politics – The Other Shoe

We’re ‘on the road again’ and it’s a VERY bumpy ride.

Boy, has this place changed, Toto! These days America seems as unfamiliar as Oz — and just as surreal. We’ve seen characters with no brain, heart or courage in abundance but enough about politics. We’ve certainly been in twisty, scary situations before. In fact, history is full of times the red, white and blue was as divided as the Hatfields and McCoys, complete with messy family food fights. This time, though, the food is too expensive to throw around and the mess has invaded almost every portion of society.

It’s been said the crazy that began with a gilded escalator didn’t divide America – it revealed it. Racism, greed and xenophobia are hardly new; they’ve just become more butt naked than we’ve ever seen them. And hate and resentment only grows larger. Did we think political paranoia left the building when Joe McCarthy did? Ha! We might have been a teeny bit convinced that we made big time improvements in womens’ rights and sexual choice tolerance, but apparently not enough. When the highest court in the land tote their own biases, political leanings and religious beliefs into their decision making, we can’t hold anything as permanent.

Now, ‘fear of the ‘other’ is stoked daily, as you wait. ICE has become the Gestapo of choice and ‘the masked man’ is hardly a hero Lone Ranger. Thugs, mercenaries, men with simmering grudges roam the streets whisking students, kids, mothers into unmarked vans, some never to be seen again. Though every culture has gone through their own purgatory of prejudice and alienation when they arrive on our shores, today that Lady in the Harbor, hides her face in shame.

Everything about America has been big – buildings, landscapes, cars, business – and dreams. To many now, their dreams are as elusive as that Yellow Brick Road. Few things in life are linear and history isn’t neat. Over the decades we’ve seen slavery, riots, scandals, assassinations, world wars and cold wars. We’ve struggled with healthcare, financial reform, racial strife, taxes and political mayhem. There’s little we haven’t seen. Yet, when elections were over, protests were heard, amendments enacted, we usually returned to business as usual. No matter how politics, cultural roots or societal platforms differed, we united as AMERICA, not a polarized land of misfit toys. We didn’t dread sitting with one another on Thanksgiving because the political divide was hotter than the turkey!

So, here we are, poised on the brink in an encore of dysfunction, retribution and chaos. We’ve already seen this movie and know what awaits at the end of this Yellow Brick Road. Farmers and consumers alike are already at the mercy of tariff wars, hoping to be bailed out again by the American taxpayer for greed their cattle and soybeans pay the price for. Automation and AI, not ‘the other’, changes the business landscape, yet mass deportations tosses out refugees who’ve done the harvest work, the building and gardening, jobs Americans pass by. Thomas Jefferson’s media, voice of the people, has become a hated target for speaking truth to power. Both entities and individuals have already been put on notice for their ‘fake news’ and been called ‘piggy’ and ‘nasty’ women. Though coal will never again be king, workers are ripe for black lung again as protections have been stripped away. So much of the country remains in their happy myths where climate is not rapidly changing our world as we know it. All the while, vile tweets have replaced fireside chats disguised as ‘TRUTH’.

Those who lived through September 11, our 21st century Pearl Harbor, remember how we walked as one through the aftermath. We gained strength from national pride and a flag that somehow survived the rubble. That flag has now been co-opted by those who claim to be the only ‘patriots’ while toting AR-15s to protect themselves against ‘the other’ half of America. A historical part of the White House itself, has been torn down to make way for a glitzy, Marie Antoinette ballroom funded by billionaire bros who’ve staked our government.

In the worst of times, swamp creatures proliferate. The Birther Movement and Tea Party, wrapped in red, white and blue, were a neat smokescreen for racism inflamed by the election of America’s first black president. How DARE we? That should have been a Paul Revere warning of unthinkable things to come. In bizarro Oz, there’s no middle ground. If we didn’t get it before, the pseudo orange Wizard laid it out nice and neat on his first Inauguration Day. In a soap opera speech called ‘American Carnage’, fiery rhetoric painted a picture of hellfire scented with the rotted smell of fear of the ‘other’. What’s followed since has been scarily reminiscent of a hellish pestilence that infected a country across the pond 50 years ago.

