Once Venerated U.S.A. Plummets into Disgrace

If any day stirs patriotism in the American heart, it’s the Fourth of July. But I won’t be celebrating this year. The thought of waving a flag and declaring that we are the greatest country in the world is laughable.

 

Citizens protest racial injustice in record numbers, disrupting complacency in hundreds of cities and towns across all 50 states. And yet, the inept, immoral president (lower case intended) doubles down on the militarized policing that ignited the protests to begin with. Federal troupes menace fellow citizens as they exercise their American rights to free speech and assembly.

 

Our country should be an example of harmonious diversity to which all others aspire. Instead, multitudes from Berlin to Melbourne take to the streets protesting American racism.

 

Covid-19 runs more rampant here than in any other country. Places identified as shit holes by the same racist president manage the pandemic better.

 

Americans are banned from Europe, parts of Asia, and even Canada because we have failed so badly to combat the virus within our borders.

 

In the midst of this global pandemic, the president, desperately trying to focus the blame somewhere else, carelessly pulls our membership from the World Health Organization.

 

The U.S. should lead the world in fighting disease. Our wealth should create vaccines that we generously share with others.

 

Instead, dimwitted throngs march on state capitals to battle for the fabricated right to not wear disease preventing masks. They do so with blatant disregard for scientific facts and no concern for the public good.

 

I once thought that greed and corruption, persistent evils in the best of countries, could be kept at bay by the determination to live out our ideals. The arc of the moral universe, said the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., would bend towards justice. In spite of occasional backsliding, we were ultimately destined to be the great country we imagined.

 

But evil and corruption have escalated to unprecedented levels. Checks and balances to keep them at bay have been defused.

 

The corrupt elite instigate chaos to distract us from their antics. As a result, we ignore serious threats like climate catastrophe.

 

The criminals running this country are only interested in preserving their own power and wealth. Even the most basic American values don’t interest them. They blithely encourage unthinkable evils such as white supremacy to achieve their goals.

 

And yet.

 

We might have a chance to set things right. In November, we could send a message that corruption will no longer be tolerated. It won’t be easy, however. We must overcome Republican instigated systemic voter suppression, the influence of nefarious countries that manipulate our elections, and the apathy of millions who have not voted in the past.

 

Our reward could be a new United States, a country of which we are truly proud. We could become not the world’s savior, but a responsible citizen nation among others.

 

Cooped Up by Covid

Our dumbass in chief, who has always been inept, has outdone himself with daily proclamations of bellowing ignorance.

Except for rare trips to the supermarket and brief walks outside I haven’t left the house for two weeks. We are compelled now by government edict to practice “social distancing” in order to slow the wave of the novel coronavirus. 

The U.S. now tops the number of infected in the world, if you trust the numbers, which I don’t. Thanks to the woefully inadequate response of our federal government, far fewer people in the U.S. have even been tested, so the numbers are probably much higher. 

As always in healthcare, we are less prepared and our poor are worse off than any other developed country in the world – to say nothing of our overworked and under-protected medical professionals who have to beg the public to help them get safety masks and gowns. 

Our dumbass in chief, who has always been inept, has outdone himself with daily proclamations of bellowing ignorance. His stupidity is surpassed only by the 47 percent of Americans who continue to rate his performance positively. 

While Washington DC has provided less than inspiring leadership, we in Colorado are somewhat better off because our state leaders, Governor Polis leading the way, are taking a serious, scientific approach to the crisis. Republicans, typically, are critical of Polis’s strict orders to stay at home, but it’s so much better than some states (North Carolina and others with higher infection rates of destructive Trumpism) where governors refuse to take action. 

Clyde and I are very fortunate, so far, to be disease free (at least Covid-19 free – we still have our regular repertoire of health issues). We have plenty to eat. Charles the cat is just as sweet as ever. As the meme says, we are called to sacrifice by sitting at home and watching TV – we got this. 

We are still working, albeit at home because our offices are restricted to all but “essential” personnel. In fact, I’ve been as busy as ever coming up with creative ways to teach people through the magic of technology. I meet just as often with my colleagues in Montreal and Phoenix. The conference calls with people in the UK and other non-North American locations have slowed because the Diversity and Inclusion initiative which I’ve been honored to help with has been temporarily shelved. 

