Creative Freedom

Creativity is an act of passion, not calculation.

Forget about rules. Forget about expectations. Forget about mistakes.

Throw your ideas out into the world with abandon. Move toward a state of rapturous frenzy where thoughts flow freely. Hold nothing back.

You can tidy things up later. If an idea doesn’t work, it will be obvious. Move on to the next one. Avoid second-guessing yourself into inaction.

Let go of the fear of doing something wrong. The only wrong step is hesitation. The only bad idea is one that gets stuck in your head because you didn’t give it a chance.

Do You Swear To Uphold The Constitution?

Maybe you understand what I’ve been saying about Donald Trump for the past seven years now that he has demanded that the Constitution be overturned so he can declare himself emperor.

Fight To Win

If you want to be a Winner

Gotta fight for every inch

Might as well be a Sinner

And a Brawler in the Clinch

You’ll need to push past

The mighty limits of Hell

‘Cause the hardest fight to Win

Is the one against Yourself

Seventeen Words From The Heart

If you love someone

When you embrace

Hold them as though

You’re going to lose them

Tomorrow

A Clockwork Orange - Film Commentary

“A Clockwork Orange” is about politics. The Conservatives, who are currently in power, launch a “get tough on crime” approach to regaining control of the violent streets. Their policies include hiring ex gang members as police officers and a draconian reprogramming technique that transforms violent criminals into meek, helpless weaklings.

The opposition party, the Liberals, see an opportunity to make a martyr of one of the early subjects of the reprogramming technique. That subject is Alex, whose life we follow throughout the story. One of the Liberals is a writer whose wife had been brutally attacked by Alex and his gang earlier in the story. That attack gets Alex convicted and sentenced to undergo the reprogramming technique.

The Liberals don’t try to help Alex. Rather, they prey on his weakness in an attempt to get him to kill himself. He will become a poster child for the excesses of the Conservative government.

Since music was played during the reprogramming sessions, Alex, who used to love listening to Beethoven, now becomes violently ill whenever he hears music. The Liberals lock Alex in a room on an upper floor and blast music until he jumps out of a window in a desperate attempt to escape his excruciating discomfort.

The plan fails because Alex survives, and the Conservatives see their own opportunity. They rehabilitate Alex as a gesture to win back public opinion after their reprogramming technique is viewed as unacceptably cruel, even when used on horrible criminals.

Favorite scenes:

- The scene where the Liberals torture Alex with music has Kubrick’s signature visual devices all over it.

- The scene where Alex picks up girls in a book shop is inventive and visually arresting.

- The scene where Alex gets a home visit from his school’s disciplinary officer reminds us of the unsettling parallel between his youth and his ferocious battles on the streets.

- The reprogramming session is bizarre and unsettling. We feel the heavy hand of abuse and intrusion when the government invades our personal space in a diabolical way.

From Afar

I sense

Your sexual energy

Even

From afar

It’s always there

When we talk

And share

Mysterious

And Exciting

Confidently Enticing

I hesitate

To mention it

Should I be so cavalier?

Or

Maybe

I’m just

Wondering

Whether that wondrous power

Might ultimately

Consume me

So this remains

Unspoken

A sensual spell

Unbroken

Distracting me

And Quietly

Beguiling me

Inspiring me

I like

How it makes me feel

The things

It makes me

Want to do

Those sweet

And tender

Dreams with you

A specific fascination

Captures

My imagination

And makes me think

Of Words

That You might want to Hear

And how

And where

You’d love

To be touched

And

In my heart

I start

To  believe

That anything

Is possible

I picture a time

When we’ll spend the day

Chatting and laughing

The hours away

Loving

Every moment

Of our time together

I want to watch you smile

When I tell you

What I’m

Feeling

I want to Breathe

The Air

That floats Around you

And Gaze

Into your eyes

In warm romantic light

Caress the softness

Of your clothing

As a warm electric energy

Fills the room

Flips the switch

And Draws us

Ever closer

Passing Time

Faces fade

Bleached by the sun

Of passing time

Once the race is run

We played a good game

We had our fun

But echoes fade fast

When the dance is done

LGBTQ Advocacy

To my friends in the LGBTQ+ community, I want you to know that I stand with you, and as an ally I will always stand up for you.

