I Can't Breathe!

By now you've seen the horrific photos and videos of the takedown and murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis Policemen.  By any measure or analysis, there really isn't any doubt that the police used excessive force that resulted in the death of Mr. Floyd.  I know, I know...let the investigation run it's course.  They deserve due process.  I wasn't there and don't know the circumstances.  Blah, blah, blah.  But bottom line...they killed him.  If you watch the video that has gone viral, you can hear him pleading that he couldn't breath.  And you can see the look on the face of the policeman that screams at me that he really doesn't care.  That is an opinion, but I don't see how you could come to any other conclusion.  Of course after this story exploded in the news, there was outrage and cries for justice.  In these kinds of incidents, action is never swift enough.  The four officers involved were terminated from the police force and an investigation was begun almost immediately to determine facts of the incident and next steps.  But of course, the photos, videos and witnesses meant that the whole thing was going to go viral, and go viral rapidly.  Before they knew it, Minneapolis had a shit storm of rage on their hands and it has spiraled out of control.  There have been riots, looting, businesses trashed, buildings burned and numerous injuries.  It quickly became too much for the police force and the National Guard has been called in today.  The hope is that there will be order and calm restored.  We'll see.  People are outraged to a degree I haven't seen in quite some time and could continue the looting and burning for several days.  Meanwhile the police officer most identified with the murder and the guy with his knee on the neck of Mr Floyd for such a long time (almost 9 minutes), has been arrested and charged with murder among other things.  I've heard that the other  officers involved may face charges also.  Only time will tell.  

This whole thing has become all too familiar.  Depressingly familiar.  During the last several years there have been too many instances  of black men and boys killed by the police that have resulted in varying levels of public outrage.  Some have been pretty straightforward and some a bit more murky.  But the thing that has been common as the years go by is that they all contained video and photographic evidence.  As more and more people have a video camera in their pockets, literally everything in life winds up being videoed.  And so this week when Mr Floyd was callously murdered, it was right there in video for all to see.  And the rest, as they say, is history.  As before, there have been expressions of outrage.  But that only goes so far.  I am so over expressions of solidarity through hashtags.  Thoughts and prayers are just that...thoughts and prayers and not much else.  There have been peaceful demonstrations against the treatment and the violence.  But those only go so far.  They should be effective in providing an outlet for the frustration and a chance to express feelings.  But when the signs are put away and everyone goes back to work and school, the frustration is still there and continues to build.  And too often they erupt in violence.  Some of it's spontaneous and some of its planned.

A word about the riots.  They have spread across the country.  There have been riots and looting that have burned and destroyed neighborhoods and lives.  Mostly black neighborhoods and black lives.  And those only serve to set back the efforts of good people trying to come to grips with answers.     They feed the crowd that focuses on any excuse to minimize the event that caused the outrage.     There is widespread reporting that many these riots have been organized and orchestrated by ANTIFA groups and white supremacist groups.  These guys are plainly criminals and there is no place for it.  And the people engaging in it should be dealt with swiftly and severely.

The Mayor of Atlanta has a very powerful statement about riots that are burning her city.  I can't  add anything.

The rioting is difficult to understand or condone for someone who has never been close to being so frustrated, so outraged, so hopeless that they have to do something.  Anything.  That's not to excuse it, but to try and understand it.  The problem with what these protests have evolved to is that they are no longer about Mr Floyd.  This is just destruction and looting.  Here's another person's take on rioting..."And I must say tonight that a riot is the language of the unheard. And what is it America has failed to hear? It has failed to hear that the plight of the negro poor has worsened over the last twelve or fifteen years. It has failed to hear that the promises of freedom and justice have not been met. And it has failed to hear that large segments of white society are more concerned about tranquility and the status quo than about justice and humanity."  Martin Luther King, Jr.