We’ve divided into cultural camps; true patriots or ‘elites’, snowflakes or deplorables, racists or bleeding hearts. Yoo hoo – newsflash! No matter how anyone insists they are the ‘Real’ Americans, unless you or your ancestors were those dumped onto bleak reservations — you’re not. If the original native peoples erected a wall at Jamestown or Plymouth Rock to keep out pesky immigrants, there might not have been an America, folks! Then again, seeing how we dissed the people who took US in, maybe squatters rights work after all.

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Politics and other awkward stuff

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

January 4, 2025January 4, 2025 Copy Chick

Ah, mirrors. Can’t do with ‘em; can’t do without ‘em. Sometimes they’re pretty darn handy to take a close look at that bump on our chin, roots growing in or a tooth that’s been bugging you. But mirrors also show a little more than we’d like as well, since
since they don’t lie (unfortunately). We can’t say that for a lot of other things today, right?

Media is a little like a mirror, at least when it’s done right. Mirrors are designed to be true, not magic. Sometimes they show more than we want to see but, then it’s not a mirror’s job to blindly assure anyone they are “the fairest one of all”. A mirror’s job is to reflect what’s real, not a prettied up version. They reflect who we are, in all our human frailities.

I hardly love mirrors yet, my vanity (sounds cringe worthy) table sits in front of my bedroom window lest I get any ‘whoa, THAT’S a surprise’ when I leave the house. I guess I just like to know what I’m ‘facing’, no pun intended, which is pretty much the same reason I watch news, read blog posts or watch trusted news stations. Ya
just gotta know what’s going on.

We have to uphold a free press and freedom of speech because, in the end, lies and misinformation are no match for the truth. Barack Obama

Like a mirror, the news is only your enemy if what you see or hear isn’t true, not if it just isn’t what you want it to be. Even when they don’t agree with what we believe or want, facts aren’t any less true — unless they aren’t facts. My mother used to say, ‘the truth hurts’ and sometimes it does. I tell my peeps to always tell me the truth, even if I don’t
like it. I mean, who else will tell you if you have a poppy seed in my teeth or new ‘do’ does absolutely nothing for yo

Yes, the truth can hurt — but it can also heal. It can make us think, incite us to act, and at the very least, trip some changes in the way we view things. My husband began his professional life as a reporter and had a lifelong ‘thing’ about real news vs ‘news-ertainment’, something Fox mainlines in. Watching a nightly newscast, he’d riff constantly on the need for true reporting. He had great respect for newspapers,
especially all those with Pulitzer packed histories and for reporters who did due diligence and reported with integrity.

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Politics and other awkward stuff

A Woman’s Place is in the House . . . The Peoples House.

July 23, 2024October 20, 2024 Copy Chick

Forget rocking the cradle. It’s way beyond time that women rocked the system — and the Oval.

30406368 © Alex Grichenko | Dreamstime.com

Play like a girl. Can it be that we’re finally serious about putting a woman in the Oval? Two hundred twenty seven years since good ol’ George Washington was president, it’s seems only right that we finally seat a woman in Maison Blanc. We pride ourselves on being an enlightened country with an advanced culture, yet other mainstream countries have boasted women leaders for decades. Where have ours been?

Sure, after years of struggling, we finally have had women candidates, a woman Speaker of the House and women in SCOTUS, but the welcome mat has been askew. The ERA amendment, a critical step towards equality, still has not been ratified. Even when it finally is, will it erase the mindset of ingrained patriarchy? I doubt it. Decades of bias and attacks on gender have never been never felt by male counterparts who assumed leadership roles as their anointed right. Yet, however educated and supremely capable, women have never seemed to make it to the Resolute desk.