I see how dangerous the world has become for you. I won’t let that stand unchallenged.

When I see the demonization of trans children for political expediency, I speak out against it.

When I see teachers and counselors who try to help those children being labeled as “groomers,” I speak out against it.

When I see same sex couples being ridiculed for raising children, I speak out against it.

When I see attempts to ban books that discuss sexual identity, I speak out against it.

When countries enshrine discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community in official policy, I speak out against it.

When people attempted to deflect blame from the right wing extremist who attacked Paul Pelosi by claiming that the attacker was his secret lover, I spoke out against it.

When I hear hateful speech and “dog whistles” aimed at the LGBTQ+ community, I speak out against it.

I speak out because I must. This vile, hateful rubbish is worse than just tasteless and hurtful. It’s dangerous. It is being spewed constantly on powerful platforms, and people are dying as a result.

When people inflame hatred, whether deliberately or by virtue of their ignorance, we must stand up against it. We must challenge malignant words, ideas, gestures, and innuendo. Letting it stand is tantamount to encouraging more. Hatred cannot be tolerated.

If we want to live in a society where everyone’s rights are honored and protected, where every citizen can live safely and peacefully, it is our duty to push back against hatred and division and prejudice and to do so as firmly and as clearly as we can. Staying silent is not an option.

Rhinoceros

The Northern White Rhinoceros

Went extinct

Because weak old men

Half a world away

Believed that its horn

Would restore

Their youthful virility

God curses

The arrogance 

The greed

And brutal ignorance

Of our oft-misguided species

We may not be

The next

To go extinct

But be forewarned

A day of reckoning

Is coming

For all who inhabit

A scorched and barren planet

Friday Fun

Friday

Fun Day

Time for Flowers

And Lingerie

Add some Chocolates

To the mix

And you Might just

Win a Kiss

To Remember

Forever

Radicalization

Ordinary people can be convinced to commit acts of violence if they believe three things:

1. They are in grave danger

2. Violence is the only way to resolve the situation

3. The people who are putting them in danger do not deserve respect or empathy

Statements like the following can encourage such beliefs, especially when the statements are made by trusted sources and repeated frequently.

Group X is going to take your job away.

Group X is going to bring crime to your neighborhood.

Group X is going to take away your way of life.

Group X is going to rape your women.

Group X is going to kill you.

Group X is going to replace you.

Now, let’s do a thought experiment. In the statements above, replace Group X with any of the following:

Immigrants

Elites

Liberals

Democrats

Gay people

Trans people

Black people

Jewish people

Muslims

Public health officials

Do the statements sound familiar? Have you heard some of these things said before?

In recent years, statements like this have been broadcast relentlessly online, over the airwaves, and by politicians who speak to large audiences.

Sometimes the messages are stated directly, which can be jolting to hear. Sometimes, the messages are expressed in code to make them sound softer.

Words such as “border”, “crime”, and “bathroom” will make people think if particular segments of the population. Words like “rights”, “mandate”, and “election integrity” suggest nefarious actions by a political party. The code does not dilute the impacts of the message.

The result is the demonization and dehumanization. If people can be convinced that Group X is not only threatening but also unworthy, it becomes easier to commit acts of violence against Group X.

Combine a sense of imminent danger with the sense that the people who want to harm you are unworthy, and you can convince people to do just about anything: storm the Capitol, plot to kidnap a sitting governor, assault the spouse of a high ranking official, run into a pizza restaurant with an assault rifle.

This is not theoretical. This is happening NOW. These messages are being transmitted constantly on radio, podcasts, social media, and cable TV. The violence will continue as long as the messages are being sent, and over time it’s going to get worse and worse.

Republican Crime

In 1968, Richard Nixon ran for president with a promise to “get tough on crime.” Since then, six Republican presidents have occupied the White House for 32 years, and four Democratic presidents have held the office for 22 years.

