Category: Current Events

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snow and ice

As big swaths of our country are enveloped in snow and ice, with places struggling with the freezing cold that don’t generally have to worry about it, it could be a wake up call about climate change. I have serious doubts it will have that effect however.

The willful ignorance in this country, even with the evidence right before our eyes, is a glaringly American trait, and it is not one of our good ones. I remember our first winter in El Paso, Texas. There was a freak snowstorm and just a few inches of snow had the city shut down. They didn’t have the infrastructure to handle it. Cars and trucks were sliding off of roadways, people couldn’t get their cars out of driveways that had iced over.

For us, it was amusing, having come from Upstate New York where that much snow wouldn’t have even warranted a snow day, but for the native El Pasoans, it was a nightmare. The only plows in the city were at the airport and there weren’t enough of them to do much more than make I-10 marginally passable.

The only place locals had seen that much white on the ground was at White Sands.

I’m seeing a lot of that same energy in the pictures I’m seeing from friends and loved ones across the south. People who do not understand the level of danger in driving on roads that have iced over with tires that were not made for driving in snow and ice. I saw a clip yesterday of an SUV backing out of a driveway onto a street that looked clear, only to just slide sideways down the road.

Wherever you are today, Readers, I hope you stay safe and warm. Avoid putting your life, and the lives of others, in danger.

Cover Photo by Damian McCoig on Unsplash

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rights and consequences

Some musings on 1st amendment rights, hate speech, and consequences:

The 1st amendment guarantees us (US Citizens) the right of “free speech” but many in today’s USA do not seem to grasp what it means and how/when it applies. Freedom of speech is written into our constitution to protect citizens from action by the government simply for speaking in a way that disparages the government. The government can not arrest you for speaking out against any government official (unless you cross the line into calling for someone to be assassinated).

What the first amendment does not protect you from is the consequences of your speech from non-governmental sources.

So, if, for example, you stand in the town square, surrounded by people in clown costumes and say “Clowns are stupid and all you clowns deserve to die,”…well, you have the right to say it and no one is going to arrest you, but you very well might be set upon with seltzer water and balloon swords. That is not a violation of your free speech, but it is consequences of what you said.

Likewise, if you tell someone that Joe over there deserves to be stabbed in the face because he’s an asshole, and that someone stabs Joe in the face, your free speech is not being violated if you get arrested for incitement.

If you work for a company and your contract includes language that states that you, as a representative of that company, must behave a certain way, and you don’t, say you say things publicly that contradict the company image, while you still have a right to say those things, the company also has the right to fire you.

When you build your identity on what is ostensibly hate speech, be you a politician or an actor, don’t be surprised when those who find your hate unpalatable turn away from you. When that hate speech incites someone, or a crowd of someones, to take violent action, don’t be surprised when you find yourself on trial. That doesn’t violate your freedom of speech, it holds you accountable.

And as a side note, if you find yourself among that crowd of someones incited by a person’s hate speech and goading to commit a crime, you are culpable for your actions, regardless of who “told you to” do them.

Have a great day, Readers, and as always, be kind.

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where hope grows

I grew up in Upstate New York, where the very first signs that spring was on the horizon were the daffodils that poked intrepid little heads up through the snows that wouldn’t yet melt for a few weeks (or more). For the longest time, daffodils were my favorite flowers because of that, and they still hold a special place in my heart.

When you’re still in the depths of the cold hard embrace of an Upstate New York winter, after the fun of snow has become the drudgery of slush that has frozen over and cold toes that don’t seem to ever get warm, that first little hope of spring is a most welcome thing

It seems we are facing much the same feeling with this pandemic right now. We are all so done with sitting at our windows, looking out on a world that is filled with hidden dangers, and we just want to be able to go to the movies, and out for coffee with friends.

Vaccines offer us that first hint of hope that our year-long winter of disease is coming to a close, but just like those first daffodils herald a spring that may still be a long ways off, so too does the promise of immunity come with a caveat. Many a blizzard has buried those first daffodils, reprimanding them for sticking their heads up too soon. Returning to our normal lives too soon will bring with it another blizzard of Covid-19 to swat us down and set back our recovery.

Hope grows where vaccines are planted, but immunity takes some time to blossom. So, as we turn the wheel of the year toward Imbolc, let us hope, but remain vigilant.

Happy February, Readers! May it be filled with love and kindness.

Photo by Charles Tyler on Unsplash

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come into the light

Yesterday was a pretty monumental day here in the US. Did it fix everything that is wrong with our country? No, of course not. There is so much work to be done, and not all of it can be legislated.

Right now there are thousands of people who were led down the fantasy-laced rabbit hole that was QAnon having to come face to face with the reality that they were mislead, played for fools even. There are hundreds facing federal charges because they believed they could forcefully keep their want-to-be dictator in office. There are millions of Americans who feel as though their voices will no longer be heard.