We still think of a powerful man as a born leader and a powerful woman as an anomaly. Margaret Atwood

Helen of Troy. Indira Gandhi. Golda Meir. Margaret Thatcher. These iron maidens didn’t exactly epitomize warm and fuzzy. They brought their A-game, exactly what their countries needed in their time. They led their countries to war within a male hierarchy, conforming to values that allowed them to lead in the first place. Angela Merkel of Germany, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Finland’s Sanna Marin and the European Union’s Christine Lagarde knew how it’s done because they, too, had to overcome gender bias. And, like Nancy Pelosi, even at 80, they had to outmen men – in heels.

I’d like our country to see for itself, in this critical moment in time, what we would look like with a woman in charge. Could this country possibly do worse than the previous Potus’ appalling tidal wave of incompetence? Yet, blatant, outrageous accusations are unleashed with abandon when a woman has the audacity to claim the same positions men have taken for granted through the centuries. Minutes after our first female VP was named, the Facebook and Twitter universe was on fire with vile gender and racial attacks. Now that the same woman has been handed the baton to actually run for President, I can’t imagine the vitriol that will erupt. Wait, yes I can.

More than 50 years ago, tiny Sri Lanka was the first to break the political gender barrier; India followed a few years later. The UN reported that, as of September 2022, 30 women were serving as Heads of State and/or Government in 29 countries. While those countries thrived under their leadership — none of them are in the Americas. The fact that we, as an educated superpower have still not achieved that designation, is in itself cause for collective head scratching!

In business, there are still many more leadership seats where glass ceilings are neatly intact. Apparently, the idea of women as true equals seems as surreal as aliens landing in NYC. While it’s true we are hardly the only place in the world where patriarchy rules, we should be committed to putting equality, in all dimensions, on the menu. Even in my own little world, I saw lines drawn within the advertising agency my husband and I jointly owned and partnered. I created and ran the business, was its creative director, social media and promotion maven; my husband was the PR counsel. Yet, I had to constantly remind clients, who insisted on talking to ‘the owner, the boss’, that I was that person, too. Even in small business, it seems hard for people to accept that the person in charge isn’t a ‘he’.

Some leaders are born women. Geraldine Ferraro

If women did man the Oval (no pun intended), perhaps infant and mother mortality wouldn’t number among the highest in the civilized world. Maybe we’d think twice about 1% of the population having wallets equaling the worth of 3.6 billion people. Women, who represent 80% of consumers, might better address sustainability, safe food technologies and affordable pharmaceuticals. A mom Potus might be more concerned about climate change that may very well end the world as we know it for our children. And women have a particular dislike of guns killing those kids in classrooms.

Every man on this planet was born of and nurtured by a woman. “Men can boast about occupying top slots in history’s long list of conquering ‘heroes’, bloodthirsty tyrants, and genocidal thugs.” said Steven Pinker of Harvard University. “Women have been and will be a pacifying force. Traditional war is a man’s game.” Amen.

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Politics and other awkward stuff

Make America . . .

July 9, 2024July 30, 2024 Copy Chick

“America is back”. The opening line of a commercial, I had to wonder, “Really? Where was it?”

As far as I can tell, America hasn’t taken a trip anywhere, though it has meandered a bit. These last years, the country’s been pulled in every direction. Like Gumby, it’s been stretched to its limits. With just months left before the elections, I wouldn’t blame the country if it tried to hide until the worst is over. But then, what is the worst? To be sure, we’ve certainly seen a whole lot of bad behavior but I suspect there’s a lot more backstage. If America was a kid, it would have been grounded for days. But when there are millions of them, who’ve been busy setting little fires everywhere, the only place to go – is the voting booth.

To anyone who thinks otherwise, America belongs to EVERYONE. Sorry to break it to all the self-anointed ‘true Americans’ but you are far from the only people with dibs on this land. The original inhabitants found out the hard way that even real authenticity couldn’t save them. When the new guys (English refugees otherwise known as Pilgrims) pulled up, those early indigenous people helped the newbies survive the first brutal seasons. What they got for their trouble was a tee shirt and a ticket to never neverlands of the new landlords’ choosing. Never say we don’t know how to make reservations!

Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it.

Mark Twain

For 248 years, America’s been stepping away, and coming back. We’ve been to war, to the moon and to the polls. We’ve raised the flag, our voices, our fists, and a plethora of guns. We’ve seen the best and worst of times. We fled a monarchy, started a republic and today, we’re doing a dangerous dance between them both. The resurgent rise in both populism and nationalism could easily pull the fire alarm. All I can hope is that we remember how that all worked across the pond out 50 years ago.
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View from the Shoe

A New Year? Bring it on.

January 16, 2023January 16, 2023 Copy Chick

Spoiler alert. You can stop writing 2022 on your checks now.

If all the retail shelves stuffed with Valentine hearts and candy are any indication, New Year’s confetti is in the rear view mirror. We’ve said ‘Bye Felicia’ to the old and and opened the door to another 365 of mess and magic. We get another shot at being our best selves and we can’t afford to walk without intention – but, in spite of ourselves, we will.

Minutes count down each New Year’s Eve and days tick swiftly from the calendar until another year ends, like Ground hog day, since the world began. And, it will rinse repeat each year, long after we are gone. Years go on. Life goes on. And time teaches us how to live with the worst, as we try to make each day the best. Married, widowed, single, black, white, sick, well, gay, straight, time marches on for everyone. All we can do is hang on for the ride, as we do the best we can, alone — and together.

As the new calendar yawns empty before us, do we regard it with hope, or dread; wonder or resignation? None of us have a clue what we will be looking back on this time next year. But with any luck, whatever life throws our way, we’ll have the chops to deal with it, better and stronger.

“What the new year brings to you depends a great deal on what you bring to it.” Vern McClellan

We can help squeeze the best out of this new calendar. Going forward, we can bring awareness, increased sensitivity, understanding and, if we’ve been paying attention, some timely fire in our bellies to stand up for what’s right. On our watch, virulent rhetoric has been seemingly accepted, greed has proliferated, politics teeter on dangerous historical territories, dividing us all in the process. What if our nation stands up with courage, and unity? What if we thought more about all the peoples across the globe who are terrorized and killed daily in their own lands? What if next year we could say we helped those, even in our own neighborhoods, with food insecurity who can’t make ends meet? What if we took better care of the disabled, and the disenfranchised?

In pretty much any departed year, we’ve seen babies born — and loved ones die. We’ve experienced all the jubilant, terrible, happy, tragic things a year can and does bring. We’ve lived through corruption, secrecy and political insanity that’s divided a country and spins on its crazy track. We’ve lost and won jobs, had reunions and estrangements. A pandemic terrorized and took precious lives, as our morale goes up and down like a roller coaster.

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Politics and other awkward stuff

When A Shining City — Goes Dark.

September 22, 2022 Copy Chick

America seems to have lost its way. At the very least, it forgot its way to the fuse box. Once a beacon for democracy, the last years of batshit crazy political insanity has cause a giant power outage. Suddenly, keeping the lights on in that iconic city on the hill is in serious question.

The last years have dimmed a lot of America’s radiance. Do we shine in our ability to keep our people safe? Nope. In healthcare, we place 170^th in infant mortality, spend twice than most developed nations in medical care yet have fewer doctors and fewer hospital beds per capita. We place 125^th among nations in literacy, and have the 81^st highest murder rate, including the most guns anywhere! We’re number one in debt, in GNP, defense spending, and the economy — but only if you count the illustrious 1%.

“In my mind, it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here.” Ronald Reagan’s vision of America.

Maybe we were once less than shiny but at least we were uber idealistic. We loved the IDEA that we were better than we are, special, entitled. President Reagan stated that ‘the Shining City Upon a Hill’ was a utopia, divinely bestowed by God on the worthy. The term has been used by presidents and politicians ever since to illustrate their vision of America. We’ve been led to believe that we are on a special mission from God to spread democracy throughout the world, which might be a good plan – if we could practice and hold on to it ourselves.