Republicans held the presidency for an entire decade more than Democrats. Here’s question: If Republicans are so good at stopping crime, why is there still crime? Republicans had a ten-year advantage in running the country. They should have fixed the problem.

What did Republicans do about crime? They built more prisons. They put more people in jail. The United States incarcerates more people than ANY OTHER COUNTRY. So, Republicans, why is there still crime?

Could it be that locking people up does not fix the underlying problems that encourage crime in the first place?

Could it be that taxing working families in order to reward billionaires creates financial imbalance and hardship?

Could it be that a lack of a fair and comprehensive healthcare system has led many families into financial ruin and has failed to address a growing mental health crisis?

Could it be that flooding the streets with semi-automatic weapons has led to more shootings rather than fewer?

Could it be that the lack of comprehensive immigration reform has led to chaos on the southern border?

Could it be that Republicans really don’t want to solve the crime problem at all? Think about it. It crime decreased dramatically, what would Republicans talk about during election cycles? How are they going to pound the table and whip up support if there’s no crime to speak of?

The Republican approach to crime has been a colossal failure for decades. Their policies don’t reduce crime; they encourage it at every level, from street gangs to school shootings, from corruption to tax cheats, from homelessness to domestic abuse, from political violence to the insurrection, Republican policies - or the lack thereof - and right-wing rhetoric have fanned the flames of instability and violence, and they have offered no effective solutions. None.

Political Violence

The lies.

The anger.

The vitriol.

The accusations.

The threats.

The intimidation.

The repugnant conspiracy theories.

What has this country come to?

The January 6th rioters chanted Speaker Pelosi’s name. They announced their desire to seek her out and do her harm. They invaded her office while her staff hid in closets.

Sadly, today, someone of like mind, a man who was radicalized by sinister messages that he absorbed from multiple sources and by the conspiracies that he heard and repeated online, attacked Speaker Pelosi’s eighty-two year old husband in his home in the darkness of the early morning hours.

What has this country come to?

Armed extremists show up at school board meetings.

Armed extremists walked into the Michigan state capitol while legislators were in session.

Activists, some of them armed, are watching and filming voters as they drop ballots off at official locations.

A third of all election workers have resigned in the last two years. The threats and intimidation that they faced was more than they could tolerate.

WHAT has this country come to, and more importantly, where is it going?

The United States has entered an unprecedented era of political violence. If it is not reversed immediately, if this trend is not denounced by ALL members of ALL political parties and ALL political pundits, regardless of their views, our democracy will crumble.

Republican Economic Résumé

Republicans claim that they will fix the economy. Let’s review their record.

1929 - The Great Depression

1973 - The Oil Embargo

1987 - Black Friday Stock Market Crash

1989 - Junk bond crash

1991 - Recession

1989 - Savings and Loan Crisis

2001 - Stock market crash

2008 - Housing market crash

I don’t trust these people. Do you?

A Great Week Of Football!

It’s hard to imagine a better week of football:

The Steelers beat Brady and the Bucs.

The Jets won.

The Giants advanced to 5-1 after knocking off the Ravens

The Eagles are 6-0 after defeating the Cowboys.

The Browns lost.

The Raiders are 1-4.

The AFC North is still wide open with no team over .500.

Chase Claypool is THE MAN!

It’s a shame that Kenny Pickett got hurt, but he threw his first NFL TD pass, and hopefully he’ll bounce back quickly from the injury.

A World At War

This is speculation on my part, but I believe that World War III has begun. To this point, it has been a proxy war waged in Ukraine, but the effects are widespread. Many countries have contributed arms, supplies, training, and intelligence. Refugees are spreading across the Continent. Russia’s actions in the energy sector have created scarcity and sent prices skyrocketing.

The Ukrainians have defended their land effectively, surprisingly so given their asymmetric disadvantages. The have pushed Russian forces out of some formerly occupied areas and inflicted heavy casualties on the battlefield.

