Weblog of mark

this past week my daughter told me a friend of hers was at a funeral where protesters had signs saying things like they were glad a soldier had died.  this was horrible enough to contemplate, what this family greiving for their loss felt, then to add a public protest so cold and evil i didn't think it could be true.  then my daughter said the protest was put on by anti war left wingers.  that made no sense at all to me, and led me to look up the subject online. guess what? the protests were done by some ultra-right christians who see the deaths our armed forces are suffering as God's judgement on our evil society.  the main crime we have committed in their eyes is allowing homosexuals to be in the military and in other areas of our society.  as if it were possible to just make gays go away or something.  from what i've seen in my 49 years, most likely these people are homosexuals who hate themselves for their identity and lash out cruelly for that reason.  isaw a picture of one of the protesters and that confirmed my suspicions further.  messed up as these people are  it is more than one could hope for them to quit hurting families in this way, and they can only count on God's forgiveness for their sins.  but what is most unforgiveable to me, has to do with the way i learned of this hateful practice.  my daughter's friend let slip later that she hadn't really been at that funeral but had learned of the protest from a conservative talk show host.  this person had the ability and opportunity to know the true sponsors of the protests, and in fact did touch on that somewhat, but in the end he chose to explain this to his viewers as a left-wing movement.  this is especially galling to me because the right-wing of american politics has been almost the sole causer of violence, blunders and offense in recent years and yet continue to play the victim.  they play victim to "the liberal media's bias" they play victim to the world's response to their idiocy and blundering with their "why do they hate us" posing.  and they play victim to history always having to correct the facts to look like they were right.  will somebody just PLEASE point out the obvious to these weasels.  THEY have screwed up in iraq, THEY have encouraged hate and ignorance THEY have lied their way into war and THEY should be turned out of office for all these reasons and more.

In my city today a mentally deranged woman highjacked a delivery truck and made the driver take her to an affluent suburb.  The driver was released unharmed,  then she began wandering the streets of this community brandishing a knife and rifle.  In short order the police arrived andtasered her but her coat was too thick to penetrate. She pointed the rifle at an officer another policeman fired several times and killed her, the only other reported damage was a bullet hole in one of the fine homes there.  I ask the police who were there, did you even consider another option?  might there have been a way to save the disturbed woman and protect the community?  I am afraid a state of fear is so pervasive in the minds of people that they accept anything as a threat and anything as a good end if the possible threat is stopped.  Wasn't the woman a person with value and the right to protection from the police?  If she was not in her right mind she was acting in a way for which she can not be held responsible, and yet she paid the price.  I wish someone in the police department in a leadership role would have the courage to try to save the woman from herself.  A bullet in the shoulder a rush of several officers and the woman could have been disarmed and given medical treatment.  Were the policemen afraid to risk that?  Then they have no right to accept the hero title so often attached to them.  I'm not a policeman and i don't know if i would have been brave enough to rush a crazed person with a .22 caliber rifle, but i do know that woman deserved far better than she got, and anyone who thinks the police were heroic in this action is a shibboleth, mouthing empty platitudes to calm his fears.

 

 

 

It is bitterly cold tonight.  We are in the grips of an Alberta Clipper.  This weather has led to the deaths of two men in our city.  They were homeless and both died waiting near a church where they had received some assistance.  In a sense we could say the cold wearher wasn't the real killer of these people, but our failure to care for them as they needed.  And it gets more complicated, often when homeless people are interviewed they say they have chosen to live in this rootless way.  So even if shelter was provided or job training or whatever else we might think would end homelessness, there'd still be the willful type.  So some people, who are colder than this weather, would say these people are getting what they deserve.  I believe we are obligated to treat others as we would like to be treated, I wouldn't want to freeze to death, therefore we have an obligation to make available shelter and food and training for those who will take advantage of it.  And those who have chosen this as a lifestyle can continue if they choose, and their precious lives can be preserved.

When i'm alone in my car, especially at night, i like to imagine how i would explain our world to Abraham Lincoln, if there were some way he could travel to our time.  I always feel that since he died so soon after the civil war ended, with so much unsettled, he may have died uneasy about our country's future.  Of course i would love to awe him with some of our technological wonders.  Just driving down the road at sixty miles per hour would be sufficiently awesome for him.  But the game is really about me looking at modern times through his eyes and appreciating all we have and take for granted.  Every  few minutes a huge glistening vehicle lumbers into the sky at the airport, inside it forty or fifty or even hundreds of people sit in comfort and enjoy the view and the greatly shortened trip time.  In the car i can push a button and listen to a symphony, some of the new music would require some explaining, but we have so much variety at our fingertips music-wise.  I think even our speech, which we think of as unchanged, would be like a foreign tongue with all the slang and new words especially those used to talk about technology.  And i believe we talk much faster and expect responses to be quick bursts, whereas someone of Lincoln's time would appreciate the careful unveiling of a thought, and the artful and accurate selection of words to express oneself.  Good luck finding that in our times.

I was told that my cholesterol is a little high.  Not so high that i need medication, just need to eat better and do some aerobics.  It kinda makes me think about how old i am and what i've done to myself over the years.  What should i have done differently?  Not eat so much fast food is my first thought, followed closely by make exercise a regular part of my life.  I have done some exercising, it just can't compete with all the other things in life i spend time on.  I'm lucky i don't have a desk job, atleast i do some brisk walking everyday.