Though Ronald Reagan didn’t invent the lofty phrase, he did make good use of it. The poetic vision of a radiant city actually originated in a 17^th century Puritan sermon by early Boston governor, John Winthrop. His concept was not to taunt Europe with America’s greatness’ but as a na-na-na-nana refute to Catholics about Protestantism. Who knew? To them, it was less a place than an idea regarding Christianity, which morphed through the decades into ethnic exclusion, enslavement and social superiority.

“For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people will be upon us.” John Winthrop, Governor of Boston

Protectors of early democracy were also complicit their carelessness of it. Early settlers were no strangers to slavery, religious intolerance or their own conspiracies. (Do the Salem Witch Trials ring a bell?) Even as we told ourselves we believed the best in each other, we decimated the original American peoples, elbowing them to the side as we made this place our own. And of course we needed help building it, so we shipped in cargos of humans from another continent, excusing our travesty through generations as right and just. Many still do.

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View from the Shoe

What’s Old — is New Again.

January 10, 2022January 31, 2022 Copy Chick

2021 was one hell of a year. But if you’re waiting for a sparkly new one, well, you might have to wait awhile.

An unrelenting pandemic. Shocking violence in the US Capitol. Devastating forest fires. Desert locusts. Murder hornets and the craziest, scariest year of politics anyone has ever witnessed. No wonder we’re jonesing for whatever will stop our brains from melting! It doesn’t seem to matter what the calendar says. From everything we see and read — Groundhog Day continues.

COVID-19 rages, once again, across the nation, though now disguised as the variant Omicron. Masks and mandates were often ignored or fought against giving the virus a get out jail free card. Our brains were exhausted, often savings were, too and food insecurity was evident in our nation of plenty. In the face of all the grief, confusion, fear and disillusionment, we badly need to find the flip side – and hope it’s a whole lot better.

“What a heavy net is it, indeed, carrying as it does all the births, deaths, tragedies, wars, love stories, inventions, transformations and calamities that are destined for all of us this coming year.” Elizabeth Gilbert

Will 2022 be the turnaround we need or — just another magic trick? In a country where a 2-year pandemic is still a runaway train, every day is a challenge. Vaccines are here, but Omicron proved that our COVID testing supply was caught with its pants down and availability has become more like a stagecoach than an Acela. We are realizing that though this new variant maybe weaker in scope, apparently so were our masks. N95’s are short in stock and high in price gouging. It will take a while, probably quite a while, for us to live ‘normal-ish’ again. And if we continue to set virus forest fires by not adhering to pandemic social distancing, masking, vaccination and a decent helping of common sense, it will set up housekeeping permanently.

We all want our lives back, not just those who strip off masks in hissy fits in Walmart. Until we get the simple fact that what hurts one, hurts all, a spanking brand new COVID free year will be a long time coming.

What do we do in the meantime when often the smallest positivity can be a heavy lift? I find myself swinging from yearning for family hug marathons to being resigned to the admittedly comfy nest of my house. What if we did committed to a reset, something out of the box and outside of ourselves? How about a little New Year Nengajo? Cousin to our Christmas cards, this Japanese custom is a nifty new year way to show gratitude to friends and family who’ve looked out for us, were kind and helped us during the shitshow year we just put to bed.

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Copy that., Politics and other awkward stuff, View from the Shoe

The SILENT SPRING of a Pandemic

March 25, 2020March 25, 2020 Copy Chick

The world, as we know it, will change. So will we.

Change is pretty much innate to living. No matter how evolved and enlightened we think we are, nothing is more intrinsic to nature and humanity than change. From hurricanes and earthquakes to fires and pandemics, nature can transform our world in a nanosecond. We can try to control it but nature will always tell us who’s boss. The current pandemic is deadly proof that when humanity and nature collide, things will change and not in a good way. Hello, COVID-19.