But Russia is not likely to agree to a ceasefire despite their losses. Mr. Putin places no value on life or property. He has drafted another 300,000 conscripts to be sent to Ukraine, as Russian men of fighting age attempt to flee their country. The Kremlin increased penalties for desertion and voluntary surrender, because they realize that no one wants to die fighting for Putin’s objectives.

Expect the conflict to intensify. In addition to the increased personnel, Russia is deploying weapons systems that it has purchased from Iran. Russia has staged a sham referendum in Eastern Ukraine asking the people there whether they would like their territory to become part of Russia. This is significant, because Russia’s constitution allows the deployment of nuclear weapons only in cases where Russia is defending its own territory. When Putin can claim, even illegitimately under international law, that eastern Ukraine is part of his own country, he will have the green light to deploy tactical nuclear weapons.

Don’t think that he won’t use them. The Russian military and its mercenary counterparts have demonstrated that there is no line that they won’t cross, no norm that they won’t break, no war crime that they will not commit. They’ve bombed hospitals, leveled cities, shelled apartment buildings and nuclear power plants. They’ve killed civilians without remorse or justification, often torturing them and mutilating their bodies. They’ve shelled humanitarian corridors to prevent aid from reaching civilians and to prevent escape from heavily shelled population centers. They have kidnapped Ukrainian citizens and sent them to concentration camps in Russia before relocating them thousands of miles from home. They have waged a barbaric campaign of depopulation, just as they did years earlier in Aleppo in Syria. When battlefield commanders come back to Moscow, Putin doesn’t reprimand them for their brutality. He promotes them.

Given that track record, I don’t see any reason by Putin would stop short of deploying nuclear weapons if he thought that they would work to his advantage.

The Chapel At Windsor Castle

I have had the pleasure of touring Windsor Castle and the beautiful chapel where Queen Elizabeth’s committal service was held today. Harry and Meghan were married here as well. Seeing this lovely place on television brings back happy memories.

Time Warp

Carlos Alcaraz won the US Open tennis tournament on September 11, 2022. He wasn’t born on September 11, 2001. He’s nineteen years old.

From a nineteen-year-old’s perspective, the September 11 attacks were historical events, like Pearl Harbor or The Alamo.

King Charles’ Namesakes - A Brief History

The last King Charles (II) died in 1685, the year when Johann Sebastian Bach was born, and forty-seven years before the birth of George Washington.

King Charles I was executed in 1649 during a civil war that suspended the monarchy. Rebellion leader Oliver Cromwell signed his death warrant. Charles II was coronated following his father’s execution, but Cromwell’s troops defeated the royal forces, and Cromwell ruled England for nine years until his death from disease. Cromwell’s son did not have support in Parliament, so Charles II was restored to the throne.

The elder Cromwell’s body was exhumed, hung in chains, and beheaded in a “posthumous execution.” The head was mounted to a pole and displayed outside of the UK Parliament building for decades before being sold to a private collector.

Football Spelling Review

Football spelling review: The ball is loose! They’re going to lose! Is that your beer? No, it’s Lou’s.

Space Race

It’s hard to believe that I’m saying this, but I would rather go to space on an Amazon rocket or a Tesla rocket than a NASA rocket.

The Heckler

The heckler at Biden’s speech gave us a sobering look at the MAGA Republican mindset.

- No sense of service or community

- No helpful ideas

- No willingness to work toward a common goal

- No sense of decency or respect

Instead, it’s all about antics, bluster, disruption, and intimidation.

“Hey, look at me! I brought a megaphone so I can heckle a 79 year old man with a speech impediment! Aren’t I special? I deserve to be in charge of everything!”

Student Loan Forgiveness

Most industrialized countries provide free healthcare and free education up to a four year degree. The expense is offset by the benefit having a healthy, well-trained, well-educated work force. In the Information Age, education is more critical than ever.

The US provides neither of these benefits.

Manufacturing jobs have systematically been sent offshore. The better paying jobs require an education.

The price of an education has increased more rapidly than median wages or the cost of living. Many working families cannot afford to pay for their children’s education, especially given that they also need to pay for healthcare out of pocket.