Of course, those are the voices we need to understand, not to give them power, but so we do not forget that hate and anger have the power to destroy lives, and not just those given over to the hate and anger.

As someone who was once very far to the right side of the political spectrum, while also being poor, I understand how easy it is to misplace the anger and frustration of your living situation by blaming those who have nothing to do with the reasons that your angry and frustrated. Blame is always easier than responsibility.

We can’t let them go back into hiding, because that is how they multiply without us knowing. We have to hold them accountable for their reprehensible words and actions, shine the light on them and force them to come out of the dark.

Will we change them? Most likely not. That isn’t our job. No, we simply need to let them see themselves and make them understand that they can not and will not drag our country into that dark chasm where bigotry and fear oppresses our BIPOC and LGBTQ+ citizens ever again.

Photo by Lefty Kasdaglis on Unsplash

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we need to talk

Martin Luther King day, 2021

I don’t often speak about Dr. King on this day we set aside to honor him because I would rather the microphone is passed to those who are still fighting the battle that took his life. It seems disingenuous to me the parrot his words, no matter how wise or eloquent they may be, sitting here in my white skin and privilege in a country that still devalues BIPOC.

The amount of hatred and anger I see in my fellow white Americans toward people they have never met for nothing more than the color of their skin shames me. The white supremacy on display in our nation is disgusting.

This week we will see a black woman take the second highest seat in our country, and I have no doubt that she will be hated just as much as President Obama was. She could single handedly solve the climate crisis, find a cure for cancer and eliminate poverty and she would still be hated. Because of the color of her skin.

The man leaving the white house this week has whipped these people up into a frenzy that has thus far culminated in death and defecation in the home of our governance. He has allowed over four million Americans to die from a virus by not taking action that would have prevented it from getting so bad. He has laid out no plans for vaccine distribution. He forced states to struggle to find and buy PPE for front line workers. He sent unidentified thugs in uniform to terrorize people who only want the police to stop executing them for the color of their skin. He has pardoned the most appalling people (and plans to pardon more). He has spent millions of dollars playing golf.

I could go on, but there would be no point. Instead, I’ll turn this back to Dr. King. We haven’t yet become the nation he dreamed of, where black men and women stand on equal ground with us white folks. All these years later and we are still waging that battle. It is a battle we must ultimately win, friends.

Because, black lives matter. Today and everyday.

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what a week

Like most Americans, my attention has been firmly on our nation’s capitol this week, as law enforcement investigates the uprising at the capitol and congress worked to hold the president responsible for inciting that violence.

I’ll admit that it has not been great for my creativity or productivity!

That said, I did finish the zero draft of the second Blood Witch book over the weekend. Up next will be an editing pass to flesh out a few scenes and retrofit some story points that developed near the end.

For as long as I have been writing, my characters can still surprise me. Going into this book, I knew the plot points I wanted to hit, at least in the beginning and middle. The ending changed multiple times while I was writing, and a relationship developed between two characters along the way, which I now have to go back through and lay the breadcrumbs in.

There’s a certain satisfaction that comes with reaching the end of the book, even though I know there is still work to do. It was a victory I needed this week.

Now though, I need to finish my coffee and get on with the day job. I hope you are all safe and well, Readers and that you manage to find joy in these chaotic and dangerous times.

Cover Photo by Waldemar Brandt on Unsplash

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the mirror

On January 6, 2021 the United States of America came under attack. This attack did not come from some foreign enemy. This attack did not come from radical Islam. This attack did not come from “antifa”.

This attack was perpetrated by our own homegrown, right-wing, “Christian” radicals.

This attack was enabled by law enforcement.

This attack was an attempt to overthrow the duly elected government of the United States in order to seat a dictator, an attempt directed by that would-be-dictator. This man stood at a podium and told this mob of devotees to march on the capitol and fight.

There was no widespread voter fraud. No ballets were “dumped”. No machines changed votes. The few cases of fraud that have been found were people voting for the would-be-dictator for their dead relatives.

The only reason people believe that there was fraud, that this election was irregular, is because the would-be-dictator told them there was.

This was not a protest asking the government to “please stop killing us for no reason” or to demand justice for vigilantes with badges to be held accountable. This was a base of people who have been continually lied to, regularly riled up in an “us against them” mentality and launched at an institution of the United States because one man wants to be king.

Like all cults, this may have started out as a fringe group of mostly harmless whackos, but the time has come for us to intervene. It’s time to bring in the deprogrammers and rip out the core of this cult before any more Americans are injured or killed.