Scheduling a big family reunion? Nada. An out of town vaca? Nope. Planning dinner with friends? Well, dining out – is out. Those quick little errands will have to wait, too, maybe for quite awhile. Being ‘up close and personal’ has become a little too personal – and risky. (And no one misses hugging more than an Italian girl!) We’ve entered a Rod Serling universe and we can’t just change the channel. Social distancing has become a thing, the ONLY thing that can help slow the spread of the virus and save lives. Will it eliminate risk? No, but it’s critical to lessening the upward curve, a curve that can lead to worst case scenarios.

We change jobs, houses and hairstyles but changes that create sudden empty shelves and streets, one that mandates social isolation? No, there’s nothing ‘normal’ about this kind of change. Our connected society is suddenly off balance. Schools, parks, stores, and jobs are shut down. Stocks have been in free fall. Healthcare workers are begging for beds, supplies, and critical equipment. Why wouldn’t we be upset, anxious as hell and complain about all we take for granted being put on hold? But, if we can be resilient enough to manage a few weeks sheltering in place to care for ourselves and one another, we will do more than just wade through a pandemic. We will have learned, like the Velveteen Rabbit, to be ‘real’.

A few months ago, I wrote a blog about ‘first world problems’, and while being in isolation certainly isn’t a walk in the park, for most it’s hardly ‘worst case scenario’ either. We can feel depressed and anxious when we look at our daily lives and barely recognize them. Other than missing hugging and smooching my kids, grands and friends like crazy, I may be luckier than most. Working remotely for many years was a type of training wheels for living in place. And often, after my husband’s procedures, we hunkered down for an isolated recuperation. That’s not to say, I’m also spoiled with the ability to hop in my car and run to the library, post office, and grocery when the mood or need hits. Those times will come again and when they do, I’ll consider them with different eyes.

An avid reader of the WW2 period, (go figure) helps me put a little perspective to these current times. There is little comparison to the rationing, blackouts and terrifying bomb shelter life people endured during those long years. The spirit of community, embracing uncertainty and the greater good shown in that era is an enduring example of how people ramp up in times of crisis. With fear and sacrifice as constant companions, people kept living each day, as best they possibly could. What their ‘can do’ spirit, resilience and sense of gratitude accomplished earned them the title ‘the Greatest Generation’. We’ve only experienced a drastically changed lifestyle for less than two weeks. What will future generations say about us?

When COVID-19 eventually lessens its stranglehold, the country will slowly return to a new normal. But, in some areas, the more things change the more they remain the same. The wealthiest 5%, remain at the head of the line, to be saved once again with bailouts, while the other 80% will struggle exponentially from job loss, and financial difficulties. Some will still have no healthcare, live from paycheck to paycheck, often in abject poverty. Those people will see complaints about missing happy hours, gym time or trips to the mall as alien as those of another planet. In a country divided by affluence and lack of it, political party, race and gender, this pandemic is proof illness does not discriminate; only the way we treat it.

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Politics and other awkward stuff

The Year That Was

January 1, 2020February 7, 2020 Copy Chick

Confetti and noisemakers are so yesterday. But maybe that’s just me.; party animal was never in my DNA. Luckily, my husband was also more into cozy over carnival New Year festivities. Except for an early Chinese nosh, our couch, movies and snacks were our go-to gala though I admit funky party hats were occasionally worn on said couch. Some might think we were either too lazy or minus the imagination to celebrate the night with abandon. But, the cancer elephant in our room was more than enough excitement in our lives. It made more mucho sense to do happy over hoopla.

I suspect I’m plain not wired to do the full New Year’s monty. Having a low-key mindset is not such a bad thing, however. In fact, it came in handy in widowhood. Being able to ‘adapt’ to revelry without my handsome dude in the blue glitter top hat, was an asset. Come to think of it, my kids and married granddaughter must have also inherited some of the New Year homebody genes — so mea culpa in advance for that, guys.