So what are we to make of this?  From my perspective it's another sad episode in the sorry tale of race relations in this country.  And frankly, it appears that there isn't much that anyone can do about it.  We have lived with this scourge for hundreds of years.  Slavery was our original sin.  We argued and fought over it for the first 100 years of our country's existence that finally culminated in the Civil War, the bloodiest war in our history.  Neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother, fighting to the end for something that both sides passionately believed in.  But the end state didn't resolve much. Oh, the Emancipation Proclamation was passed and several amendments to the Constitution were passed to guarantee civil rights, but when President Lincoln was assassinated and Andrew Johnson ascended to the Presidency, it pretty much sealed the fate of the black population for the next 100 years.  Johnson was a rabid segregationist and torpedoed every effort for the country to heal and for blacks to begin the road to equality.  So for the next 100 years (100 years!!) we had Jim Crow.  If you've read anything about this history you know it's about as shameful, if not more, as the era of slavery.  And then came 1965 and the Civil Rights Act.  That was supposed to bring about equality with the stroke of a pen.  Be we know it doesn't work that way.  So for the last 55 years we've been on a long, slow, tortured path to achieving the dream of equality.  There have been successes, there is general day to day harmony in many communities, and we see increasing integration month by month, year by year.  But we're still not close to where we should be.  

I think there are some truths that must be faced.  Some hard truths.  Some truths that are generally difficult to discuss.  Whites and blacks don't get each other.  We can be friendly, we can marry, we can be neighbors and classmates, we can socialize, but at the end of the day there are social, racial and cultural barriers that are almost impenetrable.  An interesting thing to me is that economic parity between particular whites and blacks can go a long way towards understanding, but there are still barriers.  And they are fundamental.  Now don't get me wrong, on an individual basis, whites and blacks can be as close as brothers and sisters, but generally as a group, there are barriers.  And I have to say that whites will never understand the plight of blacks.  They can't.  They can't relate to sending your kid off on a date and worrying if he's going to come back alive.  They can't relate to being followed in a clothing store and being asked to see the receipt for purchases when they walk out of the door.  They can't relate to sitting in a restaurant waiting for service that will be slow in coming.  They can’t relate to the incomprehensible injustice of asking a woman to leash her dog in a public park and her reaction is to call the police because you’re threatening her.  Or innocently pumping gas at a gas station when police cars show up and start questioning you because a white person called them.  They can't relate to the absolute necessity to educate your kids and especially your boys on the dangers they will face simply because of the color of their skin.  They can't relate to accepting inferior schools in their communities because that's what the system provides.  They can't relate to their male population being unemployed or in prison at alarming rates.    They can't relate to the number of their daughters who are raising their children on their own.  They can't relate to all the tiny little prejudices that blacks experience every single day while just trying to live their lives.  While not recognizing their own blindspots, too many whites believe they are colorblind.  They will say they "don't see color" while not recognizing the vast differences and inequities present in front of them.  And as a result they become part of the problem that they don't see.  If this discussion causes you to scratch your head a bit and wonder if I'm either crazy or maybe have a point, take some time to do some soul searching.  There are a ton of books, articles, movies and other material that address these issues.  And like I said, it's not comfortable.  Here's a couple of recommendations of a movie I've recently watched and a book I've recently read that caused me to ask myself those uncomfortable questions.  Check out a movie called, "The Hate U Give".   It's pretty basic but tells an interesting story.  And the book is by Jody Piccult called "Small Great Things".  Check them out.  There are a lot of other issues but these seem to me to be the biggest.  And these things don't solve themselves overnight.  It's going to take a long time.  A real long time.

I also think there are a lot of people who believe that the answers lie in more government, more legislation, more money, more programs, more bureaucracy.  These things have been proven not to work.  Especially at the federal level, we don't need more of anything.  What we need is better, not more.  When we all get treated equally by the government, then we all have a stake in the outcome.  The experiment called America won't work unless we all buy into it.  And buying into it means having a sense that the playing field is level and anyone can achieve.  It seems to me that when the government provides more of whatever it is to some over others, they are trying to influence outcomes.  I don't think that's America.  We need to work on influencing starting points and playing fields.  And then let the chips fall where they may.  There will be winners and losers.  Always.  That's life.  But that it's so predetermined isn't.  But once again, I'm not sure there's a way to fix where we are today.  The systems, the bureaucracies, the expectations, the limitations, the advantages, and so many other things are institutionally tipped one way or the other.  The other piece of this issue that frequently gets ignored is the issue of personal responsibility.  The more level the playing field becomes, the more important personal responsibility becomes because everyone has an increasing sense of being responsible for their own lives.  Unfortunately, when the government assumes so many functions in our lives, it's easy to minimize the level of personal responsibility required to succeed.  The reason everyone admires a young black kid who strives and overcomes and achieves success in school and his or her life is because everyone knows the playing field isn't level.  That for some kids the climb is steeper and littered with roadblocks.  So when they make it, it's a big deal.   

