I'm still stunned

I don't like to keep harping on something, but covid is becoming more and more an issue we can't avoid, especially in Red states.

Everyday there are reports of people dying--not from Covid--but because hospitals have no beds for people with treatable conditions. One guy in the south was taken to 28 hospitals in 3 states before one had a bed for him to die in. A child with an appendix attack was kept waiting in an ER for 12 hours because ER was full of Covid cases--finally, after his appendix ruptured, he was saved, but with more problems than if he'd been seen earlier.

And Republicans against vaccine mandates and mask mandates, exposing people to a deadly virus, continue to work on laws to restrict a woman's choices about her body and to restrict who can vote!

I'm still stunned by what's going on in the country where I was born and raised and love dearly.

COMMON SENSE, FOR GOD'S SAKE!!!

My rights stop when they endanger someone else.

We're all in this thing together.

Quit talking about your 'rights' and get vaccinated or cause others to die or die yourself.

This should all be over--like Polio is over and Whooping Cough is over and Smallpox is over.

Get the shot, you all!

Just get the shot and we'll get on with it and back to normal.

 

Butterflies

I've been watching butterflies all summer, asking myself, 'why do they fly in such jerky, irregular patterns?'

Today, I thought of a reason.

It may be stupid and crazy, but I'll stand by it until someone proves me wrong.

If the butterflies few straight, birds would be able to catch them.

So, in evolution, only the jerky flying butterflies avoided capture, most of them.

And most who flew straight died for being straight (no political statement intended).

So irregular pattern butterflies, reproduced and made more of their kind.

And butterflies fly in jerky patterns because it worked for their ancient ancestors.

Works for me.

And for butterflies.

 

Sorry to have been so harsh

 Didn't mean to be so harsh yesterday, just worried about how few are reading my blog these days.

I'm pondering what is going on in our country.

President Biden ended a 20 year war and didn't know how fast the army in Afghanistan would collapse. He was just living into a deal the former president made with the Taliban.

People who won't be vaccinated are putting others and children at risk from the Covid virus.

There's no reasoning with the MAGA folks who think Biden stole the election.

Wild fires, hurricanes, rain and heat are effecting everyone except, it seems, New England.

Climate change is real, but there are many deniers.

Another possible attack on the capitol have caused D.C. to put up a fence around the building.

I can't get my head around it all.

I need to breathe deeply, meditate and wonder and ponder.

I think we all do.

And then we need to DO SOMETHING to bring our country back to it's senses.

 

Where are you guys and gals?

 I've complained about this before, but I will again.

My blog watchers are terribly low.

I was averaging over 6000 views a month. Last month was just under 3000 and this month seems on track for that or less.

Am I not being interesting?

Am I too left-wing?

Am I simply loosing your interest?

I don't know.

But I don't do this for fun--I do it to share stuff with you out there.

But where are you?

Am I a whiny brat?

Maybe so.

Fireworks on 9/11???

 There were fireworks tonight from down the road at the park across from the high school.

I was shocked.

9/11 is a day of morning, introspection, reflection and seek a new way of life--not a 'celebration' that includes fireworks.

Take a deep breath: and if you are old enough to remember, think back to this day on a Tuesday 20 years ago.

Find anything to celebrate with fireworks?

I didn't think so.

I'll try to find out why that happened here in Cheshire.

I find it humiliating....

Republicans want to kill people

 I've said it before about Republican governors, but now I'm saying it about the party at large--Republicans want to kill people!

Biden's 6 point plan to handle covid is right in so many ways. But many Republicans--including Mike Pence--oppose it vigorously.

They say it takes away constitutional rights to make choices about your body.

But what about the anti-abortion laws that take away women's constitutional rights about their bodies?

Or what about voting restriction laws that take away the constitutional rights to vote?

There are lots of mandates we follow all our lives:

   --stop at red lights and stop signs

   --don't steal or kill or speed

  --pay your taxes

  --don't smoke in non-smoking areas

  --vaccinate your children so they can go to school against major killers--Covid is one of those

  --don't drive drunk or high

  --stay on your side of the road

Why has the Republican party become the party of death from this pandemic?

I just don't get it!!!

 

 

 

 

      

My 9/11 reflections

I was upstairs, brushing my teeth, when I heard the TV in the room next to ours go to an alert and then a frantic reporter speaking loudly.

        I went into the TV room, toothbrush still in my mouth, and watched in horror at the plane that had flown into the first tower of the twin towers.

        I watched in utter disbelief until I heard my wife, Bern, slide her truck at high speed into the driveway.

        She was yelling when she jumped out and yelling when she hit the front door and yelling up the steps as she came to me.

        “Did you hear from Josh and Mimi? DID YOU? DID YOU?”

        It wasn’t until that moment that I remembered that both our children were in New York City!

 

        We didn’t hear from them for what seemed like a decade but was probably about 90 minutes.

        Mimi came up from the subway at the American Ballet theatre, where she worked, just as the second plane hit. The abject terror on the streets shocked her deeply and she had an hour and a half walk back to her apartment in Brooklyn.

        Josh was in Brooklyn already, where he was going to law school. His classmate and girlfriend (and now our daughter in law) Cathy Chen had been on the last subway to pass the Twin Towers station and she was walking home as well.

        Bern and I felt better knowing they were safe, but not much, as we continued to watch both the buildings collapse and I finally remembered to take my toothbrush out of my mouth.

 

        I’m sure all of you—and everyone over 25—remembers where they were that tragic morning two decades ago.

 

        A friend of mine, who was also in New York, lost 6 of the 9 people she had invited to dinner two days later.

        So many people lost people they cared deeply about and we all lost our sense of safety.

 

        Some might want to cuss about the terrorists who did such damage to our national psyche and got us and allies into an unwinnable 20 year war that cost many more American lives.

        But I want to mourn the dead and to point to the heroes and heroines of 9/11.

        Give thanks for those brave first responders who got as many out of the towers as they could. Fire and police member who put their own lives in jeopardy to seek to save others.

        Give thanks for the brave passengers on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania that gave up their lives so that many may be saved from death.

        Give thanks for the clergy and psychologists who sought to help surviving family and friends to deal with their pain and guilt.

        Give thanks for the doctors and nurses who cared for the injured and brought them back to health.

        Give thanks to those who cleaned up the aftermath of 9/11, many of whom were undocumented immigrants and Native Americans. Many died later from the dust they had inhaled and all of them have continuing health issues from the labor clearing away the debris.

        Give thanks for those who fed and housed those workers during their long weeks of work.

        Give thanks to all who had funerals for the dead, even without proper remains.

        In one of America’s worst tragedies, America’s best qualities were shown in our those who worked so very hard to make things better.

 

        And also, on this 20^th anniversary, let us take a moment of silence to mourn for the many who lost their lives.

                (Pause)

“Give rest, O Christ, to all who died on that terrible day, with your saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life eternal. Amen”