“What the new year brings to you depends a great deal on what you bring to it.” Vern McClellan

In the end, the New Year’s Eve ball will never need my help to make its descent into the next year. No liquor store will miss the sale of my one glass of wine and while my comfy jammies don’t fit the red carpet dress code, they are their own microfleece party. My snacks are obscenely healthy. And my out-of-control revelry consists of journaling, movie bingeing and phone gabbing with friends. It works.

When you give yourself space to think about the year that went bye-bye, all kinds of observations pass through your mind. Me? I think about the wide eyed, sweet little New Year’s baby who, by the end of each year, morphs into the weathered, tired Father Time. As each year closes, that long bearded dude passes the torch back to the diapered newbie who takes tentative steps into the next 365. Are we as innocently optimistic about a brand new year as that little tyke? Maybe not but I suspect none of us are ready to be a cynical Father Time either.

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see a new year in; a pessimist stays up to make sure the old one leaves’”. Bill Vaughn

Politics can tick us off big time. This past year, walls and homegrown gun deaths went up; morale and trust went down. The rich got mega richer while the poor still poorer. That daily crazy alone can make us doubt we’ll ever be spinning on an even axis again. But, things have a way of turning around. Finances, ditto. Illness? Grief? Those are the toughest of all. When either touch us with the heaviness of a well thrown brick, it’s hard to see any good in the year that passed. I get it. Boy, do I get it. It’s hard to be Pollyanna discovering a silver lining to anything that rips our heart out. Sometimes the digging is hard to find the beautiful moments, the ones that touch that same heart that is also broken.

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Politics and other awkward stuff, View from the Shoe

The Kid Next Door

August 6, 2019August 6, 2019 Copy Chick

If this past week showed us anything, it was that you never know. You don’t know what anger, depression, resentment or embedded racism hides behind that typical teen’s grin or the neighborhood crank’s frown. We don’t know what propels a person to grab a gun and take target practice on unsuspecting other humans with a vengeance.

You just don’t know.

This week two more shootings happened, one in El Paso; the other in Dayton. They say the flip side of anger is fear though it’s hard to imagine such calculated, heinous acts by those scared and afraid. Yet, these terrorists are definitely frightened, just not in the way you think. You see, for them the bogeyman is not something that goes bump in the night but the ‘tired, hungry, and poor’ that giant green lady in the NY harbor welcomes. The bogeyman — is the ‘other’.

To be fair, I am afraid, too, not of immigrants but of ‘shadow’ Americans. I don’t want to be scared of my homies but religious fanatics and sycophant politicians who dance for a divisive Puppeteer while raining hateful diatribes like confetti grenades, do the job.

I have grandsons – 5 of them. I know all about the sometimes crazy video games (though my kids keep rein on what the nuggets can or can’t play). But to blame mass shootings on said games is nothing short of absurd. When I was a kid, my brothers played with cap guns and toy rifles, pretending to be soldiers, cops or bad guys. To my knowledge, my remaining brother never grew an interest in shooting up a theater.

Let’s face it – WORDS MATTER. How we talk to and about each other matters. It matters how we frame those who were brought here on slave ships and those who seek asylum from torture, painted as murderers, rapists, and an invasion. White supremacists are dubbed ‘fine people’ and even American born elected officials are told to go back to where they came from. (Brooklyn?)

I agree, that most likely some level of mental illness rendered every perpetrator unequipped to process hateful rhetoric with less than deadly actions. I also agree, that if identified, those people should be treated before catastrophes happen – that is if mental health budgets have not been slashed. But the truth is — GUNS KILL PEOPLE. Period. That being said, knowing people are the ones pulling the trigger doesn’t let gun regulations off the hook. Nor should anyone look the other way as AK-47s are blithely utilized as a mass shooter’s weapon of choice. These economically speedy killing machines have no place anywhere but the battlefield. Full stop. Continue reading “The Kid Next Door” →