There is one common thing in all of the incidents we've heard about in which black men and boys are killed.  And that is the police.  Now don't get me wrong, policemen and women are heroes.  99% of them are great people doing a very tough and dangerous job.  They should be honored, applauded, paid well and used as examples for our children.  But that doesn't mean we turn a blind eye to the bad apples.  If I were a local government official in any city, county or state around our country, I'd be asking some pretty tough questions.  A case can be made that every police organization in our country should be conducting very tough audits of their personnel with the intent to weed out anyone who has exhibited behavior that could be deemed prejudicial or racist.  And then there should be some very direct and comprehensive training on what is acceptable and what isn't.

Another aspect of this horrific issue is media involvement and blame.  Like so many things in our society, the media has evolved.  Unfortunately the evolution of he media hasn't been good.  It appears to me that they care about two things.  First is making every story as sensational as possible to generate headlines and revenue.  Second is to cast the story in a light that reflects their prejudices.  So  they've departed from just providing facts.  That doesn't sell.  And it doesn't promote their views.  As they shape and mold their stories, many times it drives people to their respective corners.  And that doesn't promote any sort of dialog that solves issues.  But like so many other things, I'm not sure there is any going back.  

So what do we do?  Throughout my professional career and even in many organizations I volunteer in the most frustrating, routinely non-answered question is...so what do we do?  When asking what we do most think we need to think about big, systemic, earth-shattering change.  But at the personal level, and that's where all of this really is, I think we need to ask what we can do to try and help with needed changes.  First, I think we can run toward the fire.  The natural propensity is to turn away.  To ignore uncomfortable or unjust things. But all things happen fundamentally on a local, personal level.  We have to stand up.  We have to hold people accountable.  What would have happened if one of the police officers in the group detaining Mr Floyd would have said stop?  What if one of them would have raised the alarm of abuse?  Or at the end, what if one of the police officers present would have arrested the policeman with his knee on Mr Floyd's neck?  What would you do if you were there?  Would you have stood passively by or tried to do something?  Think about that.  You never know when it will happen, so be ready.  

How will you change your view of racial injustice where you see it, where you live?  How will you know it?  Who will you hold accountable?  How will you educate your children?  How will your actions allow you to sleep better at night?  Maybe an honest dialog with some friends of a different race is in order.

When you see people of color reacting to injustice in ways you think are outrageous, will you try to understand or scoff that they are only hurting their cause?  And I'm not saying excuse criminal behavior but rather to at least try to understand.  Or when you see them being resigned to injustice maybe because it's happened so many times and will happen again, will you boldly stand with them?  Will you be the one to say...no more?

When you see opportunities to help level the playing field what will you do?  Are there kids in your sphere who you can influence to climb the long, steep mountain?  And will you be there for them when they trip and lose their way?

What other things can you do?  Look around.  Don't shrink from action.  Again, have an honest dialog with friends who don't look like you.

This has been a long and rather painful blog post.  I know many won't agree nor see things the way I do.  And that's okay.  But the tragic death of Mr Floyd seems to me to be somewhat of a tipping point.    There is almost universal agreement that this horrific incident should be condemned.  And that condemnation is not enough.  If this death causes people to look inward and resolve to work for change, then maybe that's all we can expect.

