“The Civil War of The he 21st Century”

Anybody remember the Civil War of The 21st Century? I hope that this is not a question that future generations have to ask. Civil War. One of the most ironic and tragic of all oxymorons. A fight between friends essentially. These “friendly fights” oftentimes result in the costliest, bloodiest and deadliest of all. The American Civil War of 1861 bears this out. More American soldiers died in that war than all soldiers from all nations in the Vietnam War.

Fast forward to the present. America, dare I say, we are in the midst of a modern day Civil War. Surprisingly and sadly few people even realize nor care. Those in power, corporate leaders and politicians, have this nations’ citizens exactly where they want us to be, totally dependent on them and in opposition with one another. Through money, power, sex, religion, fear, love, hate and ignorance society has been lead to the mental and emotional state that we currently find ourselves in. We Americans are blessed with numerous opportunities and choices to pursue a good life and I am grateful for that. However, we’ve become so pacified by the opportunities afforded that we sometimes overlook the responsibility to hold each other accountable. You better believe that big business and politicians love this. One way or another they are all on the same team. The powers that be conveniently use this situation to “allow” us to choose sides, blame one another, finger point, question each other, ridicule each other, judge each other, mistrust each other and ultimately fight each other.

Meanwhile we stand by as unnecessary shootings take place, discrimination and racism persist, domestic violence and police brutality go unchecked, prices for goods and services escalate to all-time highs and our children’s schools are left to physically and financially fend for themselves.

We know better America. We can do better too. We all need to be more involved with our local government and politics. Town. City. County. State. Get involved. Go to meetings that affect your community and livelihood. Make your presence be known and voice be heard. Who knows…..Check out the PTA meetings for your childrens’ schools. If we have hours to spend on social media then we certainly have minutes to spend for the betterment of our families, right?

The current Civil War is notable for the fact that the people sacrificing their lives are unknowingly not participants on either “side”. In other words they did not sign up nor were they drafted to fight. They are casualties of the very freedom that we CHOOSE to live by…….

So let’s see. 2022. Opposition. Civil unrest. Blame. People dying. All the while costs are rising and corporate America is benefitting. Go study the Civil War of 1861 and then research the number of deaths by gun in this country each year since the year 2000. Add them up…..IN THE LAST 22 YEARS we have had nearly as many people killed by guns than in the that war. Hopefully for the sake of us all the near future proves us to be……more civil.

“21 (More) Funerals”

How many more funerals will there be before we, as a nation, as a people, do something about gun violence in this country? And for the record I’m not speaking of just the senseless mass shootings. I’m speaking of ALL types of gun violence: mass shootings, hate crimes, black on black, white on white, Hispanic on Hispanic, domestic violence, bank robberies, store robberies, car jackings, drug deals……COME ON AMERICA! It’s been way too much for way too long.

I am not a politician, nor a lobbyist or historian. However, I do know when and why the Second Amendment was ratified. Over the years I have noted some of the cases surrounding the “Constitutionality” of this Amendment. In my OPINION those of us who use the provisions of the Second Amendment as the basis for opposing stricter gun control laws are WILLFULLY or WRONGFULLY ignoring the context in which it was written. If you don’t believe me just use your own common sense as you consider this question: How much has the world changed since 1791? Since 1891? For that matter since 1991? Yeah I know, right…? And yet, many of us, while living in our own solitary comfort, insulated from the backdrop of needless death, shameless killings and thoughtless murders, use the Second Amendment as an unjustifiable reason and baseless excuse to own ANY type of gun we desire. IF THIS IS YOU, YOU ARE WRONG. Before your emotions take over all I ask is that you take a minute to consider the following: Does having a driver’s license allow you to own/operate heavy equipment or commercial trucks? Can you go to the local military base and drive a tank? An assault vehicle? Just asking… I love fighter jets. When I buy a plane ticket I cannot request to fly in an F22 or F18. Just like the rest of America I am given a seat on a commercially available passenger plane regulated by the FAA and NTSB. PERIOD!