People need an education to get ahead, so they take out loans.

At the behest of lenders, Congress has enacted laws that force the repayment of those loans regardless of financial hardship.

Student loans are immune to bankruptcy. You still have to pay back the loan, even if you get sick and lose your job and have huge medical expenses.

Complicating the situations is the rise of for-profit businesses that offer educational services. At the primary and secondary level, these businesses are called Charter Schools. Charter Schools are businesses with a CEO. Profit, not education, is their primary objective.

There are for-profit companies providing education at the university level as well. Some use the word University in their name.

For profit companies fulfill their mission by attracting students and collecting tuition. Providing an education to the students is a secondary objective.

These companies do a lot of marketing to attract students. Enrolling paying students is their number one objective.

Some of these institutions were exposed as scams and shut down. The value of the education that students received was negligible, but their loan debt remains very real. Students have to pay back the loans whether or not their “education” resulted in them getting them a job.

These are some of the reasons why student loan forgiveness is an important issue.

I don’t relish having my tax dollars go to paying off someone else’s loans, but it’s necessary for the country to make a course correction.

When former students are no longer burdened with debt, they have more disposable income to contribute to the economy.

I would like to see the US provide more education and healthcare opportunities for all students without forcing people to run up crippling amounts of debt simply to compete in the job market. It’s better to set up a working program than to bail out a broken system.

The Sewers

Consider the former president’s behavior, the demagoguery, the endless lying, the befriending of dictators, the public humiliation of generals, the reckless mishandling of classified information, the child separation policy, the retaliation against whistle blowers, downplaying a deadly virus because he feared that it would impact his chances for reelection, coercing a foreign ally to investigate a political rival, pardoning convicted felons because they were his associates, the refusal to honor subpoenas, the instigation of the January 6 attack, and so much more.

Then consider the political courage of Liz Cheney, a staunch conservative who, while her party remained faithful to their once and future leader, stood up and publicly said enough is enough, we can’t have a person like that running the country again, and here are the reasons why.

Finally, consider that a majority of registered GOP voters oppose Cheney and her dedication to the rule of law while throwing their full, enthusiastic support behind the former guy despite all of his moral, ethical, and legal transgressions. The contrast shows how deep into the sewers Donald Trump has dragged the Republican Party.

A Mob Awakened

I have no idea what a woke mob is. Is it the opposite of a sleeping mob? The barking dog woke the mob. The mob awoke, and now it’s been awakened. Note that the mob woke up, but it isn’t “woke”. That usage makes no sense.

Floating

I want to float float float

In a boat boat boat

On a moat moat moat

Around a castle

I want to float float float

On a moat moat moat

Because boating on the ocean

Is a hassle

Thank you, Kansas

Thank you, Kansas, for protecting women’s rights against right wing extremism.

Biden Beats Covid

When Biden got Covid, he stayed home and killed a terrorist.

When Trump got Covid, he went to the hospital and nearly killed Chris Christie.

New York Minute 187 - From Bad To Worse

New York Minute 187 - From Bad To Worse

The other day, I crossed Park Avenue at 79th Street in the most upscale of upscale neighborhoods. A tall, middle aged, African American man was standing on the corner. From the way that he looked at me, I sensed that he was going to ask for money. He held a single business card in one hand, but I didn’t look at it. I looked at his face.

“I don’t mean no harm,” the man said as he took a step toward me. My immediate thought was that this was a horrible way to start a conversation.

“I know you’re busy,” the man continued as I walked past him. I never give money to panhandlers, so I didn’t slow down. “I just got out of prison today.”

By this time, I was already past the guy. The best strategy in most cases is to keep walking and say nothing, but when someone is persistent, it helps to do something that they don’t expect.

“That’s great news!” I said as I turned to look back at the guy. “It’s your lucky day!”

I continued walking. The panhandler said nothing more to me. A few paces later, I heard another man’s voice coming from behind me. “What was he selling?”

“Oh, he wasn’t selling anything,” I said before looking to see who I was talking to. “He’s probably just asking for money.”