Paddle Boarding

We tried this one time when we were in Hawaii.  There is a definite technique to it.   I remember that it wasn't difficult to get up but it takes some work to stay up.  The stress is in your legs and it's a great  leg workout, especially thighs and butts.  And I thought at the time that paddle boarding would be a great sport to take up if you wanted to work on your legs and tone your butt.  Apparently I was right!

When We Emerge...

When I started this blog, I would routinely quote Peggy Noonan and reprint her columns that I thought were particularly poignant or presient.  Over time and as Trump lived into the Presidency she has become, if hot a "never Trumper" at least a vociferous critic.  And I think most of her criticism has to do with style and cultural impact.  I believe she remains at her heart a conservative and a Republican.  And there have been many, many times over the last three years when I've very much resonated with her dismay at Trump's remarks, tweets, and persona.  But I guess the difference is that as a guy who is just a casual observer and living life in a larger context than the NYC or WDC bubble, I keep my eye steadfastly on the other side.  The damage they would do to the country is, to my mind, just as important to focus on (if not more important) than the shenanigans of the President.  And how Trump acts is so dependent on media that truthfully I give him a pass most of the time because I know it's all a reaction to their shameful behavior.

But I soldier on reading her columns hoping to find a gem once in a while.  Today is that day.  I think her column in the WSJ this week is really good.  It's not earth shattering, it's not breaking news, it's not all things for all people, but the message seems to me to be from her heart and can apply to so many of us.  And for me if on the other side of this pandemic, we emerge a simpler, kinder, more loving people, then we're so much the better for it.  It might be true and it might not.  It's one person's opinion.  But I'll take it.

A Plainer People in a Plainer Time
As the lockdown forces us to turn inward, we rethink what’s important and what we were meant to do.

By  Peggy Noonan
Updated May 22, 2020 2:13 pm ET

We’re easing up. Good, it’s time. Spring is here, summer’s coming. You can pass any well-meaning restriction and do your best to enforce it, but great leaders work with human nature, not against it. People need to be together, out in the air, in the sun, and if you don’t let them they’ll find a way anyhow, and then everybody will have to fight.

All 50 states are to varying degree unlocking. How citizens do this will determine the size and severity of second and third waves. It’s almost all in our hands. A report this week from a scientist who helped discover SARS said that a lab experiment confirms what common sense always suggested: Wearing a mask can substantially reduce disease transmission and viral loads. If we all do that one small thing, chances are we’ll get through OK.

How could we not? Especially after we’ve just done something so big.

What we did—essentially shut down a great, complex, modern nation for two months out of concern that people would become sick—had never been tried before. It’s something new in history. We will look back on it, however it turns out, with a certain wonder.

In those two months we learned a lot. How intertwined and interconnected our economy is, how provisional, how this thing depended on that. And how whisperingly thin were everybody’s profit margins. The well-being of the West Side block depends on human traffic, which depends on restaurants and bars, which depend on the theater being open. It was a George Bailey economy: “Every man on that transport died. Harry wasn’t there to save them, because you weren’t there to save Harry.” Every economy is, in the end, and if you’re interested in economics you knew this, but not the way you know it after the business catastrophe of 2020.

But the biggest things I suspect we learned were internal. No matter what you do for a living, when you weren’t busy introspection knocked on the door and settled in. Two different men, professionals, both blinked with surprise as they reported, unasked, that they can’t believe they have their college-age kids home again and they’re all together and they have dinner every night and play board games. They were so grateful. They had no idea this was possible, that it would make them so happy. That it had been missing.

People have suffered. They’ve been afraid. The ground on which they stand has shifted. Many have been reviewing their lives, thinking not only of “what’s important” or “what makes me happy” but “what was I designed to do?” They’ve been conducting a kind of internal life review, reflecting on the decision that seemed small and turned out to be crucial, wondering about paths not taken, recognizing strokes of luck. They’ve been thinking about their religious faith or lack of it, about their relationships. Phone calls have been longer, love more easily expressed, its lack more admitted.

It has been a dramatic time. We have stopped and thought about our lives, and our society’s arrangements. We have applauded together, for the first time, those whose jobs kept our towns up and operating, from nurses to truckers. We’ve rethought not only what is “essential” but who is important. All this will change you as a nation.