I am reminded of this poem I wrote all the way back in 1992:

The Mirror

in the maddening chaos
of a wicked, walled-in world
where bigots rule the masses
their hate like flags unfurled
a generation’s genocide
comes off without a hitch
as the hatred born of pain and doubt
climbs to a fevered pitch
building through the centuries
of prejudice and fear
growing in the decades
of trials and treasured tears
the madness swirls and eddies
like the ocean’s tides and waves
feeding like a cancer
on the terror it creates
it seethes beneath the surface
just barely out of sight
waiting for the moment
it can slip into the light
a cold, dark hand, like death itself
slinks slowly from the dark
to reach into the shaded spot
found at a nation’s heart
as daylight dawns, the aftermath
finds a country on its knees
gazing into its history
bared for all the world to see
we sit in utter silence
star in shock at what we see
for the horror in that silence
is the mirror in front of me

As always, I hope you are staying safe and sane, Readers. I love you.

Cover Photo by ElevenPhotographs on Unsplash

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welcome to the future

Do you remember when 2021 seemed like the distant future, impossible to fathom as anything than other a dystopian post-apocalyptic world filled with robber barons and highwaymen?

And yet, here we are. Then again, 2020 was something of an apocalypse and the world is lilting ever more toward dystopia.

In the enduring words of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer musical episode “Where do we go from here”?

It seems to me that our choices are to continue to devolve until our society is fractured, we need heavy weaponry just to get enough food to eat and we go to war over petty differences or we find some duct tape and start patching this shit back together.

Of course, patches don’t hold forever, which might actually be part of how we got where we are. If we want to do more than hold on to the status quo, we’re going to need to build something new. What does that look like?

Well, I know what I would like to see. I want a society that takes care of its most vulnerable, where each person enters life on a level playing field, where no one dies because they can’t afford to see a doctor, where basic human rights are respected and honored, where everyone pays their fair share and the government curtails things that threaten our existence (pollution, greed, unfair business practices).

How do we get there? If I knew that, I’d run for office. Well, no, I wouldn’t because I’m an agoraphobic introvert. But, you know what I mean. I do know that we never will get there if we can’t come to a place where our political dialog is not bogged down by the fundamental issues we have right now, where one half of the country wants to destroy anyone who is different than them (whether that difference is gender, sexual orientation, race, financial status or anything else), and the other half wants to destroy the first half.

Until we realize that no one is more equal than another, until we tax corporations and billionaires, until we fund schools, until we realize that healthcare is not a privilege of the rich…until we start to actually care about the other people in this country, patches are all we’re going to get.

We’re living in the future, I just wish it was more Star Trek and less Mad Max. Happy 2021, Readers. Be kind recklessly. Give love unconditionally. Be the change.

Cover Photo by Artem Labunsky on Unsplash

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merry christmas to all…

Today is the first day of over a week off of the day job. This means I get to write every day until the words stop flowing. This pleases me.

Tomorrow will be time spent with my immediate family, who are the only people I have spent any time with at all during this pandemic. There won’t be any hugs and a lot less touching than any Christmas before this one, but there will be good food and good company, possibly fun games and maybe some wine.

I haven’t celebrated a religious Christmas in many years, but the secular one has always been meaningful to me as an opportunity to show family how much I love them through food and gifts. I tend to cook from scratch for the special days, depending on what we’re doing for a main course.

My holy day has come and gone, and was mostly observed with candles, an offering of wine and some solemn contemplation of the year that has raked us over the coals. I, for one, am looking forward to the end of this year, this decade.

I hope Santa brings you something you desire. I hope that you give others the love that lives inside you. I hope you get some sleep, something yummy to eat and the feeling of knowing you are loved.

Merry Christmas, Readers!

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put a little love in your heart

My faith in humanity has been sorely damaged in 2020. I try to believe that people are inherently good, that for the most part we would all do what we can to spare others pain, illness or death. Here lately though, I’m finding it hard to hold on to that belief.

For the last twenty years or so, the guiding force of my life has been kindness, unconditional love for my fellow man. I believe that it is my duty to help care for others, to at the very least not be the cause of their pain.

I look around me at the world and I can’t understand where the absolute disregard for others comes from. How do you reach adulthood without some semblance of compassion?

Where does the fury come from? How is this who we are as a country? As we slink closer to 300,000 people dead from a virus that we can control, why are we not doing it? Why is the outrage about measures to control it rather than about the number of American citizens are dead and dying? How many deaths will it take for us to realize that the simple steps of wearing a mask in the presence of others, keep yourself distant from others, stay home if you can are not evil machinations attempting to rob you of your civil liberty.

They are meant to save lives! If you can not wear a mask, for real or imaginary reasons, most places that require one will do no-touch curb side delivery. Just order online, drive up and get what you need put into your trunk.

There is no need to demand to enter a building of any kind without your mask. There is no need to harass store employees, or threaten them with a bad interpretation of what the ADA actually is. These are people who are working minimum wage jobs that put them in a very high risk category for catching this virus. They are there to help you.

My heart weeps. Please put a little love in your heart. Save lives.

Cover Photo by Aung Soe Min on Unsplash