Of course all of that changes if one of us gets sick. The virus, for us, is still something only in the news. To my knowledge, it hasn’t afflicted anyone we personally know. That’s bound to change as the peak may still be weeks away. 

For now, I have to admit that I am enjoying the quieter, calmer life of staying home. I like not risking my life twice a day fighting traffic on I-25. I like not planning my day around where I have to be hour by hour. I enjoy communicating with people electronically from the comfort of my sofa. 

Clyde’s and my church attendance has actually improved because St. Andrew’s services such as the Thursday night Evensong and Sunday morning prayer (no eucharist until we can be all together in person) are broadcast over the web. Even church committees continue to meet through the miracle of Zoom. 

I don’t want to make light of the suffering which Covid-19 has inflicted, but I love the fact that air pollution levels are down. Dolphins are swimming in the waterways of Venice for the first time in centuries. Mountain lions are exploring the streets of Boulder because there are so few humans outside. 

We’ll see how many more weeks I can stay content. If we’re lucky, the worst that will happen is that we start climbing the walls with boredom before this situation abates and we can return to some version of normal.

Settling in for a Long Pandemic

Don't tell anyone, but we have several rolls of toilet paper in the closet. 

Greetings from the little house on Forest Street where I'm pounding away at my computer, work tasks serving as a rare link to normality. Well, it's also normal that Charles, our cat, is snoozing on the sofa. He just made the big move from the open window to the spot where Clyde usually sits.

In the other room, a small stockpile of groceries is stacked on the floor. Clyde says that's our emergency stash and I'm not allowed to touch it yet. There are hand sanitizer bottles on the dining room table. In spite of our intention to go on a "news diet" to lower stress, the television blares the latest infection figures in the background. It also reminds us that drinking bleach is not a good treatment for what ales you.

Don't tell anyone, but we have several rolls of toilet paper in the closet. Fortunately, we don't have to decide whether to fight little old ladies in the aisle at the supermarket for the last one. That seems to be what people do these days.

Assuming they're still open, we plan to order dinner from our local Chinese takeout. Reports on Next Door indicate that the old couple who owns the place are not busy these days, thanks to the ignorant stupidity of disloyal customers who are avoiding anything Chinese, lest they catch the virus. All of the sit down restaurants in Denver are closing tomorrow for the duration. It's takeout or nothing now.

Even Starbucks is switching to drive through only service. Where are hipsters going to sit and look at their laptops now? Is this the end of civilization as we know it?

Today I watched President Macron of France address his people. He was compassionate, solemn, and factual. Then I watched President Dumbass here at home. He clearly doesn't understand anything. His grasp of facts is so totally lacking that if we relied on him for information, we wouldn't have any. 

President Macron compared this to a time of war and said that we have to pull together while staying apart, the sacrifice necessary for the good of all. I have never been in a war, but it's a sobering thing to contemplate. In case you were wondering, President Dumbass did not offer any words of wisdom. The smartest thing he did was step aside so Anthony Fauci could clarify some misinformation that the Donald hath spewed.

We have technology to keep in touch, thank goodness, so isolation can be somewhat mitigated. We also have unprecedented home entertainment options. I don't know what people did in the last world-wide pandemic without Netflix. I suppose they read the Bible and contemplated what humanity had done to earn such wrath that God had set upon the world.

In our relatively stable country, we aren't used to this kind of uncertainty. But I think compared to bombs going off around us and tanks in the streets, we're still pretty well off. And as far as I know, for the moment, I can still get chicken fried rice from the Chinese take out.

Stay healthy everyone!

The Year-Dometer Is Turning Over

As the year-dometer turns over to a new decade, it seems only appropriate that we reflect on the decade past and ...

Before I go on, I want to address those of you who are upset with me because the new decade doesn't start until 2021 and I obviously don't understand basic numbers. Yes, I'm aware that there was no "year zero" and that we start counting everything with the number one. But I'm not a math fundamentalist. I think that, for example, it's symbolically more meaningful when your car odometer turns over to 100,000 miles than 100,001. So try not to get too riled up and let's get on with it.

