So today the wind is blowing hard. Hard enough to shut down governments and schools and force people inside their homes. Power lines are tumbling and trees are dropping. The airports are closed and railroad trains are stopped. All because of wind. Strong winds changed the daily life-plans of millions of people. Maybe strong enough winds blowing long enough can change the direction of history?
Just a little light comedy to post on yet another cold and wet Sunday morning.
This past Friday I was caught up in an “active shooter” alert inside my ten-story office building. The alert turned out to be a false alarm, triggered in error during a building drill, but for about five minutes I, and everyone who received the alert, were thinking about the real possibility of being shot and killed inside our office.
Today is the Chinese New Year and start of the Year of the Dog. Chinese people around the world celebrate today as one their most significant holidays of the year. In the Chinese calendar, today marks the start of year 4716, based upon a calendar first developed by the Emperor Huangdi, starting in 2637 B.C.E. (Before Common Era).
With all the horrors of news these past months, there are times when I need to step back and realize that there are some really cool things happening in our tired old world. One of those really cool things happened this past week.
I’m talking, of course, about Tesla’s Starman and an incredible advancement of our exploration of space.
So a couple of days ago our Pres*dent expressed his knowledge of world geography by referring to all African nations, the Central American nation of El Salvador, and the island nation of Haiti, as “shitholes.” This presumably also referred to the people native to those countries, as trump used his “shithole” comment to prove why those people should not be allowed to emigrant to the United States of America.
I have something to say about this.
My dad, Armand Gabriel Charest, was a US Army veteran of World War II. I knew this growing up as he would talk a lot about his Army adventures. We even attended a reunion of his 41st Division in 1971. He always expressed pride in being a soldier and pride in his role during WWII. But there were things about his army service I didn’t know until he wrote his memoirs in 2002.
Then there were some things about his Army service I didn’t know until after he passed, which left questions for which I’ll probably never have answers.
Happy New year of 2018 everyone! We all survived the horrors of 2017, with a promise that 2018 will be a better year for everyone. So, to ring in the new year properly we need a bit of holiday music.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
I want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas to end what has generally been an awful year. So I think a bit of uplifting music is in order for this magical day.
The Death of Compassion
I make no secret of my opinion that our country, as a cohesive culture, is in trouble. I see near-daily mass shootings, the rise of white supremacists and Neo-Nazis, and the rapid degradation of public institutions such as schools, matched by the rise of for-profit institutions such as prisons, as part of a cohesive pattern of cultural disintegration. But I also see this pattern to have a deeper cause – the loss of compassion.
Opinions & Commentary
compassion culture Gun VIolence