My neighbor owns a stock dragster and a Sprint car. The fact that he has the legal right to drive does not give him the right to drive those particular cars on the road. The cars are not “street legal”. PERIOD!

While the Second Amendment gives us the “right” to gun ownership, there are no amendments that prohibit laws to be passed to make gun ownership a “privilege” and to make certain guns illegal. If you are not intelligent enough to comprehend this or you lack the integrity to accept its truth, then YOU ARE THE ENABLERS OF THIS SENSELESS GUN VIOLENCE. PERIOD!

Admittedly I do not know the gun laws of my city, my county, my state or this country. But whatever those laws are is simply not enough. Children, dare I say toddlers, are dying in schools while privileged adult men and women who have the authority to enact change are busy pointing fingers and turning a blind eye. I have a painfully uncomfortable question for the leaders of our individual states and this country at large: HOW MANY SENATORS, REPRESENTATIVES OF THE HOUSE, GOVERNORS AND MAYORS WOULD HAVE TO DIE AT THE HANDS OF UNQUALIFIED PERSONS WITH GUNS BEFORE YOU GOT UP OFF OF YOUR LAZY, PATHETIC WEAK ASSES AND CHANGED SOME LAWS? HOW MANY? ARE ANY OF YOU WILLING TO DIE TO PROTECT THE SECOND AMENDMENT? NO? THEN WHY ARE YOU STILL DEMANDING THAT INNOCENT CHILDREN DO SO? To all of the members of Congress and their respective families: All of you are cowardly failures if this remains status quo. And to think some leaders had the audacity to question the decision of the Uvalde Police Chief for his failure to “do something”. Your actions are just as inept and irresponsible if not moreso.

Some lawmakers want stricter gun laws. Some want improved mental health legislation. Some want tougher criminal sentencing. Why can’t we have all of these? Please do not lie to the American people and say we do not have the money to fund them all because WE DO! PERIOD!

Believe it or not some leaders are trying to make “US” believe that the way to solve the gun violence issue is to…….add more guns to the problem. They use a small sample of analytics to justify their stupidity and expect others to follow suit. “Got a flooded basement, just add more water”. “Got a flat tire, just normalize it by flattening the other three.” “Two kids fighting in class, let the other twenty kids help break it up”. “Too much salt in your food, just add MORE salt”. “Building on fire, just add gasoline to it.” Stupid shit man.

I don’t know. Couldn’t we have a federal law that requires a minimum number of hours of firearms safety training before attaining a gun permit? Why not require registration/permits for ALL guns? How about a 90- day waiting period/ background evaluation before being eligible for any gun purchase? How about this: All guns must be registered through each state’s respective police department upon purchase. Cars gotta be registered through the MVA……How about this: Gun owners should be required to carry liability insurance as part of the “right/ privilege” of ownership. Car owners gotta have car insurance……How about this: Any/ all gun crimes carry a mandatory minimum 2 year sentence and lifetime ban from gun ownership. Hey, felons used to lose voting rights for life……Just thinking out loud.

I don’t want to rehash all of the mass shootings, but I have to discuss one. The first school shooting that I recall getting major media coverage was Paducah, Kentucky. I remember feeling extremely shocked and would not have believed that school shootings would become so commonplace and acceptable. That was 1997. At this point I don’t know what is more troubling: Living through all of the shootings since then or not knowing just how many more we’ll live through in our lifetimes…..

It would be fitting if all of Congress was forced to visit towns where mass shootings took place so that they could see the pain and anguish the surviving victims go through. Maybe have a meaningful and progressive dialogue for action.

On second thought maybe that’s not such a great idea. Many of the Congress members would probably take their guns with them………

“Spring 2022”

It’s been a long time coming, but we are getting there. Our back yard was full of trees. We had some removed. The terrain was uneven. We had the ground leveled as best we could. There was no grass. After three weeks we got it to look like the picture at the bottom. I was going to hire a contractor to sod or seed my newly cleared back yard. Got two estimates: $3800.00 or $4100.00. DIY to the rescue. Several cubic feet of soil and many pounds of grass seed later there are signs of green grass life. I like green grass if you didn’t know…..When the world is way to anxious to share how challenging life can be, I’m thankful for the simple things to remind me how rewarding life actually is. Spring 2022 looks promising. Can’t wait for Summer.