Unfortunately, I'm at an age where the last 10 years are indistinguishable from the 10 before that. Wasn't the turn of the century just 10 years ago? Seems like only yesterday, we ate a cake that said, "Welcome 2000" and accidentally shot live fireworks into the woodpile.

Ever since 2000, I've said we are living in the future. The elders among us might remember how in the 1960s and 70s, predictions of the future always started with, "By the year 2000 ..." which seemed impossibly far away. And now? Smart phones. Self-driving cars. They still seem like science fiction to me. On the other hand, I struggle to remember how we got to our friends' homes in the suburbs without GPS. Did we really fumble around with paper maps that we could never fold back to their original state?

Some of the decade's highlights for me personally:

• I got legally married and I'm still amazed about that.
• I became Episcopalian.
• I went from middle age to upper middle age.
• I bought a house riddled with stupid problems.
• I got a Kindle reader.

Our national life has been no less eventful:

• It became legal for same sex couples to marry.
• There is a general trend towards legalizing marijuana.
• "They" as a singular, personal pronoun came into acceptance.
• There are more good programs on TV than ever before and thanks to DVRs and streaming, we can watch them at our own convenience.

On the other hand:

• The U.S. accelerated on its journey to hell with shady Republicans engineering voter suppression and other stunts. These culminated in an illiterate, immoral, psychopath in the white house and a supreme court that will halt progressive changes at every turn for years to come.
• Climate change and global warming continued to worsen while we basically continued to not do much about it.
• Corporations figured out how to gather even more reams of data on us through technology that we bring into our homes on purpose. It's so bad now that experts recommend putting a piece of low tech tape over the camera on your new television because, theoretically and technically, someone out there could be watching you..

You know, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to extend the decade one more year. That would give us a little extra time to end the 10s on a more positive note and brace ourselves for the 20s.

Never Forget What?

With the recent anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, there were news stories and posts with photos, lists honoring victims and first responders, and a particularly beautiful song from Mary Chapin Carpenter (Grand Central Station). The phrase that accompanied many of these was, "Never forget."

What, exactly, are we not to forget?

In this Trumpian age of white nationalism, my hackles get up when I see a vaguely defined message like, "Never forget." If we're not careful, phrases like that can ignite the wrong kind of reaction, especially paranoia and discrimination, or worse, violence, against Muslims and immigrants.

I remember as vividly as anyone where I was when those planes hit the towers and the Pentagon. It was a cool, clear morning, not a cloud in the sky. I was working from home, fighting with my laptop, the Today Show running in the background. When the first plane hit, before I knew it was a large commercial airliner, I thought, "Wow, some idiot pilot can't navigate around tall buildings." But when the second plane hit, I, like everyone else, had no doubt that this was an intentional terrorist attack. I was shocked and dumbfounded the rest of the day and for several days after, glued to the TV and hanging onto every observation, theory, and fear that it might keep happening. I wept over the story of how passengers on one plane stopped the hijackers before it crashed in Pennsylvania. I remember a friend who was stuck in New York City with no way to get home. I remember thinking that Republicans would surely use this as an excuse to do their usual warmongering - and I was right about that. I remember going to an event that night where people were wearing red, white, and blue and expressing obnoxious patriotism as if it were the God-damned fourth of July. I remember looking at the sky for several days, empty of contrails because no planes were flying. For usually not noticing planes in the sky one way or the other, it was spooky not to see or hear any.

In other words, I remember a lot. I'm not in danger of forgetting anything.

I just want to be sure that we remember the right things: the heroes on the planes, the first responders risking and losing their lives, the families who suddenly lost loved ones.

We should also remember the bad, shameful things: the immediate outlash against Muslims, even those life long, patriotic citizens who just because of religion and/or ethnicity, were somehow blamed for the attacks. Many lost basic freedoms and continue to suffer an unjust stigma. If you don't believe me, ask anyone with a middle-eastern surname who flies on a regular basis.

We should not forget how we overreacted and used the attacks as an excuse to invade Iraq, who had nothing to do with it. We shouldn't forget how millions of Americans were forced to sacrifice freedoms because of overreaching laws like the PATRIOT Act.