Here is what I am certain of. We will emerge a plainer people in a plainer country, and maybe a deeper one. Something big inside us shifted.

Superficially, the hair is scruffier, the roots grew out, but you can almost hear people thinking eh, our time is finite, our money limited—maybe that’s not gray, it’s silver. Maybe that new fringe is my silver lining. We’ve grown used to soft clothes, gym clothes. I have three outfits in daily rotation and I keep them folded on a window ledge, like a child laying out her clothes for school. I like the simplicity of this. I shared it with a friend. “That’s what I do!” he said. “And I don’t want to stop!” We watch TV news and home studios, light makeup and spectral lighting and think OK, sign of the times.

The world has admired and imitated America’s crisp chic, but I see an altering of the national style. For reasons economic and existential a new simplicity is coming, glitz leaving. (All this would be especially true for those over 40, but according to the Census Bureau that’s more than half the country.)

Fashion is a sliver of life. Maybe you approach it as the fun of glamour; maybe you see it as a way of paying tribute to life by making it even more beautiful. Maybe you see it as vanity, chasing youth. But it’s a leading indicator of a nation’s mood, and it will be changed by what we’ve experienced.

We’re getting pared down. We’re paring ourselves down.

I asked Andre Leon Talley, former creative director at Vogue, whose new memoir, “The Chiffon Trenches,” is about more than fashion, if he saw it as I did, knowing he’d disagree. But no. “I think more people will be dressed, when we come out of this pandemic, in almost Amish stoicism—a simple uniform of basic wash and dry. It’s going to be difficult for fashion to exist as a mainstream addiction.”

Vogue, he noted by email, has just published a new issue. “For the first time in ages there is no celebrity cover choice, no high-fashion model in near perfection of dress and grooming. There is a red rose, photographed by the late Irving Penn, which symbolizes more than a mere trend of dress.” He called the cover “iconic.” To him it symbolizes “the larger issues of life”—nature, gardens, fresh flowers.

When he speaks to people in fashion, “they are not even concerned with acquiring the new.” “Women are wearing neat, coordinated exercise gear or track suits as they walk off the extra pounds gained from self-quarantine.”

This, he said, is the mood: “I recently saw a video of Amish men moving a big red barn across a field. Instead of having it raised on a flatbed, 300 men wearing black simply picked up the full-size barn and moved it across a field. That was so moving to me. The idea of how humans can be so resourceful, based on strength and their cultural roots. Amish people are elegant, yet they adhere to traditions that have been passed down generation to generation.”

Women “will always want to look smart, neat and well groomed,” he said. “There’s nothing like a woman who has put on a simple white cotton button-front shirt, a simple skirt, and she has taken a beautiful cotton or linen or silk scarf and neatly knotted it at the chin or the nape of her neck. That is what I mean when I say Amish stoicism. The pioneer genes shall prevail, and women will focus on the essentials: nurturing their children in the arc of safety (homes and schools) providing food (driving to breadlines and food banks) and making do with what is already in the closet. Everything old will be suddenly new again.”

We will lose, for a while, our old patina. We will not much miss it.

America is about to become a plainer place. Maybe a deeper one, too. Maybe that’s good.

Memorial Day 2021

(May 2021). This is an update to my annual Memorial Day message that I've published every year since 2015.  It never gets old and is never not applicable.  The intro just below reminds us of where we were last Memorial Day versus where we are today.  Last year the beaches were closed, the stores were severely limited and restaurants had become a ghost town.  

Today we're seeing a robust recovery in most of the country.  Of course, if you've read at at all you know I live in California so we have to wait until June 15 for a full reopening.  Why?  I have no idea except that the Emperor in Sacramento continues his nonsensical control.  But that's probably the subject of a whole other blog post (or series of posts)!  

I'm confident that the vast majority of people in the U.S. will have a wonderful first weekend of the Summer.  The relief is palpable.  That we've had so many people vaccinated and are seeing numbers of COVID cases plummeting is wonderful.  Despite the selfish, mindless, troglodytes who haven't been vaccinated the success we are seeing as a country in the battle with COVID has been terrific.  But those who have any sense of the country and where we've come from will spend a few moments remembering and thanking those Americans who served so that we can all be free.

