I try to make my posts light, entertaining. But not today.
First, my heart goes out to the people affected by the
terrorists’ acts in the UK. As I write this, “breaking news” just announced multiple
fatalities in Orlando. How can these vicious horrors happen? When will we feel
safe again?
I shouldn’t watch the news. It is so upsetting. Do I play
the ostrich and bury my head in the sand? At times, yes. I felt the same way in
the early 1970s when the Viet Nam war and Nixon’s Watergate dominated the news.
I’d rather read or watch movies. Or work on my new story.
But how can I concentrate with the news proclaiming one horrific “breaking news”
after another? That sounds selfish. And it probably is. How many times can we
get upset over terrorists (foreign and domestic) before we become inured to the
horrifying news? Until we turn off the news so we don’t hear it?
Yet, I wonder how many people like me feel like we can do
nothing to change things. Our representatives and senators who are supposed to
be servants of the people don’t listen to us. They’re too busy planning the
next election or obeying lobbyists instead of their constituents. They don’t
work a full year, they give themselves raises (yet deny raises to social
security), they give themselves lifetime pensions and phenomenal healthcare.
They need to give us their healthcare programs or live on what they devise for
us.
In what world, do you get a pension and free healthcare after
you’ve been fired? Our leadership dares to call social security and medicare
entitlements. They are the ones with the entitlements.
Okay, that’s my tirade for the day. I really do need to get
back to my work-in-progress.
On a lighter note: the Arizona trips are at an end. Our son
and his family are moving here at the end of this month. All my children and
grandchildren will be living in the same town as we do for the first time since
the mid-1990s. Can’t wait for them to get here.