It's ok to never forget. Let's just think about what we're not forgetting and make sure we're remembering for the right reasons.

Grandpa Rambles On About the Moon Landing

"Pay attention to this," my first grade teacher, Mrs. Hedgecock scolded. "You can tell your grandchildren that you remember when man first walked on the moon."

Grandchildren? As a seven year old, I was more struck by the idea of having grandchildren than I was about the moon landing. The most I aspired to being in those days was a clown or maybe a teenager. Mrs. H was, however, mostly right. Ok, I don't have grandchildren, but I'm old enough to corner my nieces' and nephew's kids and tell them that a thing or two happened before they were born.

50 years ago, almost beyond comprehension, an insurmountable barrier was broken and actual earthbound beings traveled to that other world in the sky and came back to tell the tale.

Not only did "man" go to the moon, but the unexpected byproducts added much to our lives. For one thing, we got expressions such as, "They can send a man to the moon, but they can't (make a toaster that works right, build a toilet that doesn't run, synchronize the traffic light at Eighth and Colorado, or just fill in the blank with your own technological frustration)."

We also got Tang. Until I was in high school, I thought the breakfast drink made from dark yellow powder was the same as orange juice. It was advertised, actually, to have more vitamin C than orange juice. For sure it had more sugar. Or has. Is Tang still a thing? I recently read that we probably would have had Tang even if astronauts hadn't consumed it in space. I wonder if they really did drink Tang. Has 60 Minutes done an investigation about this?

So what have we done since 50 years ago? I'm sure everyone thought we would have colonized Mars by now, or at least have settlements on that same now accessible moon.

I'd hate to disappoint the people of 1969, but no one has made it to Mars. We did send machines to Mars to dig holes and get stuck in craters. We had a Shuttle program come and go, and we participate in the International Space Station. Our robots photograph the rings of Saturn up close and fly by places as distant as Pluto, the dwarf formerly known as a planet. Voyager I, launched in the 70s, now hurdles beyond our solar system towards a  star called AC +79 3888 which it will reach in about 40,000 years. We've actually recorded the image of a real black hole.

But we should have accomplished more since 1969. The American obsession with cutting taxes has left us with a shell of the space program we once had. Taxpayers fail to support education resulting in our nation ranking below half the others in STEM education.

In case you don't know, STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math.

We take technology for granted with no idea where it came from. Our smart phones have more technology than Apollo 11 and what do we do with them? We send each other emojis and settle trivial arguments by googling things.

I doubt if old Mrs. Hedgecock is still around, but if she were, what would she think about my not having grandchildren?

I Refuse to Forward Chain Posts

I suppose that if I don't forward it, I'm in favor of cancer and I don't support our troops.

"Please, in honor of someone who died, or is fighting cancer, or even had cancer, copy, and paste."

This is taken from an actual Facebook post on my timeline. I want to know how copying and pasting it will help the fight against cancer.

I’m annoyed by Facebook posts that contain statements like, "I'll bet no one will share this," or "If 5 of my friends post this I'll be surprised." It's often about cancer or supporting our troops, and other topics that pretty much everyone agrees on. The message is that if you care, you'll share the post.

It may or may not be a good post. No, actually it won't be a good post. It may or may not apply to me. I suppose that if I don't forward it, I'm in favor of cancer and I don't support our troops. I resent the implication. For the record, I'm against cancer and I strongly believe that our troops and veterans deserve first class benefits.

These kinds of posts replace chain letters of old. If you're young and don't know what I'm talking about, chain letters used to come in the old fashioned, paper-based, mail. They would tell you that unless you make a certain number of copies and send them to all your friends, dire things will happen. Intelligent people like my mother always said, "Never forward a chain letter." Well I'd like to say the same thing about these "chain" posts.

In summary, let me just say to these chain post forwarders, I'll post whatever the hell I want whenever the hell I want to. I won't repost your post because I won't be manipulated. I won't repost the post because you didn't even write it yourself. You just copied and pasted it. I would rather spend my time reading actual news about my family and friends.






That ends today's rant.