(May 2020) I put up the post below in 2015 and have repeated every year since.  In the over 3300 posts that I've done since starting this fun little blog experiment, this is by far the one I'm most proud.  I think it captures the feeling that so many have on this most solemn of American holidays.  This year, it takes on a particularly poignant meaning as the national cemeteries around the country are closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.  I won't pretend to understand that.  If there is anywhere that we can social distance and pay respects while following the guidance of health professionals, I would think it's a national cemetery.  There are so many this weekend who will be so sad that they aren't able to go pay respects to their loved ones.  But I guess that's another issue for another day.  For this day, stop.  Stop and think.  Stop and think about all the people who have picked up the gauntlet and charged into the fray.  Or think about those who were just doing their job when the unimaginable happened.  Having been there, I can tell you that no matter what you're doing in the service of the country, there will be times when you are tested.  They say that courage is being scared to death, but going anyway.  That's the story of the vast majority that lie in our national cemeteries.  No one believes it will happen to them.  But then it does.  And what is left?  You.  You and me.  We can remember and we can grieve.  And we can tell our children the stories.  And most importantly, we can honor them.  

(May 2015) This never gets old.  The homecoming.  Been there, done that.  And it is so sweet.  After a long or short deployment with separation from your loved ones, coming home has a special meaning.  Whether you are on a routine training mission across the country, or on a combat mission on a remote and lonely battlefield someplace that was unknown to you until you stepped off the plane , or on a ship at sea on the far side of the world, coming home is something every service member has on his or her mind from the moment they get on the plane or cast off the lines.  And the families at home are no different.  They try to go about their daily lives doing all the routine things that consume their time, but the reality of their loved one being far away for some period of time is always there.  And it doesn't matter what the mission is.  If you are separated by deployment, the danger is always there.  No matter if you're driving a truck on a military reservation somewhere in the U.S., humping a pack through dangerous lands, manning a MASH unit behind the lines, doing a routine job on an American warship, flying a routine mission of humanitarian assistance,  or so many other jobs, the danger is always there.  You could make a misstep and your time could be up in a heartbeat.  That's why homecoming is so sweet.  You're back in the fold with your loved ones. You can be a part of their lives again.  And they can be a part of yours.  It's the way we were meant to live.  Together.

But this weekend we don't celebrate homecoming.  For many, many families they won't ever experience that joyous homecoming.  Too many will weep this weekend.  Too many will yearn for their loved ones who will never return. So what can we, the living, do?  We can honor them.  We can think of them.  We can pause and remember.  Oh, we all know that it is also the first weekend of summer.  There will be barbecues, parties, and fun family times.  It will be a time to relax and get ready for summer.  So have a great time and enjoy whatever endeavor that will come your way.  But for a moment, just for a moment, remember those who have fallen to ensure our freedoms and those left behind mourning their loved ones who gave the "last full measure of devotion".  And it doesn't matter what they were doing when they lost their lives.  What matters is their service.  We live in a secure nation.  An island nation.  We have generally not experienced the horror of attack or the threat of invasion on the scale of other countries around the world.  We've had our Pearl Harbor and our 911.  And those we're horrific.  But think of the war-torn countries around the world.  It's not that so many think it can't happen here....it's that so many don't even think about it.  But there are those that have.  And those that do.  Those who recognize service above self.  Those who are willing to give, to go in harm's way, to risk all.  So take a moment on Monday.  A quiet moment.  Look around you.  Hug your family.  And give thanks.