A well dressed, middle-aged white guy with gray hair walked beside me with his small gray dog. It seemed that we were all heading toward the park.

“He had something in his hand,” the well-dressed man remarked. He looked vaguely familiar. It didn’t occur to me at the time, but as I think back on it, he looked a bit like Geoffrey Epstein. They could have been brothers.

“It’s probably just a prop for his scam,” I said.

As we walked, we chatted for a moment about the increase in vagrancy over the past decade. The guy asked if I’d heard about a violent mugging that had occurred outside of a nearby restaurant a few nights earlier. I said that I hadn’t heard about the mugging, but I was familiar with the restaurant. A gang of three men took a man’s wallet after beating him in the head.

I remarked that I had hoped that the new mayor would help turn things around given his background as a police officer, but I added that things didn’t seem to be getting any better.

“Oh, he won’t do anything,” Epstein Junior remarked with disdain in his voice. “All of his supporters are Black and brown. They don’t want law and order. They want to turn this into a Black and brown city.”

I didn’t acknowledge the comment, verbally or otherwise. What do you say to something like that? I didn’t feel like expending energy to argue with a racist jerk.

The guy ranted a bit longer. I didn’t even look at him. Thankfully, our paths diverged, and I didn’t have to listen to his racist spew anymore.

What’s This Music That I Hear?

This past Saturday I took some photos of the sunset. When the colors had faded and the sky turned dark, I packed up my gear and started to walk home. As I was walking, I thought I’d use the time to make some phone calls.

I pulled my Air Pods out of my pocket, put them on, and began to hear faint strains of beautiful music. I was walking through a neighborhood lined with posh restaurants. I assumed that one of the restaurants must have been playing Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

After a few seconds, I realized that it wasn’t The Four Seasons that I was hearing, and it wasn’t coming from outside. The sound was coming through the Air Pods, and it was music that I had composed. I must have bumped my phone in such a way that it started playing the recording.

Well, that was a pleasant surprise! The music sounded pretty good, if I do say so myself. I listened to it for the rest of my walk.

Tax Coercion

It doesn’t surprise me that Mango Mussolini asked the IRS to audit Comey and McCabe. What surprises me is that someone at the agency signed off on it and the audits proceeded. That is a clear abuse of power, retaliation against people whose careers T-Rump had already ended. Heads need to roll.

On the bright side, I read that Comey received a $147 refund, which shows that unlike some ex-government officials, he’s a law-abiding guy who pays his taxes.

RIP Shinzo Abe

I was shocked to read of the assassination of Former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Political violence is still a reality in our troubled world.

Mystery Of Summer

Here’s the playful mystery of summer

The feeling that its warmth might last forever

Filling us with joy like a dear lover

As we explore our fleeting time together

The New Dark Age

What Will Happen Next:

- A ban on contraception.

- Law enforcement agencies monitoring data from period-tracking apps.

- A ban on interstate/international travel for pregnant women.

- Laws that make it a conspiracy to plan an abortion. If a woman discusses it with her husband or asks her sister to watch her kids while she travels, all parties to those conversations could be charged with felonies.

- Interference with delivery of abortion drugs via mail or other carriers.

- Increased maternal mortality. (The USA already has the highest maternal mortality rates of any wealthy developed nation.)

- Women forced to carry a deceased fetus to term.

- Women forced to deliver a rapist’s baby, even if the rapist is a family member.

This is the hell that Republican politicians have unleashed on American women. I repeat, REPUBLICAN politicians, groveling for the votes of anti-abortion zealots, have ushered in a dangerous and horrifying new chapter of American history, a dark age that will be reviled throughout history.

SCOTUS Overturns Roe

As a candidate for president in 2016, Donald Trump asked voters, “What have you got to lose?”

If it wasn’t clear at the time, today’s decision left no doubt. We all have a great deal to lose, and the Trump Supreme Court is just getting started. In the coming months and years, your rights will be under attack like never before.