“Changes”

Cassette tapes. Anybody remember these? Man it’s been a few days since my last post. Been a few months actually….Welcome back to “The Real Life Corner”.

Why did I post pictures of cassette tapes? Aaaaaah. If only my mind could talk. The tapes in these pictures contain an audio chronology of my life going back about forty years. FORTY YEARS! I had not touched these tapes in about ten years. TEN YEARS! Man, how much can happen in ten years, forty years? Alot, obviously.

Recently, I walked into a place of business and saw this qoute on an office wall: “The Turns You Take Lead To The Life You Make”. Wow! Your whole entire life in one single sentence. Made me reflect on the life I made.

I am old enough to have listened to music on several mediums: vinyl, reel to reel, eight track, cassette, VHS ADAT (look it up…), CD, Blue Ray, hard drive (MP3), etc. Audio recording has come a long way. As has the sound of music. So many changes.

And so it has been with life. As time moves people evolve. As we should. Listening to the “songs” was a reminder of that for me. Not only did they reveal how much I’ve changed, they showed how much I NEEDED to change from those respective times moving forward. I hope I’m ready for what the future holds.

Now, anybody got a grammaphone?

“Revenge Of The Clothes Dryer”

Last year our washing machine stopped working. It was about fifteen years old. Our dryer, about the same age, had it’s drive belt replaced but still worked. When my wife replaced the washing machine she decided to upgrade the dryer as well.

I was not happy about it. I like to keep things until they no longer work and so I was content with the old dryer even if it meant “mismatched appliances”. I let my wife AND the new dryer know how I felt about it too…….

The new dryer, for all intents and purposes, works great. But, I think it knows that I did not choose to buy it. How do I know this? You see, every now and then it will change its’ settings unbeknownst to me and my clothes won’t dry completely, causing me to have to dry them again. And sometimes it will not signal me when the cycle is done and I forget to get my clothes. Then my family yells at me for leaving my clothes when they go to use the dryer.

These things pale in comparison to what it did to me lately. It shrank my favorite sweater. Then it shrank my favorite pair of jeans. A few weeks back I put on my favorite sweater and it was much tighter than I remembered. Daggone dryer shrank it! Then last week I put on my most comfortable pair of jeans and, shockingly, could not button them! MAN THAT DRYER! So, I went and bought a sweater and jeans the same size as the ones that shrank. To my astonishment they did not fit either. Too small…. How could the dryer do this? My new clothes had never been in there. I sat down and gathered my thoughts. I began to wonder. Could it be? Am I really starting to “spread in the mid section”. The thought truly never crossed my mind. I have worn the same size clothes for thirty years. Now I realized why at my last doctor’s visit he and the nurse smirked and giggled when I asked, in all seriousness, if they could tell me why my medication was making my stomach feel “tight”.

I apologized to the dryer and now I accept my wife’s decision to upgrade and have a matched pair. I just wish it could stretch your clothes instead of shrinking them.

“Night Of The Snow”

Rain.

I hear the rain.

Rain falling on the window pain.

Freezing rain. Again. After the snow.

Yes it snowed again.

So soon and yet so plain.

Snowblowers and shovels and shoulders.

And pain. And cold. Freezing cold.

So young into the new year.

Yet so old. And bold. But behold.

Candles and warmth and feelings and yearning.

And touching and senses and desires, burning.

Yesterday smiles and sweet copulation.

The need of flesh solely for fornication.

Leisurely hours of lazily breathing.

Sensuous sounds of the eve deceiving.

With the mind, body and spirit all believing

The snow, the night, the flesh, again leaving.

Sure to return as sure as it goes.

So goes the night, “The Night Of The Snow”.