Blame Game

Every single day the blame, the recriminations, the looking for scapegoats, the hope for failure continues.  I really don't think I've ever seen anything like it.  At least I don't remember seeing anything like it. The country has been through hell in the last few months.  The global pandemic is like nothing nobody alive has ever seen.  The virus that was unleashed from China, whether in a lab or a "wet market" has reeked havoc on the world  and our country.  Most people were in denial early on and talked about "getting back to normal".  Most people have followed the recommendations from the experts in our government who have counseled social distancing, wearing masks, washing hands, etc.  The infection numbers and deaths are terrible and I think higher than anyone imagined.  And they are likely to go higher.  The stories of the people who have died are heartbreaking.  And it mostly involves a rapid deterioration and death while alone and isolated from your loved ones.  It's tragic.

It seems to me that our governments, both federal and state, have done the best they can.  There have been horror stories of missed opportunities, wrong decisions, and callous disregard of personal needs.  But there have also been heroic stories of people coming together, helping each other, and going the extra mile to save lives.  Our first responders and medical professionals have been nothing but heroic.  And it hasn't all been fun and games.

But as I said at the beginning, the searching for failure is getting really, really old.  I have come to hold the media in contempt but this crises has only heightened that opinion.  They do absolutely everything they can to find fault and blame when it comes
 to Trump.  They only want to find ways in which he has failed and plant blame squarely on him.  I won't list them all but you've seen them.  Just today he told the Governors that he wanted to see the churches open.  He declared them essential.  So the media immediately sprung to the question of how he could make this mandate.  They were only looking for ways to accuse him of being a dictator.  With literally any other President, they would see this as the President using the considerable power and prestige of his office to persuade the Governors to come around to his way of thinking.  But in this case it was all about how they could get Trump.  Disgusting.

When there is a crises or a tragedy, most people believe that the focus should be on solving the immediate problem and bringing people together to attack issues.  But in this case it's been nothing but blame Trump.  No credit for reacting early and stopping travel from China and then Europe.  No credit for creating a task force that has had great success in so many areas, no credit for trying to rally the people with various ideas to defeat and at the same time live with the virus, no credit for projecting an optimistic attitude that people can rally behind.  Once again the media as a whole has failed us.  Failed badly.

One of the Priests at my church told us all that, "Everything is messy and difficult and everyone is doing the best that they can".  I think that is true and we all should give the benefit of the doubt to people who are trying to do the right thing.  Everyone that is except the vaunted press who only are in the gotcha business.  I guess we'll just have to get used to this bullshit.  Not only is Covid-19 bringing us a "new normal" but the cowardly, prejudiced, smarmy, smart assed press have brought us a new normal in listening to them.  

California...Failing

It's been 6 days.  6 stinking days!  6 days since I decided to "social distance" from the blog and just be a watcher of events instead of a commentator.  My caveat was returning to put up a post if something pissed me off enough or there was a compelling issue to comment on.  Well...suffice to say that the actions of the state leadership of my beloved California has my blood boiling.

California is my birthplace and home for most of my life.  It is a diverse state that is almost a country in itself.  To many for a lot of years, it's been a place that has defined tomorrow.  A place with optimistic people who are on the cutting edge of society.  For a lot of years it had an education system second to none, high technology firms had centered their operations here, a rich cultural heritage related to the Mexican culture, almost every tourist and recreation attraction imaginable, and an agricultural industry that was second to none.  The state government routinely had a surplus and focused their priorities on growth and quality of life.  People flocked to California.  The population swelled and life was good.  To be sure there were problems along the way, but I've been proud to be a Californian my whole life.  I could extoll it's virtues and minimize it's failings with the best of them.  When we lived on the East coast a few times, I always yearned to return.  My family is from here and the draw remains.

But it's getting more and more difficult.  In fact, it's extremely difficult.  California has become the butt of so many jokes around the country and I must say deservedly so.  When the pandemic first hit I was a bit optimistic that Gov Newsome was exhibiting some pretty sound leadership.  He seemed to be spouting all the correct things and provided some reasonable direction given that we really didn't know what we were facing.  But in the weeks and months since taking the spotlight, it has become increasingly obvious that he is a grandstanding ego maniac.  His dictatorial edicts from Sacramento have hurt more than they help and now we see cities and counties around the state either begging him for dispensation to open or ignoring them as much as possible.  He is not only misguided but he comes from a very powerful, elite, racist family lineage that has been in power a long time and unless something drastic happens will remain in power a long time.  Check out this family tree.