Supreme Court Strikes Down Concealed Carry Ban

Great! Every thug and creep and abuser and rapist in New York City can now carry a concealed weapon without a permit. What a fucking nightmare! What an absolutely reckless and tone deaf decision in an era of rampant mass shootings!

Do you know where you CAN’T carry a concealed weapon? At the US Supreme Court. Clearly, the justices (I use the word loosely) are concerned about their own safety, but they don’t give a rat’s ass about anyone else.

Political Violence

Remember that time when Mitt Romney encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol? Oh, wait… That didn’t happen.

Remember that time when McCain refused to concede, and his supporters sent death threats to local elections officials? Oh, wait… That never happened.

Remember that time when George H.W. Bush sent a mob to harm Dan Quayle unless he refused to certify that Bill Clinton won the election? Oh, right… That didn’t happen either.

Why is political violence unique to Trump and his supporters?

Inflation vs. Autocracy

Inflation is painful. Rising prices are devastating for every person and every family that struggles to make ends meet. But inflation isn’t permanent. It will ease up eventually as the economy stabilizes.

Do you know what else is painful? Autocracy. A government that can’t be replaced out because they control who can vote and how the votes are counted.

Autocracy is painful and gravely dangerous. An autocratic government can punish any citizen for any reason at any time. Citizens have no rights and little power. That’s a pain that will never fade away. Once an autocrat rises to power, they hold only power for life. The regime defends its power with treachery and brutality. It will not collapse until there is a revolution, and attempted revolutions are not always successful.

While it’s understandable to worry about inflation and the cost of living, it’s even more critical to be concerned with the health of our democracy.

Rage

Two weeks ago, a man underwent back surgery. He called his surgeon a few days later and reported that he was experiencing pain and discomfort. The two met for a follow up visit.

What you might think - Healing takes time. Take it easy, take your medication, and follow the recommended schedule of treatment and physical therapy.

What actually happened - Yesterday afternoon, the man bought an AR-15. No one asked him why he was buying it. Because there’s no waiting period, the man walked out of the store with his new purchase.

Three hours later, the man took his new AR-15 to the building where the surgeon worked. 

he murdered his surgeon along with three other people while wounding several others before taking his own life.

Is this really how we want to live. Is this how we want our children and friends and colleagues and loved ones to live, constantly in fear that some disgruntled or unstable person will show up on our doorstep with a weapon of war and express his frustration in an explosion of bullets?

Wake up, America! You did this to yourselves. You let the firearm addicts write the rules for access to deadly force. Now every angry crackpot and murderous extremist knows exactly what they have to do to tally up a horrendous body count during their final fateful expression of rage.

A Sensible Plan

In recent discussions about gun violence, one argument that I have heard repeatedly is that there are already lots of guns in the US, and we can’t get rid of all of them.

Removal of existing guns is not the objective. Most gun owners should be able to keep the firearms that they already own as long as they store them securely.

Let’s start by not selling MORE guns to 18-year-olds.

1. Implement minimum age restrictions for purchasing a firearm: 21 for most guns, 25 for semi-automatic weapons.

2. Require a background check for all firearm purchases and transfers.

3. Every firearm must have a registered owner.

4. If someone commits a crime with a gun that they don’t own, the owner can face civil and criminal penalties.

5. Establish red flag laws to help identify people who are in crisis.

6. Fund adequate mental health support to deal with red flag cases.

The one restriction supported by the NRA

If you want to attend the NRA’s convention in Houston this weekend, you’ll have to leave your gun at home. They won’t let you in with a gun or a knife or even a selfie stick. Apparently, they believe that those items are DANGEROUS. If people bring them into the convention, someone might get hurt.

The NRA wants to protect its members, its sponsors, and the politicians who support them. But they don’t care if someone brings a gun into your workplace, your neihborhood, your stores, your malls, your churches, your temples, your schools, your parks, your theaters, your concert halls, etc., etc., etc. If fact, they will work with their political friends to ensure that you can’t stop people from carrying firearms freely wherever they want to take them.

Except the NRA convention. No guns allowed!

