve had the unpleasant experience of breaking down on the road three times over the past 45 days. In two of those three events my venerable 2004 Rodeo died right at a stoplight intersection at or close to the front of the line. In those events, I witnessed firsthand the absolute unpleasantness of other drivers who were momentarily inconvenienced by my breakdown.
It’s autumn again and along with the beautiful forest colors, changing of the clocks, and leaves to rake, autumn brings us apple season. Full disclosure; of the many fruits I’ve been fortunate enough to enjoy apples are my favorite.
What Happens Next?
It’s still difficult for me to process all my emotions from November’s election results. Feelings of dread about what happens next; feelings of loss for what could have been; feelings of disbelief knowing that so many of my fellow Americans voted for a person that represents the worst side of humanity; I’m trying to process all these feelings running on the same track. Underneath all of these is a feeling of deep anger at the people who believed Trump was anything more than a master con artist who says anything he has to, to get what he wants, and does whatever suits his ego.
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