But the latest idiocy and the straw that broke the camel's back is his edict to provide hard earned taxpayer money to illegal aliens.  I mean, that is just beyond the pale.  Like many, I am outraged.  This is just blatantly an attempt to influence voting blocks and nothing more.  He doesn't give a shit about illegal immigrants.  To him they are nothing but an entity.  But at the same time I know there isn't anything I can do about it but fume.  The state has a solid majority of liberal Democrats and they will go along with it. But to most clear thinking Americans, this makes no sense.  It's just another step down the steep slope to disaster.  President Trump has threatened to withhold Federal relief money if this decision isn't reversed and I really hope he will do it.  And so what did Newsome do?  He doubled down of course.  Now he is saying that unless California receives a massive bailout from the federal government, the first to face cuts will be first responders.  Think about that.  He's giving taxpayer money to illegal aliens and will cut funding for first responders.  What a royal asshole!

But this latest idiocy shouldn't be a surprise.  After all, we're the home of the sanctuary cities and a drive to create open borders.  We have arguably the worst homeless problem in the country that has driven Los Angeles and San Francisco to become cess pools of disgusting tent encampments.  And the local governments don't seem to be able to do anything about it.  Or more accurately I don't think they care.  We're the place where the state government is championing "vote by mail" which is an obvious corruption of the process and designed to favor one side over the other.  We're the place that used to have the premier university system in the world that is now a laughing stock.  Just this week they took another step toward mediocrity by getting rid of the SAT and ACT system.  We're the place where local schools used to be the pride of the community and now don't have enough of anything except very nice salaries for teachers and administrators.  We're the place that had a world class, thriving agricultural industry and killed it by shutting off the water and diverting it to sea to save the snail darter.  We're the place where the coastal elites are doing just fine and in fact thriving, while their fellow Californians 100 miles inland are starving to death.  I've come to believe that these elites are the worst kind of racists.  We're the place where the state government is famously owned by the Unions.  Nothing can change or get done unless the Unions agree because they own all the politicians.  We're the place that is actively debating a state healthcare system for all, including illegal aliens, that will cost over $400 Billion.  We're the place where illegal aliens can get a drivers license.  We're the place that has adopted it's own climate change policies that are devastating to the poor and even the middle class but don't impact the elite coastal racists.  Think about this...California has the worlds most comprehensive climate change laws.  The worlds!  We're the place that is recognized as the most regulated state in the country, if not the world.  It literally takes years to get any project approved.  We're the place that has the highest income tax in the country and a high sales tax.  And only 150,000 people of the 40 million who live here pay more than half of the tax collected.    We're the place where our Attorney General has filed dozens of lawsuits against the Trump administration as a form of "resistence".   When he's not doing that he's protecting criminals.  We're the place that has water infrastructure to serve 25 million people at most with a population of 40 million.  And nothing has been done about it since the 1960's because of idiotic and onerous environmental regulations.  We're the place that people are fleeing from more than any other state in the Union.  And I could go on.

And so you might say just leave.  Easier said than done.  When I balance the reasons to stay versus the reasons to leave, staying still wins.  But it's by an increasingly thin margin.  Things have gone so very wrong in California and I fear it is a generational issue that won't improve until devastation rains down on us.  I probably won't live to see it but I hope somebody comes along to save the State.  

Socially Distancing

With almost 3300 posts covering almost 8 years, it's time to...socially distance.  There is just so much vitriol in the public discourse, that I find myself not wanting to contribute to it.  It's just so tiresome.  So I'll be here, watching to see if there is something that either (1) pisses me off to such a degree that commenting is irresistible or (2) is a compelling issue that I have some strong feelings about.  Don't know when or how that might happen, but for now I'm in the watch and wait mode.  For anyone reading or who has read these meandering thoughts, thanks for being part of the tribe.

Update:  So it turns out I was wrong.  There is just too much going on and I have too much time on my hands to retreat.  So disregard this post.  I'm still here.

Motivation Monday

Friday Funnies