Red Flags

Per the Houston Chronicle, the Uvalde shooter bought an AR-15 rifle the day after his eighteenth birthday. The next day, he bought 350 rounds of ammunition. He then bought a second AR-15. Four days later, he went on a shooting rampage.

Here’s a thought: Why didn’t these purchases set off some red flags? Maybe if someone had sat down and listened to him, asked what was troubling him, asked why he was so fascinated with powerful weaponry, there’s a chance that he could have been talked down before lashing out. Maybe the gun store could have given him a refund. Maybe he could have bought lunch for the students and teachers instead of slaughtering them.

Uvalde

The gun lobby has successfully implemented their vision for America. More guns. Easier access. Fewer restrictions. Gaping loopholes. Government agencies aren’t even allowed to study gun violence.

The results are predictable. There are more guns in circulation than ever before: 400 million firearms currently in circulation. The guns are more powerful than ever before, and they are easier to get than ever before.

The human cost is also predictable. More death. More murder. A 51 percent annual increase in shootings. Over 200 mass murders since the beginning of the year.

It’s time a new vision. It’s time for children to be able to go to school without fear of being murdered. It’s time for universal background checks without exceptions for all gun buyers. It’s time for people with a history of violent and threatening behavior to have a much more difficult time purchasing a firearm. It’s time to fund mental health services so anyone who needs them can have access to help at no cost. It’s time to take down websites that spread hateful rhetoric and calls to violence. It’s time to retire the outrageously irresponsible lie that regulation equals confiscation. It’s time for politicians to demonstrate that they value HUMAN LIFE at least as much as they value access to powerful weapons.

It’s time to vote out ANYONE who gets in the way.

Counting Votes In Pennsylvania

In Pennsylvania’s Republican Primary Election for the US Senate, businessman David McCormick held a slight lead over television personality Mehmet Oz through most of the evening. Then, as votes were tabulated in and around Philadelphia, Oz gained votes and took a slight lead over McCormick.

If this sounds familiar, it should. In 2020, Donald Trump led during the evening, but Joe Biden pulled ahead when votes in the Philly suburbs were reported.

Trump held a press conference in the middle of the night angrily claiming that he had won the elections, that Biden’s late surge this was statistically impossible and the result of “massive voter fraud,” claims that were litigated unsuccessfully in over sixty court battles and formed the basis of “the Big Lie” that inspired the insurrection on January 6, 2021.

Given that historical perspective, I’m wondering how Mr. Trump’s supporters feel about the late-night gains by Oz, who received Trump’s endorsement. Is this an example of “extreme voter fraud”? Did thousands of illegal immigrants flood into Pennsylvania to throw their support behind Oz? Were the voting machines hacked? Were suitcases of fake ballots smuggled into Philadelphia election offices?

Or is this just the way that election results are tabulated as different counties release their results, and where the results from more populous counties take longer to tabulate?

This shines a glaring spotlight on Mr. Trump’s dubious claims of fraud in his electoral defeat in 2020. If it’s not fraud when your candidate wins, it’s not fraud when you lose.

The Problem With Banning Books

The Right: Ban books that teach students about racism.

Buffalo: White teenager massacres Black people.

Monsters

Two images caught my attention this week. The first was a photo of the Russian soldier who’s being tried for war crimes in Ukraine after allegedly shooting a 62-year-old civilian in the back. The soldier is twenty-one, but he looks like a kid, a boy who should be fishing with his friends on a quiet lake, not sent to a foreign country to commit atrocities.

The second image was the arraignment of the suspect in the mass shooting in Buffalo. He’s eighteen years old. He’s probably never voted in an election, yet he wrote a manifesto expressing his determination to kill as many Black people as he could.

Two countries half a world apart. Two young men who were barely more than children when they voluntarily committed unspeakable acts of violence. What forces are creating these monsters, and how can we reverse this deadly trend?

Things Will Get Better

Robin Williams. Anthony Bourdain. Naomi Judd.

Highly successful. Revered by millions. Took their own lives.

Take care of yourself. Ask for help when you